HTC Corp.’s entry into the virtual reality (VR) space looks to be about as successful as its attempts to sell smartphones (ie: bad), with details emerging at the weekend detailing how much its upcoming Vive VR headset will cost.

According to the company itself, the HTC Vive will go on sale in April for $799 with pre-orders opening February 29.

The “limited time” consumer edition will also ship with two VR games, something bizarrely called “Job Simulator” (and it’s literally as per the name), and the even more bizarre “Fantastic Contraption,” its pitch: “Imagine walking around a grassy island floating in the sky, building a machine the size of a horse with your own hands, then watching it roll out into the world.”

Someone pass the bong.

The consumer edition of the Vive is also said to integrate phone functionality, enabling a user to stay “connected to the real world, without exiting the virtual world;” the functionality includes the ability to receive and respond to both incoming and missed calls, access text messages and send them, and access your phone calendar to see things like meetings set for the next day at your place of employment while you’re virtually pretending to be working somewhere else.

Changes from the earlier releases of the headset (the HTC Pre) include new wireless controllers with haptic feedback and dual stage triggers, a front-facing camera that blends physical elements into the virtual world, a redesigned headstrap that offers greater stability and balance, and an improved visual system with brighter displays to give a deeper sense of immersion.

Like the $200 cheaper Facebook, Inc. owned Oculus Rift, users will need to have a top end PC to run the software for the headset.

Fail

I want to believe in the second coming of virtual reality in 2016, I really do, but having had the misfortune of playing with the HTC Pre (the developer release of the Vive) I was seriously underwhelmed.

Now that we know how much it costs it’s literally going to be like HTC’s flagship Desire smartphone range: it looks great on paper but very few end up buying them.

$799 simply isn’t a price point that the market will cope with, not at scale and not to the point where it will become a success, and we need to remember that many, including SiliconANGLE’s Justin Austin Farrell believe the Oculus Rift is overpriced as well, and that’s $200 less.

You can only hope that the final release of the HTC Vive packs more punch than the developer versions, but shipping it with a “job simulator” is always going to be a hard sell, even if the price was significantly less.

Pre-orders are available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden, Taiwan, China, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

Image credit: HTC Corp.