Today at CES, HTC announced the future launch of a subscription plan for the Viveport store which will help users obtain more VR experiences and VR games. They have been pretty vague on the information not providing a price point or what content will be available with the subscription. And just like the Vive Tracker, the subscription will be available starting Q2 of this year along with the pricing and content.
This will be another new feature that none of the main competitors have released in terms of specified VR content. Currently, there are vast amounts of games and experiences that VR users have yet to even try out. With a subscription plan, this might not be big problem anymore. In theory, Vive users will gain access to content and games that they’ve never played and might just find a diamond in the rough. This can also help out developers and content producers who’ve yet to display their work in front of an active user base.
HTC also has an international fan base which allows people from around the world to subscribe into the new program. Competitors such as Oculus doesn’t even have a footprint in countries such as China. So there could be quite a large audience that this subscription based plan can reach.
HTC also being partnered with Steam allows a large audience to be exposed on top of their global audience. While Viveport isn’t directly linked with Steam, they would have some correlation and effect as people buying Vive content will be exposed to the platform. Stay tuned for more upcoming news.