The virtual reality headset space just got a whole bunch more crowded and Oculus can't be too happy about it.
HTC, to the surprise of many attending Mobile World Congress and those just reading about Mobile World Congress, lifted the curtain Sunday on a new virtual headset it's prepping and hoping to have ready for consumers by the holiday season.
The Taiwanese vendor, mostly known for smartphones and which did debut its expected One M9 handset at MWC, teamed up with Steam's Valve on the VR device which, as several reports note, does have a striking resemblance to Oculus' flagship Rift.
But HTC says its Vive VR headset can't be compared with competitors such as Samsung's Gear VR or LG's VR headset since Samsung and LG require a smartphone to be connected to their VR headsets.
The Vive will be directly connected to a PC, boast lots of sensors (gyroscope, laser position, accelerometer) and even offer hand tracking for that truly impressive VR experience. There's also supposedly going to be a 1,200 x 1,080 screen in front of each eye.
Vive will also feature 360-degree head rotation and a 90Hz refresh rate and possibly wireless controllers (for both hands) for virtual environment exploration. HTC is calling the controllers "simple and intuitive."
What this means, according to one report, is that users will able to track their entire surrounding location.
"The new HTC VR Controllers come in a pair and are designed to be so versatile that they will work with a wide range of VR experiences," HTC said, adding the audio aspect will be "incredible."
The product strategy is to have a developer version out this spring and the consumer product by year's end so HTC can capitalize on the big holiday sales season.
"It's rare that a company has an opportunity to forever transform the ways in which people interact with the world and communicate with each other, but that is exactly what we plan to do with Valve," said HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang.
According to Valve's Ken Birdwell the Valve-HTC collaboration was borne from both vendors' desire to build the most compelling VR experience.
