Facebook to Buy Oculus VR

My first reaction is NOOOO, but after more thought my reaction is .. hmmmmmmm, mainstream adoption far outweighs some indy slow growing prototype approach. If Facebook can get VR tech in the face of the average consumer, well damn I say ... thats a vehicle I can get behind.

Also, FB behind Oculus now means certain funding and clearly they will pump resources into the company so we should see product coming into consumer grade MUCH sooner than with private funding.

Still though its FB, so my instinct is to hate and cringe and cry but ... I think I can understand that this is probably what VR needed, even though many of us would pretend otherwise.
 
While i laugh, i'd sell out anything i was working on for 2bn no problem. Wouldnt give a rats ass what happened to it after that.
 
Ok. It is pretty clear that the [H] crowd is not big fan of Facebook...

I am still very excited about the technology.
 
RadXge said:
Ok. It is pretty clear that the [H] crowd is not big fan of Facebook...

I am still very excited about the technology.
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Same. I'm not a fan of a lot of what Facebook does but they have the money to do this and Zuckerberg takes a long view when it comes to things. It isn't likely that FB will force Oculus to rush the Rift in order to make their money back and FB's financial resources should allow them to get the supplies they need to make an affordable consumer version.
 
Well you can pretty much guarantee VR games will be ad driven and all of your data will be sent to the NSA.
 
jophde said:
It's such a shame. I was just starting to think they were truly game changer.
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They still can be. Quite frankly VR is wasted as just gaming tech. There is potential FAR beyond just games. The fact that Facebook paid $2 billion for the company seems to say that they think the same thing. Anyone that wants to can develop for the Rift, Oculus and Facebook have zero say once they sell the development kit. The Rift was never just going to be for gaming, they were trying to bring in too much money for that. It was inevitable that someone with deep pockets would pick them up. I view Facebook as a better option than some random venture capital firm that will force Oculus to speed up development in order to make a quick turn around on their money. It is also better for the tech itself that they aren't bought by someone like Valve who's focus would be entirely on gaming.
 
RadXge said:
Ok. It is pretty clear that the [H] crowd is not big fan of Facebook...

I am still very excited about the technology.
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Facebook is not a company I'd associate with PC gaming and simulation. I doubt Facebook is looking to go into PC gaming anytime soon, therefore chances are it's future development would be focused elsewhere.

However the community that supported them were mostly driven by the potential it had to enhance video gaming, no one was thinking about browsing Facebook or accessing the internet in VR.
 
TheMadHatterXxX said:
OMFG what a sellout why why why....I would've been happier if they made a deal with Valve instead. :mad:
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Can't blame them but we're fucked. Fucking MS would've been infinitely better. Probably everyone except the guys at Oculus and fb is rightfully pissed right now.

byeh8tD.gif
 
Hornet said:
Facebook is not a company I'd associate with PC gaming and simulation. I doubt Facebook is looking to go into PC gaming anytime soon, therefore chances are it's future development would be focused elsewhere.

However the community that supported them were mostly driven by the potential it had to enhance video gaming, no one was thinking about browsing Facebook or accessing the internet in VR.
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Game developers can still make games for it. What about this buy out prevents people from making games on the Rift?
 
Derangel said:
Game developers can still make games for it. What about this buy out prevents people from making games on the Rift?
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The problem is the focus on the rift will go from something that probably would have chances of being decent to something that will have most corners cut to try to drive the price down. Focus will shift and wander. In the end like so many products these big companies buy they will screw it up and in the end 2 billion will be squandered and gamers will have lost as well.
 
rudy said:
The problem is the focus on the rift will go from something that probably would have chances of being decent to something that will have most corners cut to try to drive the price down. Focus will shift and wander. In the end like so many products these big companies buy they will screw it up and in the end 2 billion will be squandered and gamers will have lost as well.
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Oculus has stated numerous times that they want to make an affordable consumer version of the Rift. FB's massive resources could easily enable them to get the volume discounts they need to make it possible. Oculus has only managed to pull in around $100 million in private funding over the years, mostly from venture capitalists. That is a good bit of money, but it is also very unreliable money. Any one of those VCs could just as easily force Oculus to abandon gaming or to rush a super cheap and crappy version of the Rift to market for quick profit and to capitalize on the hype. The VCs could also simply decide that Oculus is no longer worth funding and walk away, writing off their relatively small investment but sinking Oculus.
 
Chances are one of those VCs forced them to take this deal....
 
Yes, because most people would turn down a TWO BILLION dollar buyout.
 
rudy said:
Chances are one of those VCs forced them to take this deal....
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This. When you take $100 million in funding, you get heavily pressured to build valuation or start making money. They were in way deeper than just being a well funded hobbyist product many people wanted it to be.
 
ocellaris said:
This. When you take $100 million in funding, you get heavily pressured to build valuation or start making money. They were in way deeper than just being a well funded hobbyist product many people wanted it to be.
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Yeah. They made what 2-3 million from Kickstarter? They probably burned through all of that before they even sent out the first unit to backers. Oculus wants to get away from using cell phone parts for the Rift and manufacture their own stuff, not chance in hell of that happening on $100m in funding. As just a well funded hobbyist product the Rift probably would have had the same fate as things like the Novint Falcon, really great and fascinating tech with little real impart on the market.
 
