After launching Vive Studios in December, HTC is further boosting its VR game with the Vive Tracker, which turns any object into a virtual controller.

After launching Vive Studios in December, HTC is further boosting its VR game with the Vive Tracker, which turns any object into a virtual controller. HTC

HTC is definitely stepping up its virtual reality (VR) game. After launching its own developing studio last month, the Taiwanese electronics company is further boosting its VR status by launching the Vive Tracker, a small utility that turns any accessory — or any object for that matter — into a controller through motion tracking.

The Vive Tracker is intended to allow third-party accessories become VR peripherals that work with the Vive headset’s laser towers. It weighs about 85 grams and, at 10 centimetres, is a tad smaller than the head of a regular Vive controller. The Vive Tracker’s battery can supposedly last six hours of continuous usage on a single charge.

WATCH: HTC Vive Tracker

HTC is set to work on projects with partners that include a custom virtual reality camera for a Vive photography app, a couple of motion control gloves integrated with a tracker and an actual baseball bat with a tracker on its end. According to The Verge, HTC vice president of virtual reality Daniel O’Brien said that the company is dishing out a thousand of its trackers to developers in the next six months. Consumers can get a hold of the Vive Tracker when it is made available for purchase in the second quarter of this year, although pricing will be held until the official release date gets closer.

“Now we have two solutions. Developers can learn how to build for our system through our on-going Synapse training online, and now they also have the ability to work with us by building with a Vive Tracker,” said O’Brien as quoted by UploadVR.

Back in December, HTC launched its own VR-developing unit called Vive Studios with the purpose of releasing apps and games not only made by the company itself, but also by external developers. HTC’s first VR game “Arcade Saga” was developed by its internal studio, 2 Bears.

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