HTC Vive announces the first-ever subscription model for a VR app store

On April, HTC Vive is going to celebrate the one-year anniversary of its commercial ship date. To celebrate it, HTC today announced that Vive customers can download a free copy of Vive Studios’ VR action game Arcade Saga, and new customers can get $100 off Vive on April 5th. HTC is also announcing that they will launch Viveport Subscription on the same day. Viveport Subscription is the first-ever subscription model for a VR app store. This new subscription will allow Vive users to download apps from VR app store for a low monthly free.

Here’s how it works,

Viveport Subscription customers pay $6.99 a month and choose five titles from an ever-growing library of curated content. They get unlimited access to the apps they choose or they can rotate out their selection every month. All apps in the subscription service are also available for sale, letting customers try an app before they decide to buy.

Viveport Subscription will launch with a one month free trial offer for all new users. Vive users can sign-up for trial of the service by registering here. “The marketplace for Vive apps has grown at a tremendous pace with more than 1,600 titles now available across different app stores and over 30 new apps launching daily,” said Rikard Steiber, President of Viveport at HTC Vive. “The rapid growth of the app market is a win for VR overall yet it can present discoverability challenges that affect both customers and content creators. Introducing a subscription model to VR is a natural evolution of where this market is going, and as film, music and TV have proven it’s becoming the preferred way customers want to explore and experience entertainment content.”