The $250 million deal — announced after Samsung’s extended reality headset made its public debut yesterday — includes parts of HTC’s XR headsets and glasses unit, with some of the VIVE engineering team relocating to Google.
Google had previously purchased most of HTC’s smartphone business for $1.1 billion in 2017. HTC Vice President Lu Chia-te says the XR deal isn’t “a buyout nor an exclusive license.”
Whatever this “Vision for you” is, the silhouette HTC shows at the end looks very pointedly Vision Pro-like, while also looking like it fits into the HTC Vive Focus 3 design mold.
The video hints at “a new kind of power.” Perhaps it involves that new Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 headset chip with 4.3K-per-eye resolution support, which Qualcomm said it’s working with HTC (among others) on.
One of HTC’s CES announcements appears to have leaked a little early. Tipster Evan Blass (private account) has shared images of what appears to be a new HTC Vive VR headset. Given the devices looks identical to what the company teased in December, this is almost certainly HTC’s lightweight competitor to the Meta Quest. Expect an official announcement later today.
The best games you can play on the Vive, Rift, or Quest 2
But it’s not for home VR
