HTC have introduced they’re going to be bundling in free copies of Half-Life: Alyx with each Vive Cosmos Elite VR headset at the moment – and that features everybody who pre-ordered the headset as properly. The Vive Cosmos Elite, which launches worldwide at the moment, is HTC’s newest high-end PC-based VR headset and can include a redemption code for Half-Life: Alyx within the field, which can then unlock the game when it launches on March 23rd subsequent week.
The Vive Cosmos Elite is among the latest members of HTC’s Vive Cosmos household, and provides customers the choice of enjoying games with extra correct exterior monitoring by way of its two SteamVR base stations in addition to the wire-free inner monitoring provided by the common Cosmos. This is because of the Elite’s modular exterior monitoring face plate design, which it comes pre-installed with within the field. Then, in case you’d somewhat change to inner monitoring for different games and VR experiences, then all you want to do is pop the exterior monitoring face plate off and stick the common Cosmos face plate on as an alternative.
The Cosmos Elite is kind of a bit costlier than its non-Elite sibling, going for £899 / $899 in comparison with the common Cosmos’ asking value of £699 / $699, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a bit cheaper than Valve’s Index headset (which may also be bundling in a free copy of Half-Life: Alyx as properly). While the Index headset by itself solely prices £459 / $499 in the mean time, the whole Index VR Kit (which incorporates the 2 Knuckles controllers and two base station trackers you’ll want to truly begin utilizing the headset) will set you again £919 / $999 – and can take between 8-10 weeks to get to you as properly after stock levels ran dry early last week.
The Cosmos Elite, however, is offered to ship proper now, and comes with two Vive controllers, two base stations and each sorts of face plate within the field. It’s additionally appropriate with the unique Vive and Vive Pro controllers, in addition to their base station variations 1.Zero and a couple of.0, and it additionally helps the Vive Wireless Adapter and their Vive Tracker peripheral, too.
Alas, the provide solely extends to these shopping for the whole Cosmos Elite headset bundle in the mean time, because the standalone exterior monitoring face plate that HTC had been planning to supply for current Cosmos homeowners wishing to improve has now been delayed because of the ongoing coronavirus state of affairs. Originally set to launch for £199 / $199 someday between April and June, it would now doubtless launch towards the tip of that interval somewhat than nearer to subsequent month.
“As you know, many companies are expecting impact to their hardware supply chain timelines due to the coronavirus,” HTC instructed me in an announcement. “While we will have the full Elite sku ready to ship by the on-sale date of March 18, the availability of the External Tracking Faceplate will now be later than planned due to supply chain delays. We are taking every precaution to ensure that our employees and manufacturing partners are staying safe during this time. We will continue to update you on timings, but we are still aiming for Q2 availability.”
I’ll be taking a more in-depth have a look at how the common Cosmos compares to the Index early subsequent week, however for now, right here’s everything you need to get ready for the launch of Half-Life: Alyx, together with all of the totally different headsets’ PC necessities and the way they examine to the game’s minimal spec as properly.
