Nvidia and HTC have partnered together with game developers to offer a GeForce GTX HTC Vive bundle.
This bundle pairs an Nvidia GTX 1060, 1070, or 1080 graphics card with an HTC Vive. The bundle does not reduce the cost of the hardware, but it gives you three additional games for free--Raw Data, Serious Sam VR, and Sports BarVR.
To qualify for the bundle deal, you must purchase the hardware from either Microsoft or Newegg. As the bundle deal is offered by Nvidia itself, you can also take advantage of other discounts and sales offered by Microsoft or Newegg to get an even better deal.
Currently, the least expensive Nvidia GTX 1070 offered from either retailer is Zotac’s GeForce GTX 1070 Mini, which is marked down from $399.99 to $394.99. The HTC Vive currently sales for $799 from Newegg, which makes a total of $1,193.99.
Nvidia is also giving a free key for Watch Dogs 2 with any GTX 1070 purchased through Newegg, and the HTC Vive comes with a free Plantronics Gamecom 318 gaming headset and free copies of Call Of The Starseed and Zombie Training Simulator.
It’s clear that Nvidia is invested in VR. Between VR-specific technologies such as VR Funhouse, Iray VR, and GameWorks VR and DesignWorks VR; initiatives such as the VR-ready qualification program and the Khronos Group; a workstation-class VR GPU; and plenty of driver updates, the company appears to be all in.
This bundle (expect more of them) is just another indication of where Nvidia sees the VR market. It has little to lose by creating these VR-related bundles, but how people react to them will tell Nvidia a lot about how excited (or not excited) people are for virtual reality.
In the meantime, these deals from Nvidia and HTC heavily incentivize VR and make it more tempting than ever for gamers upgrade to a VR-ready PC. Nvidia didn’t stay how long this deal would be offered, so if you’re tempted by it, you should act fast.
