Taipei, June 22 (CNA) Taiwan-based smartphone brand HTC Corp., which has aggressively invested in the vitual reality business, said Friday that the summer sale for its first VR headset -- the HTC Vive -- has kicked off.
HTC has joined forces with Steam in the "Steam Summer Sale" to mark down the Vive, making the device more affordable. The sale started at 1 a.m. June 23 and will run through 1 a.m. on July 6, the Taiwanese firm said.
Steam is a content platform under U.S. video game supplier Valve, which jointly developed the Vive with HTC.
During the sale, the Vive carries a price tag of NT$26,788 (US$881), down from the original price of NT$28,288, HTC said.
The Vive is one of HTC's gambits to diversify from its core smartphone market, which is saturated and intensely competitive, in the hope of creating an additional revenue source and turning around its business. HTC faces competition from Apple, South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. and many Chinese smartphone brands.
HTC unveiled the HTC Vive at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) show in March 2015, and global sales began in April 2016.
Along with the price markdown, the smartphone brand said, the sale package includes a NT$1,500 Steam coupon that can be used for purchases of games in the Steam store during the sale, HTC said.
In addition, patrons will obtain three items of VR content for free -- Star Trek Bridge Crew, Richie's Plank Experience, and Everest VR -- while they will be given a month of free subscription to Viveport's content.
Viveport is a Vive app store that provides users with a wider range of content for the VR headset.
HTC said that buyers will also get a discount of up to 75 percent when they purchase five content items -- Virtual Sports, Arcade Saga, Remembering Pearl Harbor, MakeVR and Knockout League -- developed by Vive Studios, another VR content developer.
Despite the sale announcement, shares of HTC fell 1.00 percent to close at NT$69.00 in line with the broader market on Friday, when the weighted index ended down 0.21 percent.
