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Facebook has acquired Oculus VR for 2 Billion US Dollars

D

Dennis

Banned
Nzyme32 said:
Palmer Luckey via the r/oculus subreddit

I’ve always loved games. They’re windows into worlds that let us travel somewhere fantastic. My foray into virtual reality was driven by a desire to enhance my gaming experience; to make my rig more than just a window to these worlds, to actually let me step inside them. As time went on, I realized that VR technology wasn’t just possible, it was almost ready to move into the mainstream. All it needed was the right push.
We started Oculus VR with the vision of making virtual reality affordable and accessible, to allow everyone to experience the impossible. With the help of an incredible community, we’ve received orders for over 75,000 development kits from game developers, content creators, and artists around the world. When Facebook first approached us about partnering, I was skeptical. As I learned more about the company and its vision and spoke with Mark, the partnership not only made sense, but became the clear and obvious path to delivering virtual reality to everyone. Facebook was founded with the vision of making the world a more connected place. Virtual reality is a medium that allows us to share experiences with others in ways that were never before possible.
Facebook is run in an open way that’s aligned with Oculus’ culture. Over the last decade, Mark and Facebook have been champions of open software and hardware, pushing the envelope of innovation for the entire tech industry. As Facebook has grown, they’ve continued to invest in efforts like with the Open Compute Project, their initiative that aims to drive innovation and reduce the cost of computing infrastructure across the industry. This is a team that’s used to making bold bets on the future.
In the end, I kept coming back to a question we always ask ourselves every day at Oculus: what’s best for the future of virtual reality? Partnering with Mark and the Facebook team is a unique and powerful opportunity. The partnership accelerates our vision, allows us to execute on some of our most creative ideas and take risks that were otherwise impossible. Most importantly, it means a better Oculus Rift with fewer compromises even faster than we anticipated.
Very little changes day-to-day at Oculus, although we’ll have substantially more resources to build the right team. If you want to come work on these hard problems in computer vision, graphics, input, and audio, please apply!
This is a special moment for the gaming industry — Oculus’ somewhat unpredictable future just became crystal clear: virtual reality is coming, and it’s going to change the way we play games forever.
I’m obsessed with VR. I spend every day pushing further, and every night dreaming of where we are going. Even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined we’d come so far so fast.
I’m proud to be a member of this community — thank you all for carrying virtual reality and gaming forward and trusting in us to deliver. We won’t let you down.
Click to expand...

Translation: THEY PAID US $2,000,000,000!
 
H

Harry_Tequila

Member
You can never trust the public statements in situations like this. They're always talking about how they realised that they share a common vision and decided to partner up, blah, blah, blah.

I wonder if Occulus have been having trouble getting the technology to work in a version which would actually be affordable for consumers... If so then they may have decided that they needed an injection of money in order to give them the time to produce something which they can actually sell to people for less than $500.

They closed a round of funding not too long ago so I would have thought they'd have the money to keep going for a while but perhaps they're simply burring through it too fast and were forced to look for further investment.

Pretty rubbish news anyway. Facebook kills innovation.
 
R

Randdalf

Member
Honestly, I feel as though this is kind of a coup for Facebook. Pretty sure Oculus could have waited for at least a few more years before selling, and they would have made a load more money.
 
Z

Ziltoid

Unconfirmed Member
So OR will now always show forced targeted ads and forward user data to the NSA.

But seriously, they better have a hands-off approach and let the OR team do their thing, or else the backlash will bite them in the ass.
 
S

SummitAve

Banned
They now have more money to put towards their ideas than they could have ever had by themselves. I see the potential, but who knows how it will work out. Congrats to the hardworking folks at Oculus though, it's much deserved.
 
TheMan

TheMan

Member
i see this as a good thing. just because facebook bought this, that doesn't mean that developers can't make games for it. facebook's backing will allow for the device to gain MASSIVE exposure and a good chance at becoming a popular, well-accepted device. This in turn may legitimize VR as a proper platform, leading to the development of all sorts of cool games and experiences.
 
