YIBADA

HTC Viveport app store planned for global rollout, won't compete with SteamVR

| Aug 08, 2016 12:13 AM EDT

HTC Vive, Valve's Virtual Reality headset

HTC Vive will now have its own VR app store dubbed as the Viveport released across the globe to give more users access to their games and apps.

The HTC Viveport is currently available only to China where Steam is not as popular as it is in the rest of the world. HTC made the announcement during the VRLA expo in Los Angeles on Friday.

Currently, apps and games for the HTC Vive can be found on the SteamVR platform from Valve. While it is already a good marketplace for the VR content, it can sometimes be confusing as Steam also hosts tens of thousands of games for the PC such as Fallout 4, Doom and more.

HTC Viveport would be specifically designed for those with the HTC Vive headsets as it would contain all of the apps and games under several categories for easier browsing, Techno Buffalo has learned. The categories would include shopping, creativity tools, health, sports, social, video, music, design, education and more.

Users who want to download new HTC Vive apps and games will be able to browse through the several categories without needing to know a particular name of what they want to download. It would be similar to how the Google Play Store categorizes their apps and games which allows users to discover new apps to download.

HTC Vive Senior Vice President Rikard Stelber said that Viveport will make it easier to find new apps and games with broad appeal, The Verge reported. The company is planning to launch a global developer beta version of the app store while the international rollout is slated for a later date.

Developers who are interested in being part of the HTC Viveport global beta can now register on the Vive website. HTC said that they do not want to compete with the SteamVR platform but they do want to give users more options to choose from.

HTC Viveport will then give users a narrower platform for broader choices in HTC Vive apps and games. They can easily discover new things to download without having to search Google for that particular category that they want.

Related News

Most Popular

EDITOR'S PICK