During Maitre’s time at HTC, the company attempted to boost its VR presence by expanding its Vive Cosmos family of modular headsets, and it even teased its next-gen devices which are said to be more compact. This was followed by the launch of Vive XR Suite to focus its VR efforts on the business sector. The company also eventually released its first 5G smartphone, the U20.

Still, the former Orange executive was unable to turn the company around. Q2 2020 saw HTC’s ninth consecutive quarterly loss, which cost NT$1.83 billion (about US$62 million); and it was also a jump from the previous quarter’s NT$1.68 billion loss (US$57 million).

After a round of layoffs back in December, the company announced further action in June. Though according to sources close to the matter, the latest round of redundancies wasn’t even Maitre’s own doing.

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In addition, HTC has introduced new casual outfit options for customizable avatars to better reflect how people dress, including new jeans and tops. Plus, the Sync update adds the ability to log in to meetings through a desktop, so participants will no longer have memorize meeting IDs and passwords to enter sessions with their headsets on.

HTC’s Vive Sync entered open beta in April, providing businesses a way to hold meetings in VR in the middle of coronavirus-related stay-at-home orders. Earlier this month, the company announced that Vive Sync will be part of the Vive XR Suite, an upcoming subscription package consisting of five VR applications that can also be viewed on a PC monitor.

The rest of the specs are relatively standard for a mid-range phone: 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, dual nano SIM slots, microSD expansion (up to 2TB), 5,000mAh battery, NFC and a quad-camera module on the back (48-megapixel main, 8-megapixel ultra-wide, 2-megapixel macro and 2-megapixel bokeh). These are all packaged into either a quartz green or crystal white body, and to be honest, we’ve seen better designs from the once mobile giant.

One interesting thing about the U20 5G is that it will still be manufactured in-house in Taoyuan, Taiwan, thus quashing earlier rumours of HTC abandoning all of its production lines. Still, the phone looks rather generic in today’s market.

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The Desire 20 Pro, not made in Taiwan, is a 4G phone powered by the lesser Snapdragon 665 platform. It features a smaller 6.5-inch LCD with a 25-megapixel punch-hold front camera, but the same FHD+ resolution remains. With the exception of the lesser 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, the remaining specs are literally identical to the U20’s. This model will be launching in Taiwan on June 18th for NT$8,990 or about US$300, with color options including crystal black and clear blue.

VR nerds may be familiar with some of these five applications. For starters, there’s Vive Sync which is HTC’s in-house remote collaboration service, and it’s currently still in open beta. Then you have Vive Sessions, which is essentially the integration of Immersive VR Education’s Engage virtual conference platform (as used by HTC today and back in March), and this lets you host up to 50 people per virtual location. Going further up the scale, there’s Vive Campus which will be powered by VirBELA, and this enables remote learning for up to a whopping 2,500 people on a virtual campus. Of course, there’s no stopping you from taking a quick break with fellow students by a virtual fountain.

Vive XR Suite isn’t all about work, either. To catch up with friends, you can tap into Vive Social which will be based on the popular social VR platform, VRChat. If you feel like getting up close to virtual art exhibits or VR videos, there’s also Vive Museum which will be run by Museum of Other Realities. But that’s as far as fun goes; you’ll need to go back to Viveport or Steam for your dose of VR gaming.

Given how the look and feel of these partner apps differ vastly from one another, it’ll be interesting to see how well HTC can integrate them into the suite, and how much flexibility will users have when it comes to hosting virtual locations in each app. Alvin Wang Graylin, HTC’s China President, admitted that it’s still early stage, but the goal is to eventually offer a consistent experience across all five apps. Until then, it’s hard to assess HTC’s foray into the cloud software business. Maybe partnering with the leaders in each of those VR sectors will be easier than building everything from ground up like Peter Chou’s XRSpace is doing, but it’s the end result that matters. We shall see.

HTC

Casual users who only need basic features will be able to grab a free version of Vive XR Suite from various VR and non-VR app stores (you may also find this suite pre-installed on an HP business PC or laptop in the future), whereas commercial users can subscribe to Vive XR Suite Pro on Viveport — pricing to be announced later — for the creator-level capabilities. The service will be launching in China first in Q3 2020, with other regions to follow afterwards, though beta versions of each app will be available ahead of time as well.

The headset will roll out globally from April 16th to May 18th, retailing for $549/£549. The external tracking faceplate, compatible with base station versions 1.0 or 2.0 as well as the original Vive or Vive Pro controllers, will be available from between late April and June, with a price of $199/£199. Both will also come with six months of free Viveport Infinity, HTC’s unlimited VR subscription.

