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GDC 2018: HTC's Vive Focus Brings Standalone 6DOF VR Tracking Worldwide Later This Year

The more powerful standalone option will be joining the Oculus Go later in the year.

Charles Singletary Jr

March 26, 2018 10:00 AM

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The long-awaited standalone HMD from Oculus is rumored to be a "Go" for launch at the upcoming F8 conference in May, but HTC's standalone Vive Focus will not be far behind. At GDC 2018, HTC revealed that the Focus will be headed to global markets later this year. While it does have Oculus Go as a direct competitor, it has a leg up with six degrees of freedom (6DOF).

It was reported back in November that a Google Daydream device powered by Vive was scrapped, leaving China's Vive Focus as the only standalone option from HTC. With this new announcement, HTC is getting the gears spinning to make a more significant impact on the VR industry by bringing the Focus to other territories. The software will be key for both the Focus and Oculus Go, so Vive is drawing creators to their platform by making developer kits available on the developer portal and opening up opportunities for 100% revenue share to those that bring content to Viveport in China.

“Built upon Vive Wave, our open VR platform and toolset that is unifying the development experience for standalone and mobile VR devices, along with Viveport as its content platform, Vive Focus is designed to appeal to a wider range of mass market audiences as well as commercial/enterprise users who want broad deployment and stunning VR experiences in a convenient and portable form factor.

In addition, developers who bring content to Viveport in China for either Vive Focus or PC-based Vive, will receive 100% rev-share from title sales and Viveport subscription in China between April and September 2018. Viveport continues to be the best platform for VR developers, and this rev-share opportunity is just another way in which we are empowering developers to create the best VR content, not matter what hardware device.“

There's no revealed price point for Vive Focus just yet, but it'll likely float in the same space as the Oculus Go at $199. The Focus should be slightly more expensive, though, considering it does come with 6DOF tracking for fully immersive VR movement.

If you're a creator with hopes to develop for the platform, hit the developer portal to get your team registered. We’ll update you Shackers will more information as it’s made available.

Charles Singletary Jr

News Editor

Charles Singletary Jr keeps the updates flowing as the News Editor, breaking stories while investigating the biggest topics in gaming and technology. He's pretty active on Twitter, so feel free to reach out to him @The_CSJR. Got a hot tip? Email him at Charles.Singletary@Shacknews.com.