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[Beant]

"People just submitted it ... I don't know why ... They 'trust me' ... dumb fucks."

 

[Timeaisis]

This is only going to strengthen Sony's Morpheus, IMO. Kind of sucks for all those PC gamers getting ready for Oculus tech. We'll see how this all pans out. Hopefully they'll just let it lie and not have too much of an agenda.

Spoiler

What am I saying? It's facebook, of course they have some agenda. F2P VR games incoming

 

[Lunar15]

What a fucking era we live in.

Occulus Rift was kickstarted, no? This means we just had a $2 Billion dollar buyout of a company that was started through crowdfunding.

I mean, I know they raised capital through investors aside from the kickstarted funds, but still... just weird and wild stuff.

 

[Cyborgmatt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiZNSzWIaLo

 

[Marty Chinn]

I always thought that Oculus might not amount to much in this iteration, but never did I think it would be because of something like this....

 

[gofreak]

So... Good or bad thing? It's a good thing to have a gigantic corporation backing the Virtual reality future

Better than MS I guess

I think I'd have preferred MS. And that's me saying that They have an established interest in games, and at least post-Nadella, that doesn't seem to be going away.

I can't help but feel that in the space Facebook occupies, 'experiments' come and go a lot more easily.

 

[Lettuce]

Sony isnt going to save shit, im not sure why everyone thinks that Morpheus is the savior.

The PS4 will hold that thing back, it will have to produce at least 60fps for an immerse experience and render 2 1080p screen, the PS4 can just about to cope with 1 screen at 1080p@60fps. That shark demo is the most technically advanced the games will get, Morpheus isnt even in the same league as the OR

And MS VR unit would be even worse due to even less powerful hardware...whats the point

 

[Dirtbag]

I guess that locks this in as the next big thing, but I definitely share the disappointment in this thread.

 

[Raide]

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.

Investing into what they think might be the next big thing. If they do it right, Sony will get murdered. If they do it wrong, the craze will be over long before Sony make any traction and it will be like the 1990'd VR craze all over and waiting another 10+ years for it to reemerge.

 

[IAmRandom31]

So Oculus will now be the trojan for personal VR

Morpheus will be for Gaming VR

Got it

 

[iceatcs]

Oh wow. I have to trust Palmer Luckey then.

I hope it will go to the direction I want it to be.

 

[PIMPBYBLUD]

I don't know what to even think about this. It's so random.

 

[cookie-monster]

 

[mapla]

Facebook, like any other big technological company, has a large amount of cash which is waiting to use for buy companies and whatnot. All of us know about its purchase of Whatsapp for a huge amount of money, Google, Apple, you know, all of them are in control of a huge capital.

I only can see one good thing about this, the publicity, now Oculus will be well recognized all around the globe.

But I can't be help to think what for Facebook buy Oculus and I'm afraid that the original idea of Oculus might be vanished.

 

[MistaBowaa]

Does this mean Sony can swoop in quick and steal the market while Facebook stalls to figure things out, if they do anything meaningful with the tech at all?

This sounds like a win for Sony, at least in the short term. If they're first to the mainstream market with a quality product then we all know what that typically means.

 

[TechnicPuppet]

Gaf has better network infrastructure than Steam now.

I heard a rumour GAF where the mysterious second bidder for OR.

 

[Hattori]

Pre-order cancelled!

 

[Mesoian]

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.

And if true, it's cool, but if true, the focus for occulus is no longer gaming and that company is back at square one when it comes to proving themselves.

So Oculus will now be the trojan for personal VR

Morpheus will be for Gaming VR

Got it

Sounds like it.

 

[kmax]

 

[alr1ght]

no idea how its work but cliffy invested in Oculus pretty early (before the big 75million investment), lets say he has only 0.1% of Ouclus... this alone would mean $2million???

 

[Coreda]

seriously? way to have an open mind

facebook is clearly trying to pull a google by expanding far beyond one simple idea. Google went from a search engine to a rapidly expanding tech giant. Facebook looks to do the same with its own innovative technologies.

Interesting way to see it, but Facebook has so little geek cred it's clearly eliciting a completely negative reaction wave from most of their audience.

Had it been someone like Valve, where it's obvious the focus would stay on building a long-lasting product the reaction would have been the reverse I'm sure.

Although VR has a future beyond gaming it's hard not to imagine FB not taking it as seriously as other more focused companies might have.

 

[Shingro]

Okay, I shouted and yelled and am generally horrified over what a company like Facebook would want to do ad-wise with Virtual Reality...


HOWEVER...

The silver lining to this particular cloud is that a company that's basically throwing giant piles of money at the wall and seeing what sticks just acquired something that's been the dream since before TV even existed.

So, if you're facebook, and the Occulus guys ask you to fund ANYTHING do you do it?

Of course you do it, where else would you put your money, instagram? =P

The occulus guys now have Megacorp-style bags of money to experiment with, and even if they screw it up ad or content wise, they'll still have pushed the technology required forwards scads of years.

That's pretty good.

(And worse comes to worse we still have the Morpheus)

 

[Doug Heffernan]

2 billion???

Didn't this thing start from a Kickstarter?

Dammmmmmnnn...

 

[NathanMcMahon]

surprised GAF hasn't shut down

GAF bought by Facebook confirmed.

 

[Jack cw]

This came out of nowhere. What does FB want with oculus in the first place?

 

[Pound_lb003]

Good news: this means that VR will be the future.

