How to avoid Vive's VR subscription price hike
First port of call
For the five of you that own an HTC Vive, I've got some bad news for you. At the end of March, the price of HTC's Viveport subscription service is going up. In the UK, £6.99/month will become £8.99/month on March 22nd, with a similar price increase taking place across all 60+ countries where Viveport's available.
Fortunately, there's an easy way to avoid it if you've yet to sign up to it. All you need to do is become a subscriber before March 22nd and HTC have promised you'll be able to keep the £6.99 sub price for at least the rest of 2018. The same rule applies to all current Viveport subscribers too.
In case you're unfamiliar with Viveport, this is HTC's global app store for its Vive VR goggles. You can still buy most Vive-supported games through Steam, of course, but Viveport is where you'll find Vive-specific VR 'experiences' and other assorted non-gamey bits, like 360-degree videos, art experiences and travel guides to name just a few.
You don't have to be a subscriber to use Viveport, but those that do get access to a better selection of games and apps - a premium tier, if you will - from which they can download five titles every month.
The March price hike isn't simply about charging people more money for the same service, however, as HTC will also be throwing in extra exclusive discounts and promotions every month starting now (February 2018). The first such benefit will be a free title to anyone who subscribes this month. It's not clear exactly what that title will be, but hey, I'm down with anything I don't have to pay extra for.
The price rise will also allow developers to earn a bit more cash from each subscription download. An extra 22% to be precise, according to HTC, and that is a Good Thing.
If you'd rather not do a Good Thing, however, then you know what to do. Subscribe now and you won't have to worry about doing any Good Things until the beginning of 2019. You monsters.