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[Coreda]

Companies invest so they can get a return. They are not spending 2 billion to sell cheap.

No doubt, but amongst the page after page of 'holy shit wtf it's all over' posts it was good to see some more reasonable opinions, even if not everything in the post is likely true.

 

[boredandlazy]

so come 2015 I get to choose between a giant megacorporation knee deep in nefarious exploitative practices to bring me a full fat VR experience and a second giant megacorporation knee deep in debt whose VR solution will anchor me to their underpowered proprietary crap box.

Seeing asshat comments like this makes me lose any sympathy for what this situation could potentially mean to people like yourself, and makes me laugh instead. Now that (in your opinion) your own little bubble has popped you can't help but take a swipe as Sony. Pathetic.

Still, I'm not really sure what this'll mean for VR. Sure there'll be more money involved in getting the Occulus completed, but surely this will somewhat dilute the initial intentions behind the device.

 

[BennyBlanco]

Did he delete this tweet? I can't find it anymore.

it's not a tweet, it's a (wait for it...) facebook post.

 

[MBR]

No but there is a good chance they will change the focus away from top tier gaming.

I really don't believe that.
If this product comes out and you don't feel like you're in whatever world you're entering, be it the Mushroom fucking Kingdom, a virtual mall, or a movie theatre, people will call VR a failure.

 

[CountAntonius]

Here you go:



http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03...virtual-reality-gaming-company-for-2-billion/

I always figured once VR was done right it was be ridiculous to have it be specifically for gaming. I guess FB felt the same way and decided to become a part of it.

 

[Jarmel]

Life is full of misery. Now I'm debating whether I should get the Cove or just get the Morpheus.

 

[NoPiece]

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.

Do you actually think Facebook will sell Oculus Rift as a generic peripheral for PC games? This thing will be locked up tight to Facebook games and product areas where they can advertise to you. And just because Facebook promotes it doesn't mean it will be successful. See: the Facebook Phone.

Right, so just like they locked Instagram* onto the Facebook phone? Guys, it is a PC peripheral, so of course it will support PC games. What do you think it plugs into??


*Facebook bought Instagram in 2012

 

[mercenar1e]

Apparently facebook's stock price is falling...
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/25/fa...trading-following-acquisition-of-oculus-rift/

no way you think? lol 2 billion for a product that hasn't proven itself in the consumer market... years away from making returns and devaluing the stocks.

 

[Motwera]

Guys, don't you try to suger coat this news as a good thing, because in terms of business and in the general situation, it is a really bad decision, it does not benefit anybody from its niche ever.

 

[solarus]

I always thought some horrible acquisition or news would befall oculus.
It just seemed to good to be true, they have a dream team of people including valve and they have consistently delivered during each trade show and they have been excellent in keeping people informed. Nothing can be that perfect now we have a facebook acquisition but hopefully they wont interfere with oculus for gaming,

 

[oti]

Carmack leaves Oculus, laughing and sobbing at the same time. Goes to Nintendo. Makes the most powerful Next-Gen console the world has ever seen.

 

[Nafai1123]

The main concern I have is that instead of a small, independent company with the sole purpose of creating the best VR product they can, they are going to be subject to performance targets and alternate goals, like form factor, over quality of experience.

It would not surprise me, for example, that instead of getting the absolute top of the line in terms of display technology, they may now be forced to go with a "good enough for the masses" approach to keep consumer costs and size of the headset down to encourage mass market adoption.

Facebook is very much in the market for mobile applications, and while OR was always planned for mobile as well as PC, it had a very PC centric focus which I could see changing to the other side of the spectrum with the acquisition.

I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Morpheus it is.

 

[BlackJace]

I can't tell if the people who think Sony (or gamers interested in this vision) just won something are serious.

This is a dark day.

 

[SmithnCo]

Here you go:



http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03...virtual-reality-gaming-company-for-2-billion/

I don't think anyone likes going to the doctor enough to want a virtual version of it, lol

 

[NullPointer]

I was want someone to hold me, stroke my hair, and tell me everything is going to be okay.

 

[GravityMan]

For once, I'm genuinely astonished.

Not sure what to think yet. Need a little time for this news to sink in...

 

[BY2K]

That sounds bitter.

 

[Femmeworth]

Well fuck.

 

[harSon]

Here you go:



http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03...virtual-reality-gaming-company-for-2-billion/

Fuck yeah! My body is ready:

 

[Odrion]

Post of the thread, really. ;_;

 

[mcrommert]

In b4

God what is happening

 

[Mockasin]

I hope they will redesign it so it looks like a book. That would be hilarous if it looks like you have a book strapped to your face...

 

[Epcott]

Ha

At first I was thinking optimistically like ole DieH@rd there. "They can totally do the Metaverse!"

But then I remembered "Oh yeah... its Facebook, the king of King games and social meta bullshit. :0/ womp womp"

 

[Guevara]

A reminder that Facebook is almost entirely an advertising platform and that is unlikely to change.