Cramoss

Cramoss

Member
KXCtFGB.gif
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
As an investor in oculus through kickstarter, I'm interested to find out what my share will be. exciting times.

:/


Anyone know what percentage of oculus is owned by Palmer, and therefore what he stands to make from this?
 
C

Coolwhip

Banned
I don't see the connection between Facebook and VR other than some creepy world domination motives. Or maybe just one too rich company doing whatever with their money.
 
E

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
This is so strange, I think core gamers find it threatening because Facebook likely will want to broaden the scope of it's applications, and by broaden the scope that also likely means marginalize it's role as a core gaming peripheral.

jim-jam bongs said:
Sony fanboy wankfest in this thread is pretty gross.
Click to expand...
As usual.
 
D

Durante

Member
Nzyme32 said:
Palmer Luckey via the r/oculus subreddit

I’ve always loved games. They’re windows into worlds that let us travel somewhere fantastic. My foray into virtual reality was driven by a desire to enhance my gaming experience; to make my rig more than just a window to these worlds, to actually let me step inside them. As time went on, I realized that VR technology wasn’t just possible, it was almost ready to move into the mainstream. All it needed was the right push.
We started Oculus VR with the vision of making virtual reality affordable and accessible, to allow everyone to experience the impossible. With the help of an incredible community, we’ve received orders for over 75,000 development kits from game developers, content creators, and artists around the world. When Facebook first approached us about partnering, I was skeptical. As I learned more about the company and its vision and spoke with Mark, the partnership not only made sense, but became the clear and obvious path to delivering virtual reality to everyone. Facebook was founded with the vision of making the world a more connected place. Virtual reality is a medium that allows us to share experiences with others in ways that were never before possible.
Facebook is run in an open way that’s aligned with Oculus’ culture. Over the last decade, Mark and Facebook have been champions of open software and hardware, pushing the envelope of innovation for the entire tech industry. As Facebook has grown, they’ve continued to invest in efforts like with the Open Compute Project, their initiative that aims to drive innovation and reduce the cost of computing infrastructure across the industry. This is a team that’s used to making bold bets on the future.
In the end, I kept coming back to a question we always ask ourselves every day at Oculus: what’s best for the future of virtual reality? Partnering with Mark and the Facebook team is a unique and powerful opportunity. The partnership accelerates our vision, allows us to execute on some of our most creative ideas and take risks that were otherwise impossible. Most importantly, it means a better Oculus Rift with fewer compromises even faster than we anticipated.
Very little changes day-to-day at Oculus, although we’ll have substantially more resources to build the right team. If you want to come work on these hard problems in computer vision, graphics, input, and audio, please apply!
This is a special moment for the gaming industry — Oculus’ somewhat unpredictable future just became crystal clear: virtual reality is coming, and it’s going to change the way we play games forever.
I’m obsessed with VR. I spend every day pushing further, and every night dreaming of where we are going. Even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined we’d come so far so fast.
I’m proud to be a member of this community — thank you all for carrying virtual reality and gaming forward and trusting in us to deliver. We won’t let you down.
Click to expand...
I_Want_to_Believe.png
 
M

Mesoian

Member
Kandinsky said:
I dont get it, why is this a big win for Sony?.
Click to expand...

Gaming focus for Occulus will likely be put on the backburner, Sony's the only game in town with VR gaming in the pipeline. They went from having very skilled adversaries with a lot of time and experience in the field to having those people refocusing their efforts for mass consumption.

Sony is going to own VR gaming for a minute and probably be able to adapt whatever occulus ends up changing in their own methodology.

Gaming wise, with things as they are now, Sony is the only player in the game.
 
J

jorgeton

Member
Notlikethis.gif

I foresee some mighty creepy applications coming out of this. All users on Facebook have essentially signed away their privacy. Who knows how this vr tech will be used to further dehumanize and exploit us.

