After a little bit of confusion, HTC has cleared up the cost of the virtual reality headset it has built in collaboration with Valve. It was US$799, but for the privilege of buying the Vive in Australia, you’ll get slugged US$100 more.
In a new blog post on its website, titled “International Pricing For Vive Pre-Order”, HTC has confirmed that Vive pre-orders will open at 10AM EST on the 29th of February in the US — 2AM AEDT on the 1st of March in Australia. In addition to that, though, HTC has also confirmed the price — and if you’re an Australian, it’s higher than the US$799 price for United States buyers.
In Australia, we’ll pay US$899 for the HTC Vive pre-order. Yep, that’s still in US dollars, so you can tack on whatever currency conversion fee and shoddy exchange rate that your bank or Paypal will slug you with as well. At current (optimistic) exchange rates that’s $1260 including shipping, so you’ll probably be paying in the order of $1400 Australian dollars once Customs adds a 10 per cent GST to your purchase.
If you still actually want to spend that much money on the Vive, shipping for the new VR headset begins on April 5th. Newly included in the HTC Vive pre-order package, at least, is Google’s Tilt Brush:
[HTC Vive]