The Viveport Infinity release date has been confirmed: the HTC Vive subscription service will launch this April, and should make VR just that much more affordable. Viveport Infinity is Netflix-style subscription service with some fairly reasonable price points: Just $12.99 a month or $99 for the whole year. Best of all, VR fanatics won’t have to wait too long to dive right in: the Viveport Infinity release date is April 2, 2019.
“We have built a new model for VR that shines a light on the great library of VR content this industry has developed and gives users a reason to spend more time in headset than ever before,” said Viveport President Rikard Steiber as reported by Variety. “We believe this model matches how consumers want to experience VR.”
HTC previously offered a subscription service called Viveport that would grant players access to five games a month. They announced Viveport Infinity back in January and promoted it as “the best way to experience VR apps and games”. Viveport Infinity is expected to launch with a library of over 600 titles.
Existing Viveport users will be rolled into the new Viveport Infinity program. What’s more, they’ll be able to continue paying the same rate until the end of 2019. Developers are getting a financial incentive for this system, too— HTC is lowering the cut they take from the user’s monthly subscription fee from 30% to 20%. The existing library of titles is already pretty hefty, but these changes should see more developers eager to sign up for the program.
HTC is grandfathering in users of their old program and incentivizing devs to hop on board. From my perspective, they’ve got a good shot at making this new service work. You’ll be able to play hundreds of VR games for one low monthly cost in just a couple of weeks for $12.99 a month or less.
