Vive released a major update to the content library for the Viveport subscription service. Viveport subscribers now have access to twice as many games, including exclusive content from Asian developers that’s not distributed anywhere else in Western markets.
Vive launched the Viveport content subscription platform in April. For a small monthly fee, you get access to five titles of your choice each month from the Viveport library. At the beginning of each subscribed month, you get to select a new set of five titles (or keep your previous selection). That sounds great, but the content library that came with Viveport at launch left much to be desired.
There was a small selection of games and experiences to choose from, although it eventually grew to 75 titles. If you're new to the platform, that's a strong selection, but many of the Viveport titles (theBlue, Fantastic Contraption, Tilt Brush, Richie’s Plank Experience, just to name a few) are games that most people who’ve owned a Vive system for a while would have tried. The Viveport subscription platform didn’t have much to offer those Vive early adopters, but the June content update makes the subscription a little more interesting.
Vive announced a large update to its content library that doubles the selections from 75 titles to 150. First Contact Entertainment brought ROM: Extraction, Grab Game included Knockout League, and Funkotronic Labs added Cosmic Trip to the subscription portal. The June update also includes two dozen exclusive titles from Asian developers that have never had access to Western markets.
“With Viveport Subscription, we want to give customers an easy and affordable way to experience more amazing VR content for a low monthly fee,” said Rikard Steiber, President of Viveport at HTC Vive. “We are doubling the number of available titles to over 150 with new bestsellers and a wide range of content available in the West for the first time. We want to offer VR developers the most ways to monetize their content, and they now have an additional channel to reach new audiences and generate more revenue.”
Vive created the Viveport platform in part to offer a global distribution platform for developers around the world. Viveport is available in 30 countries, including China, where the VR market is booming. Vive can offer exclusive content from Asia that would otherwise not be available in North America or Europe because the Viveport platform is the only distribution service for VR software that has a presence in the Western and Asian VR markets.
Viveport’s push to bring content from Asian markets should be exciting to Viveport subscribers, but it should also excite developers. It's a two-way street in that it offers developers from Asia a branch into the Western VR market, but it also grants Western developers a channel into the lucrative VR scene in China and other Asian countries.
The Viveport subscription service is available for $7 per month, which, as we mentioned, gives you access to five revolving titles. Vive is currently offering a free month with no obligation to sign up. For more, visit the Viveport page on vive.com.
