• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Facebook has acquired Oculus VR for 2 Billion US Dollars

B

br0ken_shad0w

Member
As long as the OR remains purely a plug-n-play peripheral, I don't mind. If they start DRMing the shit out of it and/or requiring a Facebook account/software complete with ads, well fuck that noise.
 
P

plagiarize

Banned
beast786 said:
So should I keep my DK2 preorder?
Click to expand...

yes. it will still do everything it was going to do. this might mean bad things for Oculus specifically down the line, but it doesn't mean bad things for DK2 or even CV1. Once the gaming potential of the hardware is established, no matter what happens to the oculus brand, someone else can make a gaming focused piece of equipment, just the same way Sony can come in and make the Morpheus.

Getting it right for gaming to start out is and will remain a huge focus for Oculus.
 
R

rawranator

Neo Member
ZhECl60.gif
 
S

spannicus

Member
Now you can like statuses in VR while you take a VR stroll with your facebook friends through the park......The world is doomed...enter Wall-E
WALLE3.JPG
 
T

Tain

Member
"Facebook is going to commercialize the platform", lol.

Yeah, this whole thing was a non-profit endeavor free from the taint of people getting paid.
 
The Elite

The Elite

BOSS
WTF is going on today?

Fake Edit: It is close to the end of a fiscal year so it makes sense that we're seeing a lot of movies in the industry.
 
B

Bricky

Member
I think the biggest, most general positive everyone should probably be able to agree with is that Oculus is big time now. This is not just that 'cute' company doing VR-experiments anymore in the eyes of the mainstream, this is the real deal. FACEBOOK paid TWO BILLION for this little company which hasn't even really proven itself to the mainstream, unlike Whatsapp and Instagram for example. Of course, gamers and tech-entheusiasts have known so for a long time, but I feel like, more so even than Sony making their own VR product, this will turn some heads at other companies and get the VR renaissance up to speed way sooner and way faster.

And if all else fails, at least the first consumer kit should be absolutely fantastic and maybe even cheap now. That'll keep VR alive for at least a year.
 
R

RCSI

Member
Septimius said:
Cross-posting this from the OT thread:

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about what a business acquisition is going on here. I'm assuming when it says that Facebook is acquiring Oculus, it means Facebook will be holding a majority share of Oculus. When you say "oh, wow, they're rich now, good job", you don't really get what this is about. Why would the bleeding VR hearts and the guys with proper passion for VR sell their share now, and go "oh, fuck you all, I have money now!" and drop their life-long vision of creating VR?

Very little is said on how this acquisition will take place. If it's a complete take-over, I'd be really surprised. It would mean that the share of Oculus people owned would be converted to Facebook stocks. Thinking that Facebook has anywhere near as huge of an upside as Oculus does is ludicrous. However, the upside is part of the evaluation. The evaluation is fucking enormous, so I guess Oculus sees this as perhaps not the complete upside, but also exactly what the company needs to reach that upside. But, this is not Facebook buying out the people that are working there. This is a huge resource infusion for the company. The 2 billion dollars does not go to the stakeholders in more than exactly what is was before, as a part of the company. If you wish to sell your part of your company, that's your prerogative, but you don't get to keep your part and get money at the same time. The resources then go into the company, and will now give Oculus probably 50 times more resources to fiddle with. They will be able to move into a proper production facility, drive the costs down by a huge amount, and get more people the consumer version a lot faster. We won't have to sit around for months waiting for our kits to arrive, like we did with DK1 and now DK2.

This is a huge opportunity for Oculus. They can essentially focus on exactly what they wish their vision to be, and not have to struggle to make ends meet. Facebook will likely push to get a big, new team going to push for social media advances with VR. Perhaps some new interactive VR world? I don't know what Zuckerberg envisions. But the core team can do whatever they want. Facebook knows that they can't just come in and shift the focus of the existing team. However, they're free to put a new team next to that that works on utilizing the VR. That has nothing to do with building the tech, which will remain its own team, which will continue doing exactly what it does, only more effectively. Especially and at least in terms of production. The amount of R&D they're at liberty to do, now, the ways they can make the unit more affordable to the consumer. All of this is a huge advent of VR. This will push what you're all oozing in your pants to get your hands on; a proper, integrated VR experience with all the haptic feedback and stuff you've only dreamed would one day be a part of this.

And now that Facebook enables that, you all go "preorder cancelled"? That's not what's going on.
Click to expand...

