HTC gets £100 one day discount, game subscription service announced

If you’re in the market for an HTC Vive tomorrow will very much be the day to act.

HTC has announced that to mark the one year anniversary of the virtual reality headset’s release, 100 will be shaved off the price of the Vive tomorrow (April 5th), bringing it down from 759 to 659. This mirrors the discount that was running over the Christmas period.

Furthermore, Vive Studios’ own Arcade Saga will also be free to download for the day.

The discount will be available both directly from HTC and from several official Vive stockists – GAME, Overclockers, Scan and Dixons.

HTC has also finally detailed its long-promised subscription service. The Viveport Subscription, which will launch on April 5th, will cost 6.99 a month. Buyers will be able to download a selection of five games from an ever-growing library of curated content”. Unlimited access will be available, with users able to swap titles in and out each month.

50 games will be available at launch including TheBlu, Richie’s Plank Experience, Everest VR, Fantastic Contraption and Mars Odyssey.

The marketplace for Vive apps has grown at a tremendous pace with more than 1,600 titles now available across different app stores and over 30 new apps launching daily,” Viveport president Rikard Steiber said.

The rapid growth of the app market is a win for VR overall yet it can present discoverability challenges that affect both customers and content creators. Introducing a subscription model to VR is a natural evolution of where this market is going, and as film, music and TV have proven it’s becoming the preferred way customers want to explore and experience entertainment content.”

HTC’s VP of sales and marketing Peter Frolund added: It has been an incredible year for VR and for VIVE in Europe as well as globally and it is great to see the huge steps forward that have been taken already.

VR is changing every industry imaginable, from gaming and entertainment, to art, design, engineering and education. The fact that we can offer a subscription model just shows the sheer amount of developers that have already engaged with VIVE. This celebration and these offers are a chance for us to thank the people that have been on this journey with us from the start, as well as invite new people to the party as we look ahead to even more exciting developments going forward.”