HTC’s Steam VR Headset ‘HTC Vive’ Goes On Tour

HTC needs to make up some serious ground if they’re going to continue to compete; as the Inquisitr has previously reported, HTC is in the throes of their worst year ever, and things are looking grim.

Enter the HTC Vive, a new direction for the struggling company. The Vive is a virtual reality headset, powered by Valve’s Steam VR — and in a move to shore up their lackluster marketing, HTC is taking the Vive on a tour around the U.S. and worldwide, according to a report from CNET.

HTC will be taking demo stations to cities around the globe, starting with the San Diego Comic-Con, one of the larger comic and gaming conventions in the nation. SDCC attracted 130,000 guests last year, and and HTC will be on hand this year to give them a taste of virtual reality on one of the most advanced headsets currently in development.

When the Vive releases, it will be compatible with a number of currently-unannounced Steam games, although Epic Games has confirmed native support within Unreal Engine 4 on their blog. Unreal Engine 4 is the game engine behind numerous upcoming titles, including EVE: Valkyrie, the space dogfight simulator within the EVE Online universe.

Along with the Vive, HTC has unveiled a new wireless controller using Valve’s Lighthouse technology, which will be functionally familiar to anyone who has used a Nintendo Wii, albeit requiring one controller for each hand. HTC’s Vive demo includes a painting scenario, a cooking scenario, and even a robot-repair simulator, all using the new controllers.

The HTC/Valve partnership seems like a positive step for both companies. In spite of its failures, HTC has always been known for truly top-of-the-line equipment and, while Samsung and Apple have drastically outpaced HTC in sales, they are only now catching up in terms of device power. Coupled with Valve’s Steam platform and marketing, HTC’s less-than-stellar marketing is much less of an issue, and Valve is entirely responsible for the software powering the headset and controllers. Given Valve’s track record with software — and the fact that Steam has over 125 million users — the Vive may be exactly what HTC needs right now.

As Gamespot reports, a list of all HTC Vive showings is now available:

• July 9-12, Island St & 6th Ave, San Diego, CA, USA
• July 17-19, Forecastle Festival [Invite Only], Louisville, KY, USA
• July 21-23, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL, USA
• July 25-28, specific location TBD, Kansas City, KS, USA
• August 2-8, The International, Seattle, WA, USA
• August 5-9, Gamescom, Cologne, Germany
• August 13-16, specific location TBD, San Francisco, CA, USA
• August 20-23, specific location TBD, Portland, OR, USA
• August 28-31, PAX Prime, Seattle, WA, USA
• September 4-9, IFA, Berlin, Germany
• October 28-November 1, Paris Games Week, Paris, France

[Image courtesy Valve Corporation]