HTC enables third party partners to build accessories and peripherals for a richer VR experience for consumers and business users

Taipei, Taiwan, USA — August 5, 2016 — HTC, creator of the HTC Vive^™ , the most advanced virtual reality system on the market, today announced that it will begin working with third party developers and hardware makers to expand the accessories and peripherals ecosystem for the HTC Vive. HTC will hold in-person training courses in Asia to complement the courses being provided in the US by Valve and Synapse. These training courses will provide development resources, software for developing tracked accessories and peripherals, technical support for integration, and go-to-market resources when their products are ready. The program is expected to facilitate rapid development of innovative hardware solutions to create new ways for people to interact with their virtual world.

At this early stage in the development of the VR ecosystem, the whole industry must work together to overcome the barriers to ubiquitous adoption of VR. By enabling third party developers to create accessories and peripherals, HTC is allowing the industry to create high quality products much faster. And because of HTC Vive's position as market leader in the VR space, hardware partners will have access to a large installed base of existing customers, channels and content.

"We are extremely excited about the potential mid- to long-term impact of our decision with our partner Valve to simultaneously open up our respective technologies in order to accelerate growth in the VR industry," said Cher Wang, Chairwoman and CEO of HTC. “The new wave of innovation this program will enable is going to be amazing to watch, the biggest winners will be the consumers and business customers around the world."

Alan Yates, Valve Engineer, said "Making this OpenVR tracking technology available to more partners is an extremely important step in the evolution of virtual reality and 3D tracking. We are very confident that doing so will result in new and innovative experiences for all VR customers."

More details and applications for the Vive accessories development and training program will be available soon at www.htcvive.com

We now welcome new content creators and developers to join the Viveport community, and register on http://developer.vive.com, joining the thousands of developers who have already started their journey with us. Also follow our blog on http://blog.htcvive.com for more information.

About the HTC Vive Virtual Reality System HTC Vive is a first-of-its kind virtual reality system developed in partnership by HTC and Valve. Designed from the ground up for room-scale VR, Vive allows true-to-life interactions and experiences thanks to an adjustable headset displaying stunning graphics, two wireless controllers with HD haptic feedback and 360˚ absolute motion tracking. For a convenient and safe experience, Vive incorporates essential functionality from your phone and features a front facing camera that blends physical elements into the virtual world. Working in concert, this system immerses you visually, physically and emotionally in the virtual world.