At first I was like wtf, but after thinking about it I see this as a good thing. Here's what Zuckerberg posted:

"I'm excited to announce that we've agreed to acquire Oculus VR, the leader in virtual reality technology.

Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. For the past few years, this has mostly meant building mobile apps that help you share with the people you care about. We have a lot more to do on mobile, but at this point we feel we're in a position where we can start focusing on what platforms will come next to enable even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences.

This is where Oculus comes in. They build virtual reality technology, like the Oculus Rift headset. When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you're actually present in another place with other people. People who try it say it's different from anything they've ever experienced in their lives.

Oculus's mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their technology opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences.

Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won't be changing and we hope to accelerate. The Rift is highly anticipated by the gaming community, and there's a lot of interest from developers in building for this platform. We're going to focus on helping Oculus build out their product and develop partnerships to support more games. Oculus will continue operating independently within Facebook to achieve this.

But this is just the start. After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.

This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.

These are just some of the potential uses. By working with developers and partners across the industry, together we can build many more. One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people.

Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the internet was also once a dream, and so were computers and smartphones. The future is coming and we have a chance to build it together. I can't wait to start working with the whole team at Oculus to bring this future to the world, and to unlock new worlds for all of us."
 
Wow so Minecraft notch already backed out and wanted to release it for Oculus but not after FB shit bought it up.. i agree with him fb is creepy....
 
Mortuus said:
Wow so Minecraft notch already backed out and wanted to release it for Oculus but not after FB shit bought it up.. i agree with him fb is creepy....
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I can almost guarantee that if official support isn't made than some modder will figure it out.

still: I was quite looking forward to a retail release of the Rift, despite the fact that the 3d would be wasted on me. Now? Not so much.
 
Derangel said:
They still can be. Quite frankly VR is wasted as just gaming tech. There is potential FAR beyond just games. The fact that Facebook paid $2 billion for the company seems to say that they think the same thing. Anyone that wants to can develop for the Rift, Oculus and Facebook have zero say once they sell the development kit. The Rift was never just going to be for gaming, they were trying to bring in too much money for that. It was inevitable that someone with deep pockets would pick them up. I view Facebook as a better option than some random venture capital firm that will force Oculus to speed up development in order to make a quick turn around on their money. It is also better for the tech itself that they aren't bought by someone like Valve who's focus would be entirely on gaming.
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They also paid $19 billion for Whats App. Why? Because their business model requires them to have as many users generating as much data as possible. They also tried to buy Snapchat for much more than the RIft and they don't even have their own tech the whole thing is hosted on App Engine. All of the focus Rift had on games will be ripped out and they will be focused on making Facebook VR so that people keep using Facebook for everything and they can keep leveraging your data.

If they do allow games besides Farmville on the platform you can guarantee it will require Facebook Login and you to share everything with Facebook. I am just hoping Valve jumps on this for Steambox and rips of Rift. I don't trust Facebook with anything. The evidence of them willfully sharing data with NSA is irrefutable and I for one don't use their service.

This is another thing thats wrong with Kickstarter. Occulus raised my money off of the backs of hardcore gamers. Now they that they are on Facebooks tit it will definitely compromise the original goal.
 
Focker said:
At first I was like wtf, but after thinking about it I see this as a good thing.
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There is nothing from that PR statement that was not possible already with the device. They are merely taking ownership of it before the potential was tapped, ensuring they get a cut of whatever other people actually create for it. SDKs existed for the devs units and would have existed for the consumer ones. Now that SDK will have some FB integration (read: data mining) that will cost the devs another x% and consumers another chunk as well.

Plus ads.
 
I don't even think they will make facebook VR, I think they are just buying them because they plan to do something like google glass but they have no hardware or software experience in that. Wont surprise me at all if they just refocus half or all the team on making a google glass competitor. Think about it VR in its current forum is just way to impractical for anything the likes of your average facebooker is going to want to do. The TV industry couldn't even get people to up on 3D glasses. Anything that requires a seclusive head gear just wont fly.
 
Zuck's vision for the future of vr doesn't make too much sense.

what good is seeing a virtual doctor if they can't actually check you out? is the doctor's avatar going to check your virtual balls for lumps?

what good is a virtual classroom? face to face... as in.. a webcam? you get to look around at other people's avatars or something instead of actually listening to the lecture?

court side seat.. at a rendered game?

unless facebook decides to invest in some 3d 360degree camera tech, that can be remotely controlled by a user or is fast enough to shoot images to be rendered by the user's system. same w/ "sharing the experience" or whatever, these 3d/360 cameras will need to be portable. maybe some kind of dorky helmet w/ a bunch of cameras.

i guess that would be cool, you could wear your dorkcam and record an activity, so you can relive it later on in VR. but i don't see why that requires facebook.

so, if a software developer wants to be a billionaire just start developing an engine that can take 3d images, stitch them together and render them as a CG open world. Any hardware guys just need to invent dorkcam.

Edit: with that said, i don't mind the idea of Oculus getting a money injection. December of 2014 seems like a great release date.
 
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