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Facebook has acquired Oculus VR for 2 Billion US Dollars

EVIL

Member
mkgBa.jpg

pretty much how I feel
 
arnold_with_no_teeth_looks_a_bit_like_jason_bateman-25565.gif


Okay...calm down...weshould stay cool. It will be good for the developer and that means it will be good for us in the end, right? right?
 
wait, i can now watch the oscars as if i were there?

tiered pricing confirmed. a camera in the front row seat beside meryl streep costs you a 500-dollar ticket. just input the details of your account and you get to sit with meryl via your facebook rift!

if you don't have the budget, you can sit beside ashton kutcher in the balcony for just 30 bucks!
 

Symphonic

Member
I see this as extremely good news.

Positives of Facebook entering into VR race:
- Oculus now has infinite budget to craft perfect hardware, software and entire VR platform for PC and portables
- Countless more developers will become interested in VR, short byte-size games will find much larger audience on VR
- VR promotion on Facebook.com = MILLIONS of VR adopters on day 1
- More VR users of all kinds = more AAA games for us PC gamers
- Immediate infusion of entertainment/documentary/travel content
- Holy grail of VR - social networking inside minecraft-esque VR space. Just what Snow Crash depicted in its Metaverse.
- with stylized design, VR metaverse could be run even from iOS/Android phones
- Facebook can sell hardware with loss, providing incredibly HQ hardware for ~$99
- Presence of strong player in VR will force Sony to become very invested in VR, making much more compelling product and enabling 3rd parties much more streamlined patch toward porting games to PS4


Negatives?
So far, none, as long PC gamers get what they were promised [and FB is willing not to interfere with that].



This is good news for VR.

You're...probably right. I think the shock of the news is just throwing everybody off, including myself.
 

Angry Fork

Member
VR going mainstream confirmed. This is good news to me.

Anything mainstream becomes diluted over time. This isn't a hipster thing it's fact. Check every game, movie, tv related thing that started as a cool niche idea and then was bought up and ruined by ceo's.

The chase for profit will overcome this device, it happens to everything. The people acting like more granny's knowing what Oculus is will be a good thing are out of their minds.


yikes
 

Shosai

Banned
You people should seriously stop with this bullshit reasoning of "if it has a bigger company behind, it's probably going to be a better product as well".
It was a stupid and baseless claim when people said it for Sony's Morpheus, it's even more stupid now that Facebook is in control of Oculus VR.

But seriously, do you expect unlimited funding to somehow result in less game development? What I see is a hundred gafers basing their inside knowledge of Facebook's internal operations based solely on their distaste of their main product.

Which is asinine in it's own way. There are countless other social networking sites with the same features as Facebook. The reason why Facebook is so much more successful is due to it's efficient backend and it's ability to corral widespread developer support to become a standard API. It's where Google+ fails, because they have to pay developers to make games for their platform.

The Occulus will live or die based on it's developer support, which few people here realize is Facebook's main trade.

Anything mainstream becomes diluted over time. This isn't a hipster thing it's fact. Check every game, movie, tv related thing that started as a cool niche idea and then was bought up and ruined by ceo's.

Videogames are unique, in the sense that they're the only artform that existed solely as an industry before there was any indy scene. But hey, you're more than welcome to continue to enjoy the cool niche Occulus games such as
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
I feel like the posters reasoning this will somehow fit into Facebooks existing business [social/ad revenue] aren't thinking big enough. Facebook seems poised to become sort of News Corp style megaconglomerate with their fingers in dozens and dozens of unrelated pies. That has its own things to be cynical about, but I highly doubt theres going to be a Facebook logo anywhere but the fine print on the final package. VR is an emerging market with seemingly limitless potential. Zuck is a smart guy, he's not going jeopardize the world's first impression of VR because he's thirsty to grow the Facebook brand. You want to get worried about long term stuff, then fine but it seems pointless to predict the future to me.


Also, Abrash's virtual demo room of staring down into an endless abyss of a FACEBOOK page seems highly ominous in retrospect.
 

Coreda

Member
I see this as extremely good news.

Positives of Facebook entering into VR race:
- Oculus has infinite budget to craft perfect hardware
- Countless more developers will become interested in VR, short byte-size games will find much larger audience on VR
- VR promotion on Facebook.com = MILLIONS of VR adopters on day 1
- More VR users of all kinds = more AAA games for us PC gamers
- Immediate infusion of entertainment/documentary/travel content
- Holy grail of VR - social networking inside minecraft-esque VR space. Just what Snow Crash depicted in its Metaverse.
- with stylized design, VR metaverse could be run even from iOS/Android phones
- Facebook can sell hardware with loss, providing incredibly HQ hardware for ~$99
- Presence of strong player in VR will force Sony to become very invested in VR, making much more compelling product and enabling 3rd parties much more streamlined patch toward porting games to PS4


Negatives?
So far, none, as long PC gamers get what they were promised [and FB is willing not to interfere with that].



This is good news for VR.

Nice, sensible post. This thread will still be bewildered that it's Facebook buying the company though.

We haven't seen what will happen yet, so at this point it's still '[insert worst nightmare here]' reaction time.
 

Harp

Member
From what Palmer said, Oculus will become even better, they now have the clout to set the standard for the future of VR gaming.

This isn't a good thing for Sony, they do not have the clout to back Morpheous the way Facebook will.


How can a company that actually builds hardware and games be at a disadvantage to an ad company?
 

injurai

Banned
The bit that puzzles me most: I could absolutely understand Zuckerberg buying Oculus Rift; It's hot, it's potentially a good investment, it makes sense. But this is Facebook purchasing it, and I just can't see where Oculus fits into their business model.

Zuckerberg initiating such a purchase through FB forces the hands of a lot more investors. Which is good in creating a stable backing.
 
