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Facebook has acquired Oculus VR for 2 Billion US Dollars

I wonder if valve will reconsider releasing its own vr hardware now. Someone needs to step in and take the oculas torch.
 
How much of valve's vr hardware staff did gabe let off in that exodus a while back? Didn't some valve staff join oculus? Wonder how Gabe feels, I want valve to ramp up their VR efforts into making a commercial product.
 
Carmack is working for Facebook now. Carmack is fucking working for Facebook.
I can't even. God damn.

Save us Morpheus.
 
My expectation is that in 2 years, their work in the gaming space is going to be on a noticeable decline.

Here's hoping for the best, but I am not optimistic.
 
Orayn said:
How? Oculus is a technology, and the requirements for VR are pretty similar across different possible applications. What do you envision Facebook doing that would RUIN EVERYTHING FOREVER?
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I envisage a proprietary connection API that requires a licence from Facebook to develop software on, and contains Facebook's standard terms and conditions. Nothing that will bring them into "disrepute". Nothing that features a breast. Facebook retain the right to arbitrarily pull any content at any time for any reason. Facebook to retain the right to access any and all data generated by the rift at any time for any reason.
 
That salty Notch tweet is killing me. Packs up his Legos and stomps home.

Hexa said:
Carmack is working for Facebook now. Carmack is fucking working for Facebook.
I can't even. God damn.

Save us Morpheus.
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Tried posting IDDQD and it does nothing. Guess I have to give it time to be implemented.
 
Shosai said:
The average PC will be powerful enough in 3 years, give or take.

But you'll have to tell me, how does opening the Occulus API to non-gaming applications come at the expense of gaming applications?
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Reducing the specs of the hardware to hit consumer wide accessibility pricing would limit the gaming applications for sure.

And I severely doubt this

Shosai said:
The average PC will be powerful enough in 3 years, give or take.
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will happen in that timeframe.
 
I wasn't interested in vr at all yesterday. Now I'll buy a Sony just to support a real game company. Hate this future we are heading towards were ad companies run everything.
 
Mrbob said:
I wonder how Valve feels right now. They were the ones helping push VR tech for Oculus. Oculus takes that help and uses it as a tool to sell out to Facebook.

Curious to see if this partnership continues anymore.
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They could sue them to oblivion.
 
Still interested to hear what the doom and gloom people think Facebook is actually going to do. Cancel all the games that Oculus isn't actually developing themselves? Tell everyone making a game for Oculus that they have to stop, because the headset isn't for that purpose any more? Mandate obtrusive ads in all Oculus VR software?

Again, Oculus is in the business of hardware and software solutions to make VR possible. The requirements are fairly similar for a variety of applications, so what does Facebook's involvement change about that?
 
jaaz said:
All eternal optimists, please listen to this man. FB didn't spend 2 billion to let Palmer explote his dream. Oculus needs to start making money for FB shareholders, and that's not going to happen by selling $300+ VR hardware to the high end PC market that is like .00001% of the population. The Rift will need to evolve and be targeted at the FB market, and I don't think I need to tell you that that market is not rocking dual titans.

The naïveté in this thread is astounding.
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Exactly.

And oh yeah, those other social media sites that people are pointing to and saying, "Look, Facebook didn't change this!" they didn't change because they were already in the business of selling any and all info about you. Oculus was a new way to play games. Now it's a new way to sell you to advertisers.

I'm really hoping Valve changes their mind on not shipping their own VR product.
 
KoopaTheCasual said:
You seriously think 3 years? I'm not talking tech savvy people who are buying a new computer. I'm talking when will the new standard Dell Laptop be powerful enough to drive a compelling experience?
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Alright then, list the minimum hardware requirements that you feel are needed for a "compelling VR experience". And then we can debate whether or not mid to low-end PCs will hit that point in 3 years.
 
Usobuko said:
Looks like there's suspicion of Facebook astroturfing reddit atm.
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Disgusted by this...


With regards to morpheus support for PC use, if sony is worried about not making money on the backend of the product with software and ps+ subscriptions, I think the win/win would be to provide an adapter for the camera for PC users, say $50-75 as a starting point.
 
I think you people need to calm down until we see what comes from this. "OCULUS SOLD OUT, FACEBOOK ABOUT THE MONEY." Please. I'm not saying that profit won't be a motive here, but people really think Facebook is going to completely neuter the project? Are we even clear on how they would even do such a thing? If their object was first and foremost to make money, wouldn't you think that they would open the Oculus to both "Farmville games" (-_-) as well as the other stuff that they were originally working on? I really think Facebook did this so they could be ahead of the curve on whatever they think will come of VR, not to specifically crush all of your dreams.
 
Maxxan said:
So is this great news for Sony? I'm guessing it's bad news for high-end PC gamers?
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I have the feeling that Oculus now have a lot more money than Sony to focus exclusively on VR. The chance for them to deliver something way better than Morpheus is a lot higher now.
 
