HTC Vive today announced a $200 USD price reduction for Vive, making the best VR system more accessible to the mass market, across the globe. Starting today, Vive will be available for $599. All Vive purchases come with a free trial to Viveport Subscription, where consumers can choose up to five titles per month to experience, and copies of many of the most popular pieces of virtual reality (VR) content today, including Google’s Tilt Brush, Everest VR, and Richie’s Plank Experience.

The base Vive package comes with everything you need for a quick room-scale VR set-up: two base stations for accurate tracking, two motion controllers for immersive VR experiences and new and improved connection cables and new materials that offer a lighter weight on the Vive headset.

The price drop for the Vive follows a similar move by Oculus VR, which saw a summer discount for the Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch bundle reducing the cost to $399 USD for a limited time. After an extension period to that sale, the price of the Oculus Rift will remain at $499.

The reduction in price of VR hardware can only mean good things for the mass market appeal of these devices. Prior to the launches of the PC-based head-mounted displays (HMDs) last year many suggested that the premium prise points would significantly hurt the appeal, yet a rapidly growing audience still emerged. Now, with reduced prices for both PC HMDs, that audience is only likely to accelerate its growth.

“Our goal at Vive has always been to offer the best and most advanced VR system and drive mass market adoption for VR across the globe,” said Cher Wang, Chairwoman, HTC. “We’re continuing to deliver on that commitment with this new price for Vive, making VR more accessible to a broader audience and driving the entire VR industry forward. Vive’s game-changing technology, best-in-class content and unmatched global partners are fulfilling the promise of VR like never before. With highly anticipated titles, and the upcoming launch of Vive Tracker, there has never been a better time to embrace Vive, and enjoy the most immersive VR experience available.”

According to Steam statistics, HTC Vive maintains a 60% share of access to the Steam platform for high-end VR headsets. Over the past year, Vive has maintained its lead by more than 20%.

“We’ve rapidly diversified the Vive business so that when customers and businesses purchase Vive, they know they’ll benefit from a wide base of support for years to come,” said Dan O’Brien, GM US, HTC Vive. “From constant improvements to the core Vive hardware to the industry’s first VR subscription service, to investments in new technology for developers, Vive is at the forefront of the push to take VR to the mainstream.”

VRFocus will continue to keep you updated with all the latest details on the HTC Vive and other VR HMDs.