So two weeks ago Virtual Reality was a little project by some guys who had a succesful kickstarter.
Now two multinational multibillion dollar companies are all over it, too.
 

kevm3

Member
They'll probably put some technology in it to monitor your brain waves and send that data back to facebook. we can also experience the joy of nonstop game invites in a virtual reality world.
 
I'm all for negative reactions but upon further thought wont we still get an Occulous Rift headset? Sure FB will create their own uses for it but i doubt they are gonna add some fb-centric software into each one. Seems like they just want to be a part of something that is going to blow up in the coming years.

We'll see what happens. I hope they keep Carmac and respect the vision of the company and just become a big wallet for them to move faster.
 
I see this as extremely good news.

Positives of Facebook entering into VR race:
- Oculus now has infinite budget to craft perfect hardware, software and entire VR platform for PC and portables
- Countless more developers will become interested in VR, short byte-size games will find much larger audience on VR
- VR promotion on Facebook.com = MILLIONS of VR adopters on day 1
- More VR users of all kinds = more AAA games for us PC gamers
- Immediate infusion of entertainment/documentary/travel content
- Holy grail of VR - social networking inside minecraft-esque VR space. Just what Snow Crash depicted in its Metaverse.
- with stylized design, VR metaverse could be run even from iOS/Android phones
- Facebook can sell hardware with loss, providing incredibly HQ hardware for ~$99
- Presence of strong player in VR will force Sony to become very invested in VR, making much more compelling product and enabling 3rd parties much more streamlined patch toward porting games to PS4


Negatives?
So far, none, as long PC gamers get what they were promised [and FB is willing not to interfere with that].



This is good news for VR.

The problem is that every single thing you mentioned is a bad business decision. Not to mention that advertising on FB won't do anything because the amount of people that will realistically buy the Oculus is very low regardless of acquisition. This is a niche and is destined to be one.
 
Facebook can have oculus, just give us Carmack back.

As for indie development, I dunno if indies are going to want to develop for a Facebook device. this might hurt the rift in the long run.
 
I see this as extremely good news.

Positives of Facebook entering into VR race:
- Oculus now has infinite budget to craft perfect hardware, software and entire VR platform for PC and portables
- Countless more developers will become interested in VR, short byte-size games will find much larger audience on VR
- VR promotion on Facebook.com = MILLIONS of VR adopters on day 1
- More VR users of all kinds = more AAA games for us PC gamers
- Immediate infusion of entertainment/documentary/travel content
- Holy grail of VR - social networking inside minecraft-esque VR space. Just what Snow Crash depicted in its Metaverse.
- with stylized design, VR metaverse could be run even from iOS/Android phones
- Facebook can sell hardware with loss, providing incredibly HQ hardware for ~$99
- Presence of strong player in VR will force Sony to become very invested in VR, making much more compelling product and enabling 3rd parties much more streamlined patch toward porting games to PS4


Negatives?
So far, none, as long PC gamers get what they were promised [and FB is willing not to interfere with that].



This is good news for VR.

Insane Metal likes this.
 

jem0208

Member
I see this as extremely good news.

Positives of Facebook entering into VR race:
- Oculus now has infinite budget to craft perfect hardware, software and entire VR platform for PC and portables
- Countless more developers will become interested in VR, short byte-size games will find much larger audience on VR
- VR promotion on Facebook.com = MILLIONS of VR adopters on day 1
- More VR users of all kinds = more AAA games for us PC gamers
- Immediate infusion of entertainment/documentary/travel content
- Holy grail of VR - social networking inside minecraft-esque VR space. Just what Snow Crash depicted in its Metaverse.
- with stylized design, VR metaverse could be run even from iOS/Android phones
- Facebook can sell hardware with loss, providing incredibly HQ hardware for ~$99
- Presence of strong player in VR will force Sony to become very invested in VR, making much more compelling product and enabling 3rd parties much more streamlined patch toward porting games to PS4


Negatives?
So far, none, as long PC gamers get what they were promised [and FB is willing not to interfere with that].



This is good news for VR.

Exactly.


The reaction to this is hilarious.
 

TalonJH

Member
Casual games is still a big market. Look at Angry Birds, Clash of Clans, Candy Crush. Amazon and Facebook are looking at those. They are not looking at Luftrausers, or Oddworld, or the next Platinum's game.
Anyway, I'll stop playing around as much because it seems like some people are actually overreacting and other are way too seriously. Not directed at your post.

I wasn't surprised by Amazon but Facebook buying Oculus actually is a surprise. We're in some crazy times.
 
I don't understand the worry about Facebook using it for superfluous shit like Farmville. At the end of the day does that matter? As long as Oculus create a great product that is open to game developers, and create it with a lot more money and contacts now, who cares what Facebook want to build for it? They're not going to lock it to Facebook only apps. As long as Oculus exists as a great device for developers to take advantage of, what's changed?
 

pa22word

Member
Wow. I didn't think Irrational's closure could be topped for worst gaming news of 2014 so soon, if at all, and then this bombshell of dogshit gets dropped on everyone. The OR could have been one of the most groundbreaking and important devices in gaming history, and now it's under control by a glorified ad firm that makes a good portion of their money selling private user data.

I think in the future this will be looked at as the worst gaming acquisition since EA bought Origin Systems.
 
I've had several reasons to leave FB for a while now, mostly that it has almost nothing to do with connecting with my "friends" these days. Half my feed is websites I visit and get tweets about already. I was so excited about OR. This doesn't mean it is 100% dead, but the least I can do is finally pull the trigger on deleting my FB account. Ugh, what a sad day.
 

Pirabear

Banned
Well...

Skepticism aside, this pretty much guarantees that VR will blow up in a big way in a relatively short time, right? Game developers on the fence previously are probably on board now.
 
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