Now that Oculus has gone ahead and opened up pre-orders for the Rift, their competitors are going to have to start playing their hands as well.

The first of the bunch to make a move is HTC. The company has announced that their virtual reality headset the Vive, which is being made in collaboration with Valve, will go up for pre-order on February 29. The price, however, was not announced, so they may be taking the same approach as Oculus by opting to reveal that information once pre-orders go live. If that is indeed the case, then I’m pretty skeptical about how pricey this headset will be. My guess would be that the Vive may end up being more expensive than the Rift.

The headset was shown-off at CES, and for the most part, it got a lot of great buzz. It seems like the collaboration with Valve is paying off in terms of quality. I’m still skeptical about it doing well, since the Oculus Rift is more well known to the general populace. HTC and Valve will need to to ramp up the marketing if they want to compete, especially if the price is going to be equivalent or more expensive than the competition. I have not had the pleasure of trying this bad-boy out myself, but I’ve heard good things–Malik was quite excited about it after trying it out at PAX Prime last August.

HTC boss Cher Wang has also revealed to The Telegraph that a wider release will come in April. Now we wait for Sony to make their move with the PlayStation VR. Rumors are circulating that the PS VR will not be as high quality as its competition, but that really doesn’t come as a surprise to me. Their headset will primarily be made specifically to work in tandem with the PS4, so they don’t have to worry about making the specs incredibly impressive. I actually believe that’s an advantage for Sony.

How much do you think the Vive is going to cost? Which headset are you most interested in? Let us know in the comments below!

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HT: The Telegraph