HTC's Viveport to waive platform fee for devs in Q4

HTC Vive's VR game subscription business, Viveport, has announced it will waive its platform fee for developers entirely in Q4 of this year.

This is the second year in a row that HTC has eliminated the 30% platform fee in the final quarter, allowing 100% of the revenue from game sales to go straight to the developers. For Viveport's purposes, this period will last from October through the end of the year.

This promotion falls alongside Viveport's announcement today that its subscription service, which offers users their pick of five titles for $8.99 every month, is celebrating both its second anniversary and a 5x growth in subscribers since launch.

In an interview with GameDaily, Viveport president Rikard Steiber emphasized the importance of supporting developers to in turn grow the platform's audience.

"We need to build this ecosystem together, because if you have a significant amount of subscribers, then it's going to be a significant amount of revenue for developers, so we kind of need to build this ecosystem together, with them," he said. "And also, if you're a consumer, and you're picking Tilt Brush, or you're picking that indie developer, you know that your money is going to go to them. So you're supporting your favorite developer."

Last month, HTC Viveport expanded its library by announcing the implementation of Oculus Rift support, allowing titles compatible with the Rift to be published on the Vive as well through a simple opt-in from developers.