Facebook buys Oculus VR

[Krenum]

A visionary is one who defines the future he or she wishes to see by acting on it. Whether that means inventing futures or investing in futures doesn't matter.

By that explanation that would make every person who thinks about doing something tomorrow and acting upon it the next day a visionary.

 

[wonderfield]

I think that's an overly pedantic interpretation for the sake of being argumentative.

 

[Krenum]

I think that's an overly pedantic interpretation for the sake of being argumentative.

Maybe you're right. I don't like the guy, then again, I don't like anyone who rides on the coat tails of other people. To me that sounds like what he is doing. He will destroy the original vision of this product & I fear it will go the way of 3D as just another gimmick.

 

[wonderfield]

I'm about as optimistic about the situation as you are. I've not yet cancelled my DK2 pre-order, but I'm certainly on the fence about it. And, truth told, I really have nothing against Facebook as a company.

Whether Facebook ownership ends up hurting VR in general I can't say. If anything, it may drive greater competition, and that tends to be a positive thing. I don't care too terribly about Oculus not leading the charge so long as the actual HMDs (being put out by whatever company) are good products. I do think Luckey getting forced out of the company is a simple inevitability, though, and I think VR in certain aspects is going to be worse for it. Either Luckey is a sellout or he's simply ignorant of what he's done to his own pursuits.

 

[Youn]

I was a little sad at first, but now I'm not really worried... like some have said there is more competition now, and I've never had huge loyalty towards Oculus in particular... if they bring the goods then great... if not, then I expect someone else will

 

[Spidey329]

I don't think FB ownership will hurt this device. It's an odd purchase for them, yes. But I doubt anything will change except the fact they gained capital.

There's so many other devices that are being developed around the Oculus that it is a promising time for VR. The Omnitread, the gun system, and that pressure vest all seem to be steps towards making a kickass immersion system.

 

[Vielgus-Kutas]

...But I doubt anything will change except the fact they gained capital.

ummm... let's see, if i sell you a bike, you think im gonna use the money you paid me for it to fix and hotrod your bike? doesn't make a lot of sense to me, ...oculus should refund all the money they got from the community to get this project off the ground, and issue refunds for all the dev kits that people want to return

 

[DPI]

I'm about as optimistic about the situation as you are. I've not yet cancelled my DK2 pre-order, but I'm certainly on the fence about it. And, truth told, I really have nothing against Facebook as a company.

Whether Facebook ownership ends up hurting VR in general I can't say. If anything, it may drive greater competition, and that tends to be a positive thing. I don't care too terribly about Oculus not leading the charge so long as the actual HMDs (being put out by whatever company) are good products. I do think Luckey getting forced out of the company is a simple inevitability, though, and I think VR in certain aspects is going to be worse for it. Either Luckey is a sellout or he's simply ignorant of what he's done to his own pursuits.

I agree. I've read enough from him to see that he's very naive in a lot of ways, which I attribute to young his age. He's a smart guy and credit where its due, but naive.

I'm a little more pragmatic now about this buyout than I initially was. Even if FB finds a way to screw it up and piss everyone off, the cash injection will still have done more for trailblazing and raising the bar than OculusVR would otherwise have been able to do just selling dev units and trying to appease lower tier venture capitalists. And more importantly, if FB pisses everyone off then they'll simply be creating an opportunity for a competitor that's more focused on the gaming community.

 

[acerbic]

Double post

 

[acerbic]

I'm about as optimistic about the situation as you are. I've not yet cancelled my DK2 pre-order, but I'm certainly on the fence about it. And, truth told, I really have nothing against Facebook as a company.

Whether Facebook ownership ends up hurting VR in general I can't say. If anything, it may drive greater competition, and that tends to be a positive thing. I don't care too terribly about Oculus not leading the charge so long as the actual HMDs (being put out by whatever company) are good products. I do think Luckey getting forced out of the company is a simple inevitability, though, and I think VR in certain aspects is going to be worse for it. Either Luckey is a sellout or he's simply ignorant of what he's done to his own pursuits.

The future of VR was NEVER gaming, and certainly not PC gaming of all things. Don't kid yourself at all here, PC gaming was never the point, never the goal, never a concern, and never where the real money is.

The real money is in VR business meetings, VR education for stuff like medical training, VR movies, VR seats at an NBA game, VR seats in car races, VR voice calls from your phone. Video games, LOL, especially on the PC double fucking LOL. That doesn't matter at all compared to the above, and this was always going to happen. The future of VR in gaming is console accessories bound to their specific system first, with a distant second being after market PC stuff that may or may not work but its proprietary as hell to help sell other stuff. AKA like PhysX or the TWIMTB played program. If you thought this was ever about PC gaming, you're stupid and deserved to have your money taken.

