Though consumer pre-orders won't open until February 29, developer kits of the HTC Vive Pre have begun shipping. The news was announced by Valve on the Steam community blog:
"The HTC Vive Pre is now making its way to developers’ studios around the world. If you’ve been working with us to build content using the first version of our dev kit, check your inbox for the key and instructions you’ll use to upgrade that old kit to a new Vive PRE."
The Vive consumer unit was originally meant to ship at the end of 2015, however a delay to integrate a front-facing camera pushed the date back to April. With developers now getting their hands on the Vive Pre, we'll soon have some ideas on how that camera can be integrated into VR gaming experiences beyond simply allowing for pass-through visuals without the need to remove the headset.
The recent SteamVR Developer Showcase gave us a glimpse at what kind of room-scale VR experiences are already in the works, despite them being developed with the earlier Vive hardware.
