Developers can now apply to get a free Vive VR set from HTCand Valve

The Vive headset was HTC’s surprise for MWC 2015. Details were scarce, but it soon became apparent that HTCis dead serious about staking a claim in the virtual reality land grab. When Cher Wang took over as CEO from Peter Chou, she highlighted VR as HTC’s next big growth opportunity, similar to the smartphones boom beginning in the late 90’s.

While HTCrevealed the Vive at MWC, and its partner Valve shared more details about it at GDC 2015, it’s only now that developers can actually get their hands on the VR headset.

Valve announced on its website that the developer program for the Vive is now open. Unlike Oculus, which sells developer versions of its Rift kit to the public, Valve and HTCwill handpick the developers who will receive early access to the Vive, free of charge. If you have an interesting VR idea and you’d like to see it on the Vive, you can submit your application here.

Valve also opened a developer community page, where only selected developers can post, though the posts themselves are open to the public.

As for the commercial availability of the Vive, we’ve got the same “later this year” that HTChas announced a while ago. With Oculus/Samsung in the race, as well as a slew of low-tech solutions in the vein of Google Cardboard, the VR race could really heat up this year.