The virtual reality space has been a subject of tough competition in recent years. The technology being relatively new, the industry firsts like Samsung, HTC, Facebook etc. have been introducing more features and upgrades to retain existing customers and to capture potential customers.
In such a scenario, we will never expect a company to provide access to consumers of the completion of its own content, rather they would protect it with all might. Recently HTC and Valve did the opposite by letting Oculus Rift VR users have access to HTC Viveport store.
Now, you may ask why would HTC do such a thing, however, this decision will only bring strength to the industry as a whole. With such a move, HTC opened the doors for cross compatibility. If you were to review the overall VR headset sales in 2018, the graph shows the lines going in the downward slope. To get more users interested in VR, companies must provide them with attractive offers.
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By opening up the Vive VR Store to Oculus Rift users, HTC gave Rift users more titles to choose from apart from Steam store and Oculus Storefront. Another service that comes online for Oculus users is HTC’s Subscription service that gives the users access to popular titles for a price of $19.99 of 3 months. the same service can be availed for six months at $39.99 and for a year for $79.99.
With more users accessing their subscription service, it’s a win for HTC who has an arsenal of 1,400 apps and games. Although, only 226 apps are currently verified for Oculus. You can spot them by the tiny Oculus symbol by their name. That said, HTC has a promotional offer where early adopters can keep some games that they buy from the subscription model for life!
It’s a great move by HTC and it will surely pave the way for more companies to follow. VR is still in its nurturing stage and a strategic decision like these from the top players ensure that it will keep its flame burning high!