Quoting to spread it to more pages. Seriously GAF, this is good news for VR.
 
M

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
What is this indignation about the Kickstarter money? Those people bought a product, it wasn't just money that disappeared.
 
A

Admiral Woofington

Member
Guys. Guys. I'm not about to read the whole thread but please tell me some people here realize that Facebook has bought companies before and left them to handle their shit like they've always done. You guys DO know this right? It's not like Mark Zuckerberg is out there snorting cocaine going "OOOOOH FUCK YES FARMVILLE IN VR!"
 
B

Bookoo

Member
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...

Palmer Luckey on /r/Oculus

Link
 
E

esai

Member
I want to believe that development will continue as it was with games being the driving force behind it but fuck Facebook.
 
D

Dario ff

Banned
CV1 will be fine, but it does kill my interest on supporting their later ventures tho. Maybe traditional PC Hardware companies will start experimenting on their own devices?

I like to imagine an alternate reality scenario where a porn company bought Oculus instead tho. At least they like to push video quality!
 
hemtae

hemtae

Member
Oh dear. If Facebook kills this then all there will be in the VR space is a peripheral to a relatively underpowered closed platform attached to Sony. I don't like relying on Facebook to save me from that future.
 
V

Vinc

Member
I cannot wait to sit in my living room to pretend I'm in another person's living room and talking to them face to face. Sounds so much more exciting than pretending I'm a superhero in a fantastical universe with dragons and shit. Right?
 
KaiserBecks

KaiserBecks

Member
Septimius said:
Cross-posting this from the OT thread:

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about what a business acquisition is going on here. I'm assuming when it says that Facebook is acquiring Oculus, it means Facebook will be holding a majority share of Oculus. When you say "oh, wow, they're rich now, good job", you don't really get what this is about. Why would the bleeding VR hearts and the guys with proper passion for VR sell their share now, and go "oh, fuck you all, I have money now!" and drop their life-long vision of creating VR?

Very little is said on how this acquisition will take place. If it's a complete take-over, I'd be really surprised. It would mean that the share of Oculus people owned would be converted to Facebook stocks. Thinking that Facebook has anywhere near as huge of an upside as Oculus does is ludicrous. However, the upside is part of the evaluation. The evaluation is fucking enormous, so I guess Oculus sees this as perhaps not the complete upside, but also exactly what the company needs to reach that upside. But, this is not Facebook buying out the people that are working there. This is a huge resource infusion for the company. The 2 billion dollars does not go to the stakeholders in more than exactly what is was before, as a part of the company. If you wish to sell your part of your company, that's your prerogative, but you don't get to keep your part and get money at the same time. The resources then go into the company, and will now give Oculus probably 50 times more resources to fiddle with. They will be able to move into a proper production facility, drive the costs down by a huge amount, and get more people the consumer version a lot faster. We won't have to sit around for months waiting for our kits to arrive, like we did with DK1 and now DK2.

This is a huge opportunity for Oculus. They can essentially focus on exactly what they wish their vision to be, and not have to struggle to make ends meet. Facebook will likely push to get a big, new team going to push for social media advances with VR. Perhaps some new interactive VR world? I don't know what Zuckerberg envisions. But the core team can do whatever they want. Facebook knows that they can't just come in and shift the focus of the existing team. However, they're free to put a new team next to that that works on utilizing the VR. That has nothing to do with building the tech, which will remain its own team, which will continue doing exactly what it does, only more effectively. Especially and at least in terms of production. The amount of R&D they're at liberty to do, now, the ways they can make the unit more affordable to the consumer. All of this is a huge advent of VR. This will push what you're all oozing in your pants to get your hands on; a proper, integrated VR experience with all the haptic feedback and stuff you've only dreamed would one day be a part of this.

And now that Facebook enables that, you all go "preorder cancelled"? That's not what's going on.
Click to expand...

Don't bother, people won't actually read this. They're too busy posting gifs and telling themselves that "Sony has won".
 
B

BlastProcessing

Member
GetemMa said:
Yes I'm sure FB will gladly let their 2 Billion dollar Oculus onto non FB games.

Facebook will be the platform you get to use your Oculus games on, not Steam.

And no, they won't sell it for $100 just because they are rich.

The delusion is strong with this one.
Click to expand...

