HTC Vive’s first-ever price drop saves you $100 today only

Nearly one year later, we're still not tired of using this image of Ars UK's Seb Anthony to illustrate Vive stories.

For nearly a year now, HTC's SteamVR-based Vive headset has remained stubbornly set at its launch price of $800. That will change for a single day on Wednesday, when HTC has announced it will lower the Vive's price to $700 in celebration of the headset's first anniversary (down from 689 to 589 in the UK).

The one-day sale comes a month after Oculus permanently lowered the price of its Rift headset from $600 to $500. While the pricier Vive package comes with a pair of hand-tracking controllers, Oculus also lowered the price of its own Touch controllers from $200 to $100 last month, making the Rift package significantly cheaper in an apples-to-apples basis.

Alongside the brief price drop, HTC will also be rolling out a new subscription-based software program on April 5. For $7/7 a month, a Viveport subscription will let players "choose five titles from an ever-growing library of curated content," on HTC's Viveport platform (which is distinct from the SteamVR interface many Vive owners use). Viveport users can try a free one-month trial of the service and choose from among 50 different titles to start.

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