Apr 04, 2017 11:19 PM EDT By Natalie Scott, UniversityHerald Reporter

HTC is about to celebrate its VR Platform's first anniversary soon. For this reason, the company offers HTC Vive at $699, $100 off from the original price with free VR apps and game compilation for one-month trial through Viveport, HTC app hub.

Unlike the Oculus Rift, HTC has not dropped Vive's price since 2016 launching. However, since the Vive's first anniversary is imminent, the company has formally dropped $100 from the VR console's original price of $799 which mirrors the Black Friday celebration sale, CNET reported.

A subscription service for Viveport is also part of HTC Vive's first-anniversary celebration. With $6.99 a month, users will have the chance to use five apps through one-month free trial from the limited and rotating supply of apps every month.

However, since Viveport does not offer subscription service yet, it is a little bit of advantage for users to try the apps first, before buying. Unlike Steam, Viveport's subscription plan for VR software is reportedly on its way.

For the past months, Oculus is giving away several games to Oculus Rift users such as Robo Recall. With this regard, HTC is also bound to give free game compilations like Arcade Saga which debuted last year on Viveport and Steam.

On the other hand, HTC reveals the bigger news about being an exclusive VR partner of Ready Player One, an upcoming Steven Speilberg movie. The room-scale VR leader Vive is said to host massive VR world called The Oasis, Forbes reported.

Expanding the VR ecosystem is HTC's main goal for Vive. As a matter of fact, 33 new investments have been added to 27 deals of Vive X, venture arm of HTC Vive. And as of now, there are 1,600 Vive titles and weekly launching of 30 new apps.

Despite the higher price point place by HTC for Vive, the hardware proves its leadership role in VR industry. While Oculus Rift continues to struggle with low retail sales, top executive shuffling and lawsuits, industry analysts conclude that HTC is likely to sell 500,000 units of Vive which is twice than toughest rival. 

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