EDIT- You should be happy about this. If it had stayed PC gaming only it would have been nerd tech from the crowd that still thinks desktops are remotely relevant in todays world, might as well have hooked it up to a type writer. Facebook means things that make real money, like say 20 bucks for a ring side VR seat at a top boxing match are possible, and that the people who count in the world are taking it seriously. Once the announcement was made people at my work already talked about VR training medical staff in advance procedures and R&D budgets for it, that would never happen if it was stuck with the nerd brigade on desktops. If you want VR technology, moving out of the ghetto of high end PC gaming niche devices and into technology people actually care about had to be done. I hate facebook as much as anyone else and I don't have an account, but they are a major player, and this is major money, which means people are taking all of this seriously now.

Left as a PC gaming only thing it would have died off or been viewed as an esoteric product for people you don't want to hang around. Moving it to facebook means it's important to the world, the education sector, and the business sector. They can still fuck it up, but it might just be the best possible thing that's happened to VR tech.

 

[Pringle]

The future of VR was NEVER gaming, and certainly not PC gaming of all things. Don't kid yourself at all here, PC gaming was never the point, never the goal, never a concern, and never where the real money is.

The real money is in VR business meetings, VR education for stuff like medical training, VR movies, VR seats at an NBA game, VR seats in car races, VR voice calls from your phone. Video games, LOL, especially on the PC double fucking LOL. That doesn't matter at all compared to the above, and this was always going to happen.

The future of VR in gaming is console accessories bound to their specific system first, with a distant second being after market PC stuff that may or may not work but its proprietary as hell to help sell other stuff. AKA like PhysX or the TWIMTB played program.

If you thought this was ever about PC gaming, you're stupid and deserved to have your money taken.

Who said VR was just about gaming? You're putting words into other's mouth for sake of an argument that isn't here.

 

[acerbic]

Who said VR was just about gaming? You're putting words into other's mouth for sake of an argument that isn't here.

If it's not for gaming than there should be zero complaints about it moving away from gaming into the hands of facebook.

 

[Pringle]

If it's not for gaming than there should be zero complaints about it moving away from gaming into the hands of facebook.

Then you're the one being narrow minded, if you really believe people's concerns over Facebook's purchase are solely because of gaming.

 

[cageymaru]

What does Facebook do besides sell advertising and personal data to companies? I couldn't imagine a person actually entering truthful data into the Facebook database. I sure as hell couldn't imagine a company requiring that their employees enter truthful data into it so that they can have a VR meeting on Facebook.

Facebook could go the way of MySpace tomorrow if the younger generation isn't enthralled with them.

 

[wonderfield]

The real money is in VR business meetings, VR education for stuff like medical training, VR movies, VR seats at an NBA game, VR seats in car races, VR voice calls from your phone.

Most of these applications are the domain of augmented reality, not virtual reality. The primary application of consumerized VR is, always has been, and, for the most part, always will be, games. It's the obvious use case, and the only one Luckey really cares all that much about. Architecture and design visualization is the other obvious use case, and the Rift is already being used in those domains (it's a key part of what drives Tesla's design and engineering).

Left as a PC gaming only thing it would have died off or been viewed as an esoteric product for people you don't want to hang around. Moving it to facebook means it's important to the world, the education sector, and the business sector. They can still fuck it up, but it might just be the best possible thing that's happened to VR tech.

No one's said that the Rift should've remained a PC gaming-only accessory. Not Oculus; not anyone here to my knowledge. Can you actually find anyone who's said as much?

 

[Pringle]

Most of these applications are the domain of augmented reality, not virtual reality. The primary application of consumerized VR is, always has been, and, for the most part, always will be, games. It's the obvious use case, and the only one Luckey really cares all that much about. Architecture and design visualization is the other obvious use case, and the Rift is already being used in those domains (it's a key part of what drives Tesla's design and engineering).


No one's said that the Rift should've remained a PC gaming-only accessory. Not Oculus; not anyone here to my knowledge. Can you actually find anyone who's said as much?

He cannot. Hence, the follow up post

If it's not for gaming than there should be zero complaints about it moving away from gaming into the hands of facebook.

 

[BladeVenom]

Facebook could go the way of MySpace tomorrow if the younger generation isn't enthralled with them.

The younger generation is no longer enthralled with Facebook, now that their parents and grandparents are all on it.