The game is generally free for Valve Index headset owners, although that device is basically out of stock everywhere — you’ll be waiting a while for it if you put an order in now. Of course, $899 for the Cosmos Elite is a hefty sum to part with for the sake of a free game, but if you’re planning on upgrading your kit anyway to enjoy the game to its fullest potential, this offer certainly sweetens the deal.

Unlike its more affordable sibling and the original Cosmos, the Cosmos Elite comes preinstalled with an External Tracking Faceplate that allows 360-degree tracking of a whole room. The faceplate, which will also be available on its own for $199 next quarter, is filled with sensors and relies on the device’s accompanying SteamVR base stations for high-precision tracking.

As you can guess, Cosmos Elite costs a bit more than its siblings, since it already comes with a faceplate. A bundle with two base stations, a pair of controllers and built-in earphones will set you back $899. HTC has also revealed on Twitter with its pre-order reminder that the device will start shipping on March 18th.

COSMOS Elite is now available for preorder, shipping on March 18th. Experience the most precise tracking, crystal clear resolution, comfortable fit and flip up design. https://t.co/p9FlkE3VYG#HTCVIVE#HTCVIVECosmos#CosmoeElite pic.twitter.com/GnZjt2A7t7

— HTC VIVE (@htcvive) February 24, 2020

Starting off with the entry-level Vive Cosmos Play, eagle-eyed readers may already notice that this is the same design as the Cosmos in its teaser form back at CES 2019. Rather than packing six tracking cameras, the Cosmos Play only comes with four, so chances are there will be a slight drop in tracking performance. That said, HTC insists that this is still great for the likes of Viveport Video and Angry Birds VR. Another trade-off here is the lack of built-in headphones, but you can always just plug your own ones in.

Fortunately, you still get the same 2,880 x 1,700 LCD with a 110-degree field-of-view and 90Hz refresh rate, making it “the best VR display I’ve ever seen,” according to our very own Devindra Hardawar. Likewise, the headset has kept the flip-up visor, which is particularly handy for those who are trying VR for the first time. This is why the Cosmos Play is aimed at the likes of education, art and museum environments. It’s also worth mentioning that you’ll still be able to add the Vive Wireless Adapter to any of the headsets across the Cosmos family, though the target audience for the Cosmos Play may not go this far.

Sadly, there’s no word on pricing nor date just yet, but here’s hoping the bundle — with two Cosmos controllers included — will cost somewhat closer to the $400 price point offered by HTC’s main rival.

Next, we have the Vive Cosmos Elite, which is clearly made with gamers in mind. Rather than using the Cosmos’ inside-out tracking, the Elite’s headset comes preinstalled with an External Tracking Faceplate (the same one HTC teased back in September) that can be paired with both generations of SteamVR base stations for higher precision. The Elite bundle includes two 1.0 base stations along with a pair of Vive controllers plus built-in headphones, and it’ll cost NT$29,900 when it launches later this quarter (this is around US$990; US local price will likely be lower). You can pre-order from February 24th and get two months of free Viveport Infinity subscription.

In the following quarter, existing Cosmos owners can also upgrade with the External Tracking Faceplate for NT$6,600 (about $219) per piece, but they’ll obviously need to source the base stations and Vive or Vive Pro controllers as well. This upgrade path makes sense to those who own a Vive kit and a Vive Cosmos, as the latter would then add a sharper display plus a handy flip-up visor to the sturdy motion tracking experience.

Last but not least, we have the Vive Cosmos XR which, as the name implies, is designed to bring mixed reality experience to a VR headset. This business-focused faceplate is essentially the Cosmos Play (so just four tracking cameras) with two additional high-resolution passthrough cameras on the front, which apparently deliver passthrough field of view of up to 100 degrees. That’s a lot higher than the field of view on the current crop of mixed reality headsets like Hololens 2 and Magic Leap, thus making VR collaboration more versatile, especially when you want to check out virtual objects in the real-world environment using the Vive Sync collaboration platform.

But then again, considering how those mixed reality devices offer real-world vision instead of mixing that onto a display, there are certain benefits that the Cosmos XR may not be able to provide. We have to assume that there’s bound to be some latency between the real world and the version rendered in front of our eyes. We shall see what the developers say when they get hold of the developer kit in Q2 this year, and more info about this upcoming device will be released at GDC in March.

The company speculated that people were “having fun creating misinformation” to fire up the community. There have been other rumors, including Valve News Network’s claim that it had leaked L4D3 concept art and screenshots.

This is bound to be disappointing news if you have fond memories of L4D‘s desperate escapes, last-minute rescues and valiant last stands. Valve clearly sympathized with gamers by saying that it “unfortunately” wasn’t working on a sequel, though. And look at it this way: you’re probably doing pretty well if you have to ‘make do’ with a new Half-Life game.