If Déjà vu is a glitch in the simulation, Vive owners should get ready to experience a bug in the system. Two years ago, many of them spent $800 for an HTC Vive providing a full roomscale VR experience with hand controls.
Now those owners can spend another $800 to upgrade the system to a Vive Pro. It is $800 for the Vive Pro HMD only, which will work with existing controllers and base stations.
The original Vive started shipping in April 2016 packaged with controllers and base stations to track the headset’s movement throughout a room. The full Vive package is now priced at $500 — bringing it closer to Facebook’s Oculus Rift at $400. Purchasing the Vive Pro headset before June 3 will bundle in a six-month subscription to Viveport.
Pre-orders for Vive Pro start today on Vive.com and Amazon.com.
“With the Vive Pro we are delivering the best quality display and visual experience to the most discerning VR enthusiasts. Our goal has always been to offer the most premium VR platform available and to drive adoption for VR,” said Daniel O’Brien, GM U.S, VIVE, in a prepared statement.
The Vive Pro’s marquee feature is the significant increase in resolution, bringing it in line with Samsung’s Odyssey headset with a combined 2880 x 1600 resolution. Both the original Vive and Rift feature 2160×1200 total resolution. The Vive Pro also includes integrated headphones (which have been included with Rift since it launched) as well as improvements to overall comfort.
HTC is carefully positioning this device as being geared toward high-end demanding users, but I will be curious to hear how our readers and the nearly 100,000 people who subscribe to r/Vive react to the pricing of this upgrade.