Time to move to a cave in the pacific north west.
 
C

catotheyounger

Member
To put this in perspective, LucasFilms and the Star Wars brand was bought by Disney for 4billion, and Marvel for 4.6billion. Oculus, in a year, went from a 2.5million Kickstarter to half of what it costs to own Marvel or Star Wars.

Insane how this company rose.
 
D

Deleted member 13876

Unconfirmed Member
Kurdel said:
"Oculus will continue operating independently within Facebook"

You need to be paranoid or use some serious motivated reasoning to assume anything else...
Click to expand...

I stand by what I said. The Yahoo example of them shutting down 31 out 38 acquired startups recently is a good example. This type of messaging is what you do when you acquire something people will be skeptical about. It could very well be that they are fully behind that statement right now, but Facebook is a publicly traded company and investors can have large says over strategy.
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Nzyme32 said:
Palmer Luckey via the r/oculus subreddit

I’ve always loved games. They’re windows into worlds that let us travel somewhere fantastic. My foray into virtual reality was driven by a desire to enhance my gaming experience; to make my rig more than just a window to these worlds, to actually let me step inside them. As time went on, I realized that VR technology wasn’t just possible, it was almost ready to move into the mainstream. All it needed was the right push.
We started Oculus VR with the vision of making virtual reality affordable and accessible, to allow everyone to experience the impossible. With the help of an incredible community, we’ve received orders for over 75,000 development kits from game developers, content creators, and artists around the world. When Facebook first approached us about partnering, I was skeptical. As I learned more about the company and its vision and spoke with Mark, the partnership not only made sense, but became the clear and obvious path to delivering virtual reality to everyone. Facebook was founded with the vision of making the world a more connected place. Virtual reality is a medium that allows us to share experiences with others in ways that were never before possible.
Facebook is run in an open way that’s aligned with Oculus’ culture. Over the last decade, Mark and Facebook have been champions of open software and hardware, pushing the envelope of innovation for the entire tech industry. As Facebook has grown, they’ve continued to invest in efforts like with the Open Compute Project, their initiative that aims to drive innovation and reduce the cost of computing infrastructure across the industry. This is a team that’s used to making bold bets on the future.
In the end, I kept coming back to a question we always ask ourselves every day at Oculus: what’s best for the future of virtual reality? Partnering with Mark and the Facebook team is a unique and powerful opportunity. The partnership accelerates our vision, allows us to execute on some of our most creative ideas and take risks that were otherwise impossible. Most importantly, it means a better Oculus Rift with fewer compromises even faster than we anticipated.
Very little changes day-to-day at Oculus, although we’ll have substantially more resources to build the right team. If you want to come work on these hard problems in computer vision, graphics, input, and audio, please apply!
This is a special moment for the gaming industry — Oculus’ somewhat unpredictable future just became crystal clear: virtual reality is coming, and it’s going to change the way we play games forever.
I’m obsessed with VR. I spend every day pushing further, and every night dreaming of where we are going. Even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined we’d come so far so fast.
I’m proud to be a member of this community — thank you all for carrying virtual reality and gaming forward and trusting in us to deliver. We won’t let you down.
Click to expand...

Can we trust him though?
 
Hari Seldon

Hari Seldon

Member
BRocknRolla said:
Yeah... Probably.

I'm down with VR for gaming, and I'm down with things like tele-medicine or getting qualified teachers to places that need them via VR, but all the social media bullshit that I'm sure is going to take up 90% of this forward momentum... That's depressing. It's going to be straight up Read Player One in here.
Click to expand...

Yeah who the fuck wants to talk to their fatass friends in VR? I didn't ask for this!!!
 
Angry Fork

Angry Fork

Member
This is pretty devastating, wow. I was so excited for this thing and now I don't want to touch it for fear of what it will become.
 
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