The final frontier is the latest experience that comes with HTC’s virtual reality headset.
HTC announced this morning that it will begin giving away a copy of Star Trek: Bridge Crew to anyone who buys the Vive head-mounted display going forward. Vive is the $700 room-scale virtual reality system that comes with headset as well as two motion controllers. Star Trek: Bridge Crew is Ubisoft’s new VR game that puts you in charge of a Federation vessel exploring deep space. It has a solo campaign, but its standout feature is an online cooperative mode where teams of players must work together at various stations in order to boldly go to the next mission objective.
VR is set to hit $25 billion in spending by 2021, according to tech adviser Digi-Capital. But it’s still in the lean early days where many consumers are holding off on purchasing the new hardware until it’s more affordable, has better games, or both. Star Trek: Bridge Crew is one of the games building out the content side of things, which VR still desperately needs.
Don’t be a Redshirt! Every @htcvive purchase, starting today, receives a bundled copy #StarTrekBridgeCrew. pic.twitter.com/uh6gVyw7iB
— HTC VIVE (@htcvive) May 30, 2017
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This is one of the first big multiplatform VR releases so far this year. Sony’s PlayStation VR recently saw the release of its shooter Farpoint and the excellent puzzler Staitk over the last month, but Star Trek is debuting on PSVR, Oculus Rift, and Vive. And it uses the Star Trek license. A lot of the fans have long dreamed about sitting in the captains chair on a Federation ship or manning the helm or the weapons systems. You can do that here, and it’s potentially one of the most authentic Star Trek experiences you can have from the comfort of your own home.
Bridge Crew is also the latest VR game from Ubisoft, which has dabbled in this market previously with the release of Eagle Flight — an online bird simulator.
The combination of Ubisoft, Star Trek, and the fan service makes this an important release, and Vive should capitalize on that for any gamers looking to buy into VR for their PC.
