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Vive Pro Starter Kit Revealed, HTC Clears Up VR 'Upgrade' Confusion

Vive Day 2018 is this Friday and there's a new $1099 bundle joining the festivities.

Charles Singletary Jr

April 4, 2018 2:35 AM

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Vive Day 2018 is nearly upon us but HTC is getting the hype train moving full speed before the celebration peaks on Friday, April 5, which marks the two-year anniversary of the Vive. The Vive Pro, HTC’s HMD refresh for the Vive platform, arrives on Friday and the team has revealed a new bundle for the more powerful and comfortable Vive Pro. The Vive Pro Starter Kit will be available at the same time as the standalone Pro and is HTC’s effort to squash any confusion.

This is the statement from the Vive team on the blog announcing the Vive Pro Starter Kit:

“After reading your feedback, we’ve realized we created some confusion that we want to address today. First, we introduced Vive Pro as an HMD-only upgrade because it represented the quickest path to market for the new headset. Since Vive Pro works with both SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 tracking, we believed an HMD-only upgrade was the right option for the most demanding VR user, as well as VR arcades and enterprises that already use Vive.

But what we didn’t outline was a clear path for everyone else. We have also seen feedback related to existing accessories prices for 1.0 base stations and controllers.”

The team followed this up with a breakdown of just what the $1099 USD starter kit will include:

• Vive Pro HMD
• Two Vive 1.0 Controllers
• Two 1.0 Base Stations

Wait. There’s more. Every Vive Owner will be given free access to Front Defense, Front Defense Heroes, Super Puzzle Galaxy Lite, and Arcade Saga all in celebration of Vive Day. Viveport, HTC’s VR subscription platform, is also available at a discount. The 3-month Viveport subscription is available for 50% off and Viveport subscribers will get Everest VR for free in addition to the five titles chosen for the subscription. The team closed by teasing some SteamVR Tracking 2.0 updates, so stay tuned to Shacknews for more information.

These last couple weeks have been exciting for VR enthusiasts and anyone remotely curious. Oculus is celebrating Rift's two year anniversary with some giveaways and there's an incredible deal at Dell that nets you the PSVR HMD plus DOOM VFR for $199. Mozilla even joined the festivities with a reveal of Firefox Reality, a browser for mixed reality.

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.