Anyone that has been following virtual reality since the popularity spike in 2016 has seen a few trends take place. The original debate was ‘Vive or Oculus?’, but it never really felt too close. Although both headsets had a similar price point, the Oculus Rift seemed to be getting the attention of consumers more than the HTC Vive.
Businesses and enterprises started to gravitate towards Vive. Soon enough, Vive started gravitating to the enterprise side as well. They started production on multiple non-consumer headsets. They released the Vive Pro, but it never really struck a cord with the consumer industry.
Vive fell out of the consumer realm for VR headsets while Oculus only added to their empire. While Vive seemed to be taking a year off, the Oculus Quest and Rift S nearly broke the VR world. Even today, the Quest is regarded as one of the best headsets the world has ever seen. Where is Vive at? Making the Cosmos. Would this be it? Could Vive finally jump back into the consumer game?
If you bought a Vive Cosmos upon release, you likely weren’t pleased. Plagued by connection errors, tracking problems, and constant software updates, the Vive Cosmos simply flopped upon release.
Many thought Vive would call it quits in the consumer realm and focus on business-focused VR headsets. Many were wrong. This morning, Vive doubled down on the modular Cosmos idea, they showed prototypes of possible VR/AR headsets, and showed initiative that seemed to be lacking for years.
The New Vive
With the announcement of the Cosmos Play, Cosmos Elite, and the Cosmos XR, Vive seems to be establish their place in the consumer market once more.
The Cosmos Play is going to give users a more relaxed entry point to virtual reality. With inside-out tracking and easy-to-use controllers, the Cosmos Play has set itself up for a real battle with the Rift S as the best entry point PC VR headset.
The Cosmos Elite is going to give high-end consumers to buy from Vive. They aimed for that with the original Cosmos, but missed drastically. It seems like the Elite will finally have a place in the industry, as it will likely be pulling sales away from the Valve Index going forward.
The Cosmos XR is exactly what developers have been looking for from Vive. Not only is this headset capable of high-end VR creations, it has (supposed) fantastic passthrough capabilities. This could possibly be the next generation of mixed reality.
Project Proton
If todays releases weren’t enough to show you that the new CEO meant business, look at their latest renderings of VR/AR headsets they hope to turn into a product.
This is simply an idea right now, but it could turn into much more once they find a place to offload, or compress the computing. If there is any doubt about what Vive’s intentions are with virtual reality, they have been squashed. The future is looking incredibly bright for Vive. For more VR news and community updates, make sure to check back at VRGear.com.
