VR is looking more and more like the next goldmine for tech companies as customers are snatching them up as fast as the pre-orders are going up. Just a few hours after the HTC Vive VR headset went up for pre-orders, we’re getting a sense of just how much demand there really is. According to Shen Ye from HTC, 15,000 units were sold in just 10 minutes, or about 25 every second. This netted HTC and partner Valve about $12 million USD at $800 a pop.
Woah, more than 15k units in less than 10min 😮
— Shen Ye (@shen) February 29, 2016
Right now, there are only 2 major VR HMD available, both on pre-order. There is the Facebook-backed Oculus Rift selling for $600 and the HTC Vive which comes in $200 more. Given that a PC needed to run such a system for gaming is about $1000, it seems like there are many folks who are really excited VR. That or a lot of scalpers hoping to eBay or Craigslist their purchases.
While 15,000 is a really impressive number, the more important ones are for the total user base for the Rift and Vive. Even though many games and other applications can be adapted for VR quite easily, a good VR requires a lot more work. The question will be if there will be enough users for developers to start looking hard at VR, or will it take the install base of the likes of the PS4 and Xbox One before developers start paying attention.
