Why would they deal with HTC and not just Steam in general.
I have had Vive since day 1. I am never touching anything HTC again. I'm happy enough with the device and technology I have- but the HTC software is horrendous and there's no place for it. I've heard just horror story after horror story of HTC customer service / repair, wanting $200 for a new controller etc.
Vive Pro is a complete joke, in price.
HTC hasn't done anything positive since the release of the original vive.
You might notice HTC Vive seems to be distancing themselves from Steam, including focusing pretty much entirely on their own Viveport platform. Though I'm not sure why, that seems to be the mentality behind their current direction.
To non-gamers, Steam looks kinda wacky - there's crazy popups, really intense graphics, nonstandard UIs, and it has to update most times it launches. It's also blocked on lots of networks - businesses, schools, etc. I personally love Steam and its craziness, but that's the main reason - HTC wants Vive to become mainstream and to capitalize on other uses for VR besides gaming.
HTC Vive is focusing on Viveport for the same reason Epic, Ubisoft, and Oculus have: They want to take the sales away from Steam. We are watching the same thing happening with Netflix verses every television company (CBS, HBO, etc) making their own streaming service fiefdom. Netflix and Steam beat the other companies for distribution by years and they don't like that. Re-fragmentation.
A commonly voiced complaint about current VR gear is that it's too expensive for mainstream adoption. HTC doesn't have a Facebook backing it, so it can't just subsidize the hardware to build market share - unless it finds another revenue stream. The obvious candidate (see game console economics) is the complementary good [1]: VR software. Hence HTC Studios and Viveport.
I have had Vive since day 1. I am never touching anything HTC again. I'm happy enough with the device and technology I have- but the HTC software is horrendous and there's no place for it. I've heard just horror story after horror story of HTC customer service / repair, wanting $200 for a new controller etc.
Vive Pro is a complete joke, in price.
HTC hasn't done anything positive since the release of the original vive.