HTC has announced an expansion to its Vive Financing Program in an effort to prevent consumers from being priced out of virtual reality. The company will bundle the headset with other hardware, offering financing options to allow the package to be paid off on a monthly basis.
Users who simply need to upgrade their current rig will be able to purchase an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition graphics card alongside a Vive headset for $1,000. HTC is billing this bundle as offering a $200 savings over the suggested retail price for both items, and will only offer the deal until April 24.
The company’s financing options mean that the package can be paid for in monthly installments, with the lowest rate set at $49 per month for 24 months, according to a blog post on the Vive website.
The standard price for the Vive headset is $800, and the GTX 1070 Founders Edition GPU is typically priced at around $400, so HTC’s package does offer potential savings. However, if you can find either item for less than its recommended retail price — which is not uncommon — you might be able to save more money buying them separately.
HTC is also offering up options for people who are interested in VR, but would need to start fresh in terms of hardware. The company will offer packages containing a compatible laptop or desktop computer and a headset on a monthly payment plan.
An MSI GS73VR laptop with a 17.3-inch full HD display, an Intel Core i7-6700HQ quad-core processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB GDDR5 graphics card, and 16GB of RAM will be available for $125 per month.
Meanwhile, a CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme desktop with an Intel i5-7600 quad-core processor, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 8GB graphics card, and 8GB of DDR4 RAM will be available for less than $99 per month.
These packages are perhaps not the most cost-effective way to get on board with VR, if you’re working on a budget. However, if you’re looking for convenience above all else, they might be worth considering — HTC apparently uses the MSI GS73VR as a demo machine at events, so buyers can be sure that this hardware will do VR content justice, which might not necessarily be true if you’re a novice building a PC from scratch.