Bad news: the future is going to suck ass.

Uhhh, I thought this too.

Like, exactly this.

If any company could make VR a successful platform, it'd be a huge company like Facebook getting involved.

But also, ugh, VR.

 

[hohoXD123]

So... Good or bad thing? It's a good thing to have a gigantic corporation backing the Virtual reality future

Better than MS I guess

Depends how much FB will interfere with Oculus' original goals. If they're allowed to pretty much carry on as they were but with a shitload more resources then should be a good thing. If gaming has now taken a back seat in favour of ad-filled BS then fuck this.

 

[Neuromancer]

So... Will anyone still be able to make anything for it, or will it become a 'walled garden' type of thing?

 

[oti]

Oculus is dead. At least the Oculus the founders had in mind when starting this experiment. Is that good? Nobody knows yet. So just relax.

Interesting times.

 

[upandaway]

I... don't know about this...?

I mean looking at that headline, no one could possibly think anything good. I hope the Occulus guys aren't just being naive and falling for the Facebook wordplay lawyering or something. That's a lot of money though.

 

[Harp]

They do know they needed a kickstarter to get this thing off the ground? Will they ever get that money back? And I feel sorry for all the people that supported. And will can not reap any profit from the sale.

 

[Fushichou187]

https://twitter.com/therealcliffyb/status/448580653869969408

I read that tweet as ".. if PalmerLuckey thinks it's a good erection, then I do too."

For $2 billion, everything is a good erection. Everything.

 

[8 X 11 Printer Paper]

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

Sony isnt going to save shit, im not sure why everyone thinks that Morpheus is the savior.

The PS4 will hold that thing back, it will have to produce at least 60fps for an immerse experience and render 2 1080p screen, the PS4 can just about to cope with 1 screen at 1080p. That shark demo is the most technically advanced the games will get, Morpheus isnt even in the same league as the OR

And you think the average joe has enough money for a PC strong enough to run the Rift at +60 fps as is?

 

[epmode]

I don't know what to even think about this. It's so random.

People with even a tiny bit of vision could see that VR was about to take off in a huge way. It has the potential to be the biggest thing in entertainment in decades. Looks like Facebook felt the same.

 

[Fox_Mulder]

rest in peace OCULUS RIFT, you had a good run

 

[ZehDon]

Seriously though, while Facebook has the necessary capital to secure proper development of the OR, and to get it out into the Public space and push VR as a whole, my issue is that they're going to push it in the completely wrong way, and kill VR when they show off a visor to the world and say "You're going to live in this now, because the future is here!". Kinda like how 3D is just attached to shitty movies to drive up ticket prices to minimise loss, and it resulted in 3D being almost immediately associated with shit like 'Clash of the Titans'.

I'm just really feeling for Carmack right now. Guy leaves his own company to follow his dream, and gets acquired by fucking Facebook.

 

[jax]

*puts on Rift*
"Please sign in to your Facebook account"
*takes off Rift*

Exactly this.

People, vote with your wallets. Sure you're mad now.. But when this shit comes out don't fucking buy it. Seriously. Morpheus looks to do the EXACT same shit as Oculus anyway. Just wait it out, it probably won't be a long wait (if any wait at all)

If you're mad about this acquisition, DON'T SUPPORT IT.

 

[PlumCantaloupe]

Well, time to pack it in ... Valve it is now up to you to carry the torch as long as Sony's is PS4 powered.

 

[riflen]

$1.6B is in FB shares, that everyone knows are overvalued as all hell. It was $400m in cash.
I'm sure that the deal came with plenty of restrictions. Palmer can't just dump his share of stock and buy a gold yacht tomorrow.

 

[Donthizz#]

what Happens to people who funded Oculus? do they get something out of this deal?

 

[jony_m]

OR may become huge for FB but it died as a gaming peripheral the second they signed the deal.

 

[Lasthope106]

This is only going to strengthen Sony's Morpheus, IMO. Kind of sucks for all those PC gamers getting ready for Oculus tech. We'll see how this all pans out. Hopefully they'll just let it lie and not have too much of an agenda.

Spoiler

What am I saying? It's facebook, of course they have some agenda. F2P VR games incoming

Sony doesn't have the technology to make a decent VR solution that can compete with what is already available on the Rift. I really don't get why people keep bringing Sony up.

 

[ironcreed]

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

Precisely.

 

[SwiftDeath]

Gaf has better network infrastructure than Steam now.

The sky is surely falling then. This is the end times everybody

 

[Trouble]

"We’ll see you in the Metaverse!"

At least they got the right reference. Snow Crash >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Ready Player One.

*sigh* No, they didn't, but 'cyberspace' has already been co-opted and corrupted.

Neuromancer >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Snow Crash >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Ready Player One.

 

[Septimus Prime]

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.

And WhatsApp, a standard chat app for mobile, went for $16 billion. King.com is being valued at $7.6 billion at IPO.

 

[Salsa]

If any company could make VR a successful platform, it'd be a huge company like Facebook getting involved.

I think Facebook's going down the shitter and everything they've bought they havent touched and was an already established service with many users

i.e. Facebook buying Oculus doesnt give me any particular hope for the future of VR other than they see the potential

 

[mercenar1e]

So... Will anyone still be able to make anything for it, or will it become a 'walled garden' type of thing?

facebook games most likely.

 

[syko de4d]

pls put all the money into your arena shooter cliffy!