Viveport’s subscription cost is going up from $6.99 to $8.99 beginning March 22nd. Hurry up and subscribe if you want the $6.99 as current customers are more or less grandfathered in for 2018. Just don’t get too cozy with that price tag. It will almost certainly increase in 2019.
The question is whether this service is worth it to you. Viveport boasts 375 titles available now, but how many are fitness oriented? Read on to get our scoop on whether Viveport is truly worth your money.
New Benefits
The Viveport subscription is increasing in price, presumably, so HTC can make it better. The company has doubled down on VR and made it part of its mobile phone division, so we can expect Viveport to be the Vive’s ideal platform. Whether this means a divorce from Steam is speculation best left up to tech websites.
For fitness heads, here’s what you need to know. Members are now the only ones who have access to the weekend deals. We didn’t find an incredible amount of fitness titles already on the platform, but we did find a few to whet your appetite. The weekend deals exist outside of the subscription service, though, so that may or may not have lasting value. If you haven’t already followed Steam sales for VR titles, you definitely should. It might help bridge the gap if you choose not to member up.
HTC promises regular updates, but whether that means weekly, monthly or quarterly is anyone’s guess. We hope for at least monthly, or this will be a pretty stale service pretty quickly.
Members also get free codes for new games each month. This move brings Viveport more in line with PS Plus and Xbox Gold, which offer free games to premium members as well. Nice perk, but occasionally the free titles are duds.
Fitness Game Highlights
Arcade Saga
According to the VR Fitness Health Institute, you can expect to burn about 600 calories for every hour you play Arcade Saga. Not too shabby, especially considering this is actually three games in one: Fracture, Smash, and Bowshot.
We like that this game has a lot of hidden techniques that you can use to maximize your score. You will want to replay just to learn how to do it better, which is what makes games fun and interesting in the first place.
Knockout League
A bit more arcadey than Thrill of the Fight, Knockout League features nine opponents that scale in difficulty with three that will test you with their perfect guard. The presentation is a bit whacky, but the fitness potential is very real. You will need to stick and move if you want to avoid getting knocked out fast. These opponents don’t mess around, and now the game has an official release it’s finally the robust application it always wanted to be.
Final Soccer VR
Playing as either goalkeeper or striker, Final Soccer is a great soccer sim with some ridiculous gameplay options (like playing with more than one ball). It also works with a mobile app designed for couch coop play, so get your friends or a spouse to fling some soccer balls at you to test your agility.
Virtual Sports
We tested this game in its early days and found it somewhat lacking. We love the concept of tennis and ping pong, and they are good for an upper body workout, but the teleportation function killed the room-scale aspect and hurt fitness potential. The game’s locomotion has improved since then, and there is a ton of single-player content with AI opponents and career modes.
Racket NX
You will need quick reactions and a bit of strength to get the ball up to optimal speed in Racket NX. The arena is all around you, so you will need to remain alert and at the ready, and you will want to stay mobile. We think the fitness potential is solid, but you should make sure you tighten up those wrist straps to avoid flinging your remote off into the wall or the TV.
Final Thoughts
In general, Viveport seems geared more toward the general gamer than the fitness enthusiast. While we found some popular titles that are great for exercise, like Arcade Saga and Knockout League, the selection was slim. We also noticed a lot of Chinese titles. Nothing against Chinese developers, but glossing over reviews we noticed many users reporting few options for English translations.
Overall, Viveport needs to grow as a subscription service before it adds real value to the fitness gamer. But if you’re someone who bought VR to game, and finds fitness to be a wonderful side effect, Viveport does give you a Netflix experience for game downloads in VR. Viveport has a simple-to-navigate marketplace too but annoyingly doesn’t feature a method of filtering by star ratings.
One side note to consider: Viveport is giving roughly $1.26 to a developer each month you use their game. If you’re the kind of person who believes in supporting with your wallet, Viveport could have value just in terms of supporting your favorite developers. This market is new, and a lot of titles are made by small teams who could use that regular income from users like you.
