Viveport, HTC Vive's store for VR apps, widens to Oculus Rift

Viveport subscriptions -- think Netflix for VR -- will be available on Oculus Rift now too.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter

Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.

Expertise Streaming video, film, television and music; virtual, augmented and mixed reality; deep fakes and synthetic media; content moderation and misinformation online Credentials

Three Folio Eddie award wins: 2018 science & technology writing (Cartoon bunnies are hacking your brain), 2021 analysis (Deepfakes' election threat isn't what you'd think) and 2022 culture article (Apple's CODA Takes You Into an Inner World of Sign)

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Joan E. Solsman

Aug. 16, 2018 9:24 a.m. PT

facebook-spaces-virtual-reality-vr-facebook-f8-2017-0467.jpg — Oculus Rift is the rival high-end headset to the HTC Vive, which Viveport was created to serve.
James Martin/CNET

Viveport, a store for virtual-reality apps and experiences linked to the HTC Vive , is widening to its archrival high-end headset: Oculus Rift . That means Viveport-listed experiences, and its Netflix-like subscription option, will be available to anyone who has an Oculus Rift headset, so long as creators opt in their titles.

Content has been a thorn in the side of virtual reality as tech heavyweights push it to be the next big thing in computing. Despite companies like Google and Facebook pouring in investment and stoking hype about VR, widespread adoption has been elusive. Without a gotta-see-it experience compelling people to try the unfamiliar format, consumers have resisted pouring hundreds of dollars into high-end headsets like HTC's Vive and Facebook's Oculus Rift.

Viveport, if nothing else, helps simplify finding content for VR. Adding support for Oculus Rift potentially doubles the audience for all Viveport published titles. Thursday's move also makes Viveport Subscription, a service that's a bit like Netflix for VR, to Oculus Rift users. Viveport Subscription allows subscribers to experience up to five titles at a time for $9 a month.

Developers can set their experiences to display as Oculus Rift-compatible starting Thursday. Consumers will be able to access those titles via Viveport on Sept. 4.