There was a Facebook Games guy at SXSW. (He actually went out of his way totalk up Oculus on a panel. Funny in hindsight) He talked about how Facebook is trying to transition from "the place games are" to "the place you discover and talk about games". I really don't think they are going to lock Oculus down. They want to be in on the ground floor of a new medium. I don't think they would jeopardize that to get more traffic. This isn't 2000's Microsoft that would destroy a good thing to shoehorn it into Windows.
 
Nocturno999

Nocturno999

Member
R&D said:
Yeah no. Have you already seen real gamers games on Androïd or SmartPhones?
Always expect the worst and developers catering to the lowest common denominator.
Facebook = Quick/Easy money in publishers mind. You'll see more Farmville VR or The Sims VR than Skyrim VR.
Plus do you need a powerful PC to run it or is it included in the headset?
Click to expand...

I just can't see them locking the tech for other uses. You have to plug them into a PC anyway.

Facebook has some decent games now, even though I still prefer Steam.
 
B

Briarios

Member
Septimius said:
Cross-posting this from the OT thread:

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions about what a business acquisition is going on here. I'm assuming when it says that Facebook is acquiring Oculus, it means Facebook will be holding a majority share of Oculus. When you say "oh, wow, they're rich now, good job", you don't really get what this is about. Why would the bleeding VR hearts and the guys with proper passion for VR sell their share now, and go "oh, fuck you all, I have money now!" and drop their life-long vision of creating VR?

Very little is said on how this acquisition will take place. If it's a complete take-over, I'd be really surprised. It would mean that the share of Oculus people owned would be converted to Facebook stocks. Thinking that Facebook has anywhere near as huge of an upside as Oculus does is ludicrous. However, the upside is part of the evaluation. The evaluation is fucking enormous, so I guess Oculus sees this as perhaps not the complete upside, but also exactly what the company needs to reach that upside. But, this is not Facebook buying out the people that are working there. This is a huge resource infusion for the company. The 2 billion dollars does not go to the stakeholders in more than exactly what is was before, as a part of the company. If you wish to sell your part of your company, that's your prerogative, but you don't get to keep your part and get money at the same time. The resources then go into the company, and will now give Oculus probably 50 times more resources to fiddle with. They will be able to move into a proper production facility, drive the costs down by a huge amount, and get more people the consumer version a lot faster. We won't have to sit around for months waiting for our kits to arrive, like we did with DK1 and now DK2.

This is a huge opportunity for Oculus. They can essentially focus on exactly what they wish their vision to be, and not have to struggle to make ends meet. Facebook will likely push to get a big, new team going to push for social media advances with VR. Perhaps some new interactive VR world? I don't know what Zuckerberg envisions. But the core team can do whatever they want. Facebook knows that they can't just come in and shift the focus of the existing team. However, they're free to put a new team next to that that works on utilizing the VR. That has nothing to do with building the tech, which will remain its own team, which will continue doing exactly what it does, only more effectively. Especially and at least in terms of production. The amount of R&D they're at liberty to do, now, the ways they can make the unit more affordable to the consumer. All of this is a huge advent of VR. This will push what you're all oozing in your pants to get your hands on; a proper, integrated VR experience with all the haptic feedback and stuff you've only dreamed would one day be a part of this.

And now that Facebook enables that, you all go "preorder cancelled"? That's not what's going on.
Click to expand...

I saw a very similar sort of argument being made by some people when BioWare was acquired by EA. How'd that turn out? Oculus is Facebook now - they were purchased. Over time, their culture will become the same as Facebook's -- that's how it works and how it always works. If you think there will be no changes, no realignment of priorities, you're insane.

This is from the Forbes article:

That includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook stock. There’s also an additional $300 million potential earn-out in cash and stock based on “the achievement of certain milestones.”

Who do you think set those milestones? Facebook! They're already driving the direction of the company from day 1. This is now the FB show. Get used to it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Meta changes Oculus brand into third-party publisher "Oculus Publishing". OVER 150 Quest games are currently in development
15
2K
Eddie-Griffin replied
EA Hopes to Use Generative AI to Drive Monetization and Make Development 30% More Efficient
Opinion Business Game Dev
27
2K
radewagon replied
  • Poll
Do you have a VR headset? Will you ever buy one?
2 3
148
3K
Codes 208 replied
Former Kingdom Come Deliverance art director launches Kickstarter campaign for 2D pixelart game called Scribe RPG
6
726
March Climber replied
The Last of Us Online has been cancelled
News 10 11 12 13 14
678
33K
Tiago Rodrigues replied
Top Bottom