The fastest growing area? Mobile ads.

 

[BenouKat]

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 path 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.

Read this people.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Did he delete this tweet? I can't find it anymore.

It's not a tweet, it's on FB

 

[Cromat]

I'm sure the guys at Oculus are devastated.

 

[HUELEN10]

19 pages in just over an hour; can't read all of them but have gotten up to speed somewhat.

Does this mean that not even future dev units will be able to be facebook free? I was. I never found it as immersive as some would claim in the first place (tried out a dev unit), but this still sucks. I would never wanna touch a Facebook anything, much less pay for Facebook hardware.

Even worse would be the ads, should they be integrated...

 

[enzo_gt]

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 path 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.

Quite amusing you concentrate the major issue with this into a single negative that's further specified to rule out other changes in focus of the application of the technology, and something that is undoubtedly common in major tech acquisitions.

 

[TheBaronOfNA]

what king?

all i see is a company which was soon to profit from bringing the development of an open standard to the mass market now facing an unholy and belligerent titan of an opponent with infinitely more reach than they could ever hope for.

oculus was perfectly content in co-existing with sony, being the industry leading vaguard for sony's army. now that vanguard has an army of its own and they worship the gods of chaos.

Doesn't mean much when your Titan of opponent is rich but unskilled in the Areas you excel (hardware).

 

[ColonelSkills]

it's not a tweet, it's a (wait for it...) facebook post.

"4 minutes ago via Twitter"

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

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.

Well according to Palmer's post about the acquisition, it definitely sounds like gaming (at least in the conventional sense) is taking a back seat.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

Right, so just like they locked Instagram* onto the Facebook phone? Guys, it is a PC peripheral, so of course it will support PC games. What do you think it plugs into??


*Facebook bought Instagram in 2012

Nah. It's easier (and more fun!) to freak the fuck out without using any single bit of logic as to why they would purchase such an item that isn't similar to what they are actually in the business of.

 

[Mdk7]

As a fierce Facebook hater, this is one of the worst possible news ever.
I'm speechless, fuck this shit.

 

[Fox_Mulder]

Carmack to join Sony now?

 

[Holykael1]

Fear not, Lord Gaben will bring us Salvation.

 

[TalonJH]

I'm most interested to know if the team will be staying on or will they just leave with their money and hand off the tech to FB. Not sure how big Oculus is. My understanding was that it was just the small team with them all or most having partial ownership with a few investors.

 

[Salsa]

trust the feep

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=776513

Valve’s solution is lightyears ahead of the original Oculus Dev Kit.

now we wait

 

[Makai]

Is this true? The consequences are both positive and negative, but damn!

 

[mattiewheels]

So much this. People who kickstarted this didn't do it for it to end up in FB hands. Fuck them.

Didn't they kickstart it to receive a devkit? Pretty sure they got what they paid for out of the deal instead of throwing their money at Facebook.

 

[LowerLevel]

In b4

I'm sorry, but I have never seen this before... I'm dying!

 

[dankir]

Got to admit that's pretty impressive for a company that hasn't sold a consumer ready product yet.

 

[R&D]

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.

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?

 

[-COOLIO-]

"- Facebook can sell hardware with loss, providing incredibly HQ hardware for ~$99"

Why the hell would they want to do that? They just spent $2bil buying the company. They're not going to THEN sell the product at a loss. Literally every positive you mention is overly optimistic speculation at best.

i dont think theyll sell the hardware at a loss but there's plenty of ways to make money here.

- OR patent portfolio value will go up as the tech gets popular
- owning a VR ecosystem and storefront
- developer support
- brand cachet
- peripheral hardware

 

[Metrotab]

I just hope they keep the Oculus Rift an open platform.

That's all they need to do.

 

[Goreomedy]

Carmack leaves Oculus, laughing and sobbing at the same time. Goes to Nintendo. Makes the most powerful Next-Gen console the world has ever seen.

Cool. Is this a launch Oculus title?

 

[Briarios]

http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/oculus-joins-facebook/

Translation: we got fucking buttloads of cash and we're going to Fiji. Peace out, suckers.

Ouch. This really sucks for all the enthusiasts behind OR.

 

[Dr.Acula]

"- Facebook can sell hardware with loss, providing incredibly HQ hardware for ~$99"

Why the hell would they want to do that? They just spent $2bil buying the company. They're not going to THEN sell the product at a loss. Literally every positive you mention is overly optimistic speculation at best.

The flips that FB goes all Nintendo and demands that OR sells at a profit, and hits a sub 200 dollar price point, and hits the market sooner than later.

So maybe we get a cheap, half baked OR instead of a high performance 500 dollar wonder-toy a lot of us wanted.

 

[Deadstar]

yeah, here's another thing to worry about, dev reactions.

if he's being serious then that's fucking huge.

So maybe he'll talk to Sony now? Sounds awesome except I would have rather had it working on pc.