HTC looks to heal rift, welcomes Oculus owners to its Viveport VR store

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HTC has announced that its Viveport VR store will be landing on the Facebook-made Oculus Rift from September 4, along with its associated subscription-based service.

Many VR games are already compatible with both HTC and Oculus hardware, and HTC’s VR store currently features some 1,400 titles when accessed via its own headsets, the HTC Vive and Vive Pro. Developers with titles on the Viveport store will specifically have to opt-in to add Rift compatibility, however, meaning at launch the new Oculus storefront won't have access to that full spectrum of titles.

HTC's subscription service costs $8.99 a month and allows subscribers to access five VR titles at any one time, having to ‘return’ one before they’re able to rent out something new. The intention is to allow users to trial titles before committing to a purchase, and alleviates some of the stress of paying top dollar for a new title.

An expanding universe

In HTC’s statement, Viveport’s president Rikard Steiber claims that the decision to expand availability to the company’s primary rival was made to help both the creators of VR content and the users. “By adding support for Oculus Rift, we’re doubling the potential user base for Viveport developers”.

This move to eliminate barriers may be the first of many, with Steiber suggesting that HTC will ”continue to expand and reach the largest global audience possible on developers’ behalf”.

Keep an eye out for future peace offerings between the VR giants, as they could well result in more accessibility for the platforms’ users.