VR Headsets Price: HTC Vive Financing Plans Now Available

Financing plans are usually found on major purchases like a car, but would you use one on a virtual reality headset? Several retailers are offering financing plans on the HTC Vive VR headset, according to UploadVR.

As UploadVR reports, JD.com will sell the Vive with 0 percent financing with either $138 payments over six months or $66.58 payments over 12 months. A longer two-year plan runs for $40.13 and has a 7.99 percent financing plan.

For Chinese users who want a Vive, similar 0 percent financing plans are available. A three-month will run ¥2,296, a six-month plan will have ¥1,148 monthly payments and a one-year plan has ¥574 payments.

The payment plans, which generally include slight markups on the headset’s retail price,reflect the major hurdle premium VR headsets like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift have had with market penetration. Each option has substantial hardware setup costs for new users, as you’ll need a gaming-capable PC to run games and applications.

On top of that, the actual headset costs are not insubstantial: the Rift retails for $600, while the Vive costs $800. The high barrier to entry has also been reflected in sales for the Vive and Rift. Research firm SuperData Research estimated the Vive sold 420,000 units last year and the Rift sold 243,000 units during the same time period.

At the same time, the PlayStation VR — which sports relatively weaker VR technology but also has the existing PlayStation 4 install base and a $400 price tag — has managed to move nearly one million units since its launch last fall. The financing move is one of several avenues HTC’s taken to broaden its audience, but with its additional costs, it’s still up in the air whether or not it’ll significantly benefit the VR headset’s margins.