Cubed Issue #1, January 2016 | Page 4

HTC HEADSET TO BE RE-VIVED IN APRIL ROBIN WILDE 2 The HTC Vive - being released in partnership with Valve - was supposed to be the first real VR headset available for the consumer market. But at the end of December the manufacturer made clear that it would miss its late 2015 release date and instead hit shelves in April this year. Speculation was rife about why, until a few days later when tech website Engadget reported HTC CEO Cher Wang saying "a very, very big technological breakthrough" had been made. The company then decided to skip the original version of the hardware entirely in favour of shipping the updated model at launch. The Vive is a higherend VR headset than the likes of the Oculus Rift, including the tricky feature of object tracking to allow for real-world objects and spaces to enter the virtual reality. There's not yet any word on the price, either. Wang was evasive when asked - and it's hard to imagine that if the headset was ultraaffordable there would have been so much dithering. The headset can make use of some rather unu- sual looking controllers, more in line with old PC joysticks than anything more recent in controller design. The new technology - whatever it is - should be debuting at t h e Got a tip? Send it in! [email protected] @CubedGamers C