Bleh not ready for doom and gloom. What this really means is that VR is here to stay no matter who actually succeeds. It's going to be mainstream much sooner than anyone thought. Facebook is THE company to do that. It's the company to make the social aspect of VR (which has been in the cards from the beginning decades ago) go anywhere fast. Yeah it would have been cool to see a small company just grow and grow and grow, and hopefully catch on through word of mouth (not to mention not having to sell to a ethically dubious company), but this is a valid path as well for VR as a platform. The risk is that Facebook will fuck up the specifics (closed, shit dev support etc.), but that won't matter. VR is here.
 
big_z said:
I wonder if valve will reconsider releasing its own vr hardware now. Someone needs to step in and take the oculas torch.
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This is what I want to know. Where are they going to go with this.

They have their own research and tech at this point with plenty to work with. They shared it all, but they can certainly use much of it themselves.

I wonder where it will all go from here.

Nothing will stop the VR train so as far as I'm concerned even if this whole thing goes south it's a bump in the road. It's still all so exciting.
 
ibgOaQYLlF4V55.gif
 
Well, facebook seems to ruin everything they touch IMO. So my gut reaction is despair. I was really rooting for Oculus Rift. But on the other hand, I think it being backed by Facebook is a big deal for VR. Maybe VR becomes more mainstream, and it gets pushed out to the larger market faster. You know how people were making VR stuff with Oculus where you could sit on the edge of a mountain, or look out at the ocean while sitting on the sand. Or that one Roller Coaster mod. So VR could have MUCH bigger applications here, and a company like Facebook could really push that, and make this something huge.

So in that sense, I think this is exciting for VR. Having a major company back it, is a pretty big deal. But I feel very iffy about this as a gaming device now.
 
Dr.Acula said:
Question.

Does Palmer Luckey, a 21-year-old college dropout get to decide the direction of OR? Or do they bring in a "established" former airline CEO who knows all the Harvard frat secret handshakes and shit? Do the public shareholders of FB tolerate Luckey at the helm of a 2 billion dollar arm?
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Hes the founder not the CEO, thats Brendan Iribe
Brendan was the Chief Product Officer at Gaikai, the innovative GPU cloud streaming company that was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in July 2012. Prior to Gaikai, Brendan spent a decade as co-founder and CEO of Scaleform, the #1 user interface technology provider in the video game market, which was acquired by Autodesk. Under his leadership, the Scaleform SDK was adopted by thousands of video game developers worldwide.
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Angry Fork said:
Thousand dollar suit wearers who don't know shit about or care about gaming and want to do nothing more than sell ads/your personal info bought something that was supposed to be a revolution in gaming. They will crush all potential or divert it to something else entirely if gaming doesn't net enough money.

I want you people who say mainstreaming something is a good thing to explain to me how. It has never been the case in the history of any great idea/tech. Check all music/bands who sign to labels that fuck up their original sound, movie franchises that get new screenwriters/actors and are exploited, TV shows that are stretched into as many episodes as possible for ads, gaming franchises that have taken on qualities of other games we're bored with instead of being it's own thing, the # of developers/studios shut down or turned to shit soon after huge companies take over. Every cool new thing for enthusiasts ends up being diluted by these people. Don't even have to get into the NSA bullshit.

Valve feels like the only place left with a direct line to gamers, who know exactly what we're like and what we want and have no problem enacting that vision. I like Sony but their device will likely not be as friendly to PC or open for everyone who wants to tinker with it.

This is so dumb and sad.
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Exactly this. Might be good for democratizing VR on a commercial level but the dream for immersive and fictional worlds is one step further ahead. You can bet a lot of the stuff will be grounded in reality (Visit your friend's garden, etc...).
Plus I don't get this buyout. Most Facebook users don't even have a powerful enough PC.
 
The idea of VR front row seats to sporting events is very intriguing. I can imagine being able to switch cameras to get the perfect view of the game without actually being there. However, if the charge to view a game virtually is near the same as being there, they can fuck off.
 
Septimius said:
No, it won't. VR will be everywhere. You're basically saying that since Facebook is on iPhone, it's the death of games for iPhones. Everybody has iPhones, now (not because of facebook, but), so the audience for games is that much bigger, which means a lot more actors are attracted to that market. With VR being given a huuuge push by FB, it'll be as wide-spread as it would only have been in 30 years, otherwise. This will create a huge leap in VR technology, since other actors will compete with hardware, much like on the smart-phone market. The market will reach satiation so much faster, and there'll be such a bigger push for AAA game makers and indie game makers to make games deliberately for the Oculus, that we'll have such a torrent of content, we won't know what to do with it.

In contrast, without this, I see a slowly growing VR market with small actors creating neat things and other games getting VR support, but nothing huge made especially for it.
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Yea, I basically suggested that here right before your reply:

http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=105781169

I guess it comes down to me just not having too much faith in people adopting VR. I hope I'm wrong tho.
 
Acorn said:
This is my problem with kickstarter. Donating to for profit companies.

If I give you money to make a product I want equity.
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Then invest in a company if you want to. Kickstarter is basically like preordering a product and in preordering said product you are making it a reality.
 
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