Update (1:00 p.m. Eastern): Valve and HTC have confirmed the basic information leaked in the below story through a press release (though the full consumer availability is now targeted for "early April" rather than April 1). The press release also confirms that the HTC Vive will come packaged with two games: Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives and Fantastic Contraption. Both titles rely on the Vive's hand-tracking and whole-room movement capabilities, and should serve as excellent demonstrations of the headset's potential.

HTC also notes that it has upgraded the consumer version from the recently unveiled Vive Pre dev kit with "refreshed branding and an updated headstrap." Pre-orders will start at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Feb. 29, though the precise method for making those pre-orders has not been announced.

Original Story

The HTC Vive virtual reality headset, the first such headset powered by Valve's SteamVR technology, will ship starting on April 1 for $799 (~£650), according to leaked reports ahead of an official Mobile World Congress announcement expected Monday. Pre-orders will reportedly be offered starting on February 29.

That price comes in significantly higher than the $599 (£499) price Oculus revealed for the Rift last month , but an HTC executive warned us months ago to expect "a slightly higher price point" for the Vive at launch. Keep in mind as well that the Vive's price includes two hand-tracking, wand-like controllers—Oculus' similar, optional Touch controllers won't be available for sale until the second half of the year at an unknown price. The Vive package also comes with two Lighthouse laser tracking boxes, used to measure the position of the headset and controllers as a user walk around the room.

The news, which comes nearly a year after the HTC Vive was first revealed at GDC 2015, was leaked ahead of an apparent embargo by German site ComputerBild, leading other outlets to confirm the same info. The Vive was originally announced for a late 2015 release, but that launch plan was severely scaled back in August before being officially delayed in December to the current April window..

The leaks also include word of a previously unannounced feature for the Vive: the ability to connect to many cell phones via bluetooth. Thus, Vive users will reportedly be able to answer phone calls (using a built-in microphone), read text messages, and see calendar invites without taking off the headset.

Much like the Oculus Rift, the HTC Vive needs to be tethered to a relatively beefy PC tower, which isn't included in the headset price. Valve and HTC have yet to announce minimum or recommended specs for such a PC, but HP's line of Vive-optimized Envy towers, developed in conjunction with HTC, sport GTX 980 Ti or Radeon R9 390X graphics cards, high-end i7 CPUs, and at least 16GB of RAM. Trade show demos of the headset have run on systems with a GTX 980.