The HTC Vive will cost $799

HTC Vive

PLAY IT FIRST

Try the HTC Vive at the PC Gamer Weekender in London from March 5-6.

Update: here's HTC confirming the news. I've also embedded a pointlessly sexy video of the headset.

The HTC Vive will cost $799, $200 more than the Oculus Rift. The price has leaked today ahead of its expected reveal at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, and while it does sound quite pricey, the Vive comes with rather a lot of kit.

The Vive headset ships with two controllers, which you'll use in each hand, along with a couple of base stations to track your position around the room. Sticking with the 'two' theme, you'll also get two games: Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption. If all that sounds reasonable, you can pre-order the Vive from February 29; the first units will arrive sometime in early April.

For comparison, the cheaper Rift comes with the hardware, two games, an Oculus remote and an Xbox One pad, although it doesn't include an Oculus Touch controller, which will be released later this year. The Vive, thanks to its body tracking system, needs a bit more kit than the Rift, and considering that, I think the higher price point is reasonable.

Out of my price range, but reasonable considering what the Vive is. If you need a reminder what the Vive is, have a read of Wes's hands on with a dozen games coming to HTC Vive this year, Also, if you're still on the fence, here's his handy face-off between the Vive and the Oculus Rift.

Thanks, Polygon.

Tom Sykes

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.