HTC Thumps Chest At Oculus Touting Vive Availability In 2 - 3 Business Days

If you’ve been itching to get your hands on an HTC Vive and have simply been unimpressed with the long preorder lines, you’ll be happy to know that the wait is now over. HTC announced today that the Vive is now available to purchase in 24 countries around the world, and that orders placed from vive.com will ship within 48 to 72 hours.

Also, starting this month, the Vive will be on display in 100 retail locations spread throughout North America, giving potential customers the chance to try out the virtual reality headset before plunking down the hefty $799 asking price. Demos will be available at 51 Microsoft Store, 40 GameStop and 10 Micro Center locations.

“Since beginning pre-orders at the end of February and shipping in early April, we’ve seen incredible interest in Vive,” said Dan O’Brien, HTC’s Vice President of Virtual Reality. “Working with our retail partners has only enhanced that momentum because more people are able to try the only truly immersive virtual reality offering on the market today.”

Preorders for the Vive opened up at the end of February, with HTC claiming that it sold 15,000 units in the first 10 minutes of availability. Since that time, HTC has been relatively mum on additional sales numbers.

The Vive’s primary competition, the $599 Oculus Rift, has been bogged down by production problems caused by component shortages. Orders placed today for the Oculus Rift won’t ship until August, which gives HTC a clear upper hand with gamers that are looking to get their feet wet with virtual reality right this instant.

For HotHardware’s take on the HTC Vive, be sure to check out Marco’s excellent analysis of the headset and its accompanying hardware right here.