For those of you who fall into the wealthy early adopter demographic, you now have another ridiculously expensive option to join the virtual reality craze, as the HTC Vive is now available for pre-order at $799 with an official release date of April 5.

This price may be a bit shocking, especially for consumers who already thought Oculus Rift’s $599 price tag was a bit high, but the contents of the Vive box are slightly different than what comes with the Rift.

Here is everything that comes in the HTC Vive package:

• HTC Vive VR headset
• Two wireless motion controllers
• Two motion tracking base stations

Oculus Rift does come with an Xbox One controller, but its wireless motion controllers, Oculus Touch, will be sold separately when they are released later this year.

Is it worth it?

At this early stage, it may be hard for many people to justify the cost of high-end PC virtual reality.

While devices like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive can certainly offer a more graphically impressive experience than something like Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR, they also pose a significantly higher barrier to entry. Aside from the cost of the devices themselves, which are already hundreds of dollars more expensive than mobile VR devices, Rift and Vive also require powerful PCs that alone can cost well over $1000.

This makes it seem unlikely that the average consumer will be interested in high-end virtual reality, which reduces the chance that many developers will be interested in investing the time and resources required to create VR software.

And of course, while some consumers are certainly interested in the minute technical differences between Rift and Vive, content will be the real deciding factor for which device ultimately succeeds.

If you have enough disposable income and an insatiable desire to throw money that the latest technical gizmo, then now is a great time to get in on the ground floor of the VR revolution.

Meanwhile, the rest of us will have to wait for something a bit more affordable.

Photo by pestoverde