HTC Friday morning announced the global launch of Viveport, a virtual reality app store for the HTC Vive, after months of beta testing.
The VR store first opened in China in April, and since then teams in the Seattle area, San Francisco, Seattle, Taipei, Beijing and London having been working to get it ready for worldwide launch. As part of the global expansion of Viveport, a dozen virtual reality games will be released outside of Asia for the first time. Several titles, including theBlu — which GeekWire got a chance to try out at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January — will be offered for $1 for the next 48 hours.
“We believe Viveport is the place where you will begin your journey into new virtual reality experiences,” Rikard Steiber, president of Viveport, wrote in a blog post Friday. “Fans in over 30 countries will join us on a fantastic voyage, as they get to experience amazing VR content published by the best creators in the industry.”
In addition to games, Viveport promises virtual reality experiences in the fields of art, design, education, fashion, music, sports, travel, video, and more.
HTC has its North American headquarters in Bellevue, Wash. The Vive, built in partnership with Bellevue-based Valve, retails for $799 and competes with other virtual reality devices like Oculus Rift, the soon-to-be-released Playstation VR and others.
One way Vive stands out from the competition is through its litany of accessories. It has controllers that can function as virtual hands, and sensors that can be installed in a room to set up virtual boundaries that keep users from walking into walls.
A press release announcing the Viveport app store concludes with this cryptic quote from Steiber (emphasis HTC’s).
“And one more thing,” added Steiber. “Any Day now we will Relay a secret message that will Reopen a path to unlimited Viveport content for worthy contenders. We hope you will follow us on social media, install the VIVE software, visit Viveport.com, and explore VIVE Home over the next month as we unveil more clues and keys to unlock the treasures.”
