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[Guevara]

I still can't wrap my head around it. Facebook paid $2 billion for:

1) The Oculus name
2) The chance to be first in the field

And that's it. Sony has at least shown that the tech can be copied...so what did Facebook even buy? Is the name and the chance to be first with a product that can be duplicated really worth $2 billion? It's just insane.

Facebook basically bought a bunch of relationships with devs that are mostly horrified to learn they are now working with Facebook. Immediate value destruction.

 

[BlastProcessing]

Its a fledgling platform. And:


(source)

My monitor doesn't do this.

I don't think you are reading that right. They are saying that they can use Facebook's existing payment systems to sell Rift hardware.

 

[renegade_dewitt]

ARE U SERIOUS!?!?!? Nooooooo, why does everything good have to get acquired? Occulus looked promising, don't know what FB is gonna do with em. This is just plain out of left field! Didn't see it coming at all!

 

[thunder_snail]

I no longer understand the point you're trying to make. Are you saying that Facebook makes the Rift less 'hardcore'?

I believe the discussion is about you trying to justify why Facebook acquiring Oculus is good for the future of VR and me trying to say otherwise.

Do you think technology will improve without the 'hardcore' audience? Technology trickles down, not up, as shown through out history.

 

[wsoxfan1214]

:lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

Holy shit, hahaha.

Where did this even come from?

 

[gibbsy24]

"The Rift is highly anticipated by the gaming community, and there's a lot of interest from developers in building for this platform," stated Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in a Facebook post announcing the deal. "We're going to focus on helping Oculus build out their product and develop partnerships to support more games. Oculus will continue operating independently within Facebook to achieve this."

- Zuckerberg

"After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home." - Zuckerberg

 

[Kabuki Quantum Lover]

I've had both of the sevens. I would call them great.

I have both 7s and the 4. They are good. Not great.

 

[Shosai]

Your naitivity is sort of cute. Dude, I'm a gamer too and have no issues dropping $300+ on VR. But you are delusional if you think that we make up any significant part of the population, and certainly not FB's target market. You need to read something else besides GAF. This is not a labor of love for FB, they need to make this work for FB users. How many hard core gamers do YOU know that use FB regularly?

I'm sure facebook has the answer to that, and it's in the area of several million (depending on your definition of "hardcore")

But you make it sound like selling $300-$500 gaming platforms isn't a lucrative market on it's own, otherwise there wouldn't already be three publicly-traded companies doing just that.

What people fail to understand is that Facebook didn't become a success by being a social networking website, or by collecting user data and selling targeting web ads. There were countless other companies doing those things. Facebook become #1 through it's API. They creating an efficient and extremely extendable one, allowing it to be adapted by third-parties to help spread facebook onto every corner of the web, which in turn brought users back to FB. They're in the API business. So is Occulus. The social networking website and the VR goggles are the front-end revenue generators, but it's their APIs that are responsible for spreading their products outside of their comfortable niches and into widespread adoption.

 

[Cloud Strife]

What the fuck?

 

[fantomena]

I was so excited for the consumer product.

 

[sant]

Facebook basically bought a bunch of relationships with devs that are mostly horrified to learn they are now working with Facebook. Immediate value destruction.

How can you downplay being first? Look at the billions Apple made by being the first to truly embrace mobile

 

[Tensketch]

Oof, people are not happy about this. The kickstarter page is starting to get a flood of comments demanding answers and refunds.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Hurt? I was never interested in OR, but was planning to buy morpheus giving it is somewhere around $300 ballpark.

So how much does it hurt YOU?

Damn, the point didn't just go over your head. It pretty much sliced your head clean off!

 

[flyinpiranha]

50+ pages, and no ExistenZ references? For shame GAF.

Seriously, but I think this:

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.

Baltar Luckey just sold us out. Welcome to the Matrix, people.

Deserves some recognition.

 

[jaaz]

Its threads like these that make me question if Gafffers are truly as reasonable as they would like to think they are.

Cause you know, Zuckerburg would glady piss away a $2 billion investment just because.

I think its a toxic mix of gamer optimism (believe!) with a healthy dose of nativity on the business world. Thanks Obama!

 

[L00P]

If you can meet people face-to-face using oculus, does this mean that people on FB will be less assholes to each other? Or will it make em bigger assholes?

 

[jabuseika]

So, everyone and your grandma will be using VR in a couple of years.

Will it be what we expected when it comes to video games? Not any more.

Unless Sony is also successful with their product...

 

[E-Cat]

I really wish this were just a VR simulation on the Oculus Rift. Time to wake up...

 

[iceatcs]

hmm, is that mean Oculus will have own digital market front? If so, bad news for Valve.

 

[baxter2231]

Thats seems rather odd, facebook and VR ????

 

[sub_o]

On the other news. Friendster buying Gameface.

 

[BlazingDarkness]

this is good

also Facebook has all that extra $$$ to push development

You're really going to take the Facebook CEO at his word on that?
There's always a song and dance about allowing the acquired party to keep their independence, and it pretty much never stays like that, long-term.

 

[friday]

Well, they have mind blowing tech in development which they have shown.

Well, yeah, but as a believer in VR I still don't get how they came up with 2 billion. I feel like it's gonna be a while before the global VR market is even worth that much. This news is weird. Lets see what facebook stock does.

 

[Yoda]

To those of you buying into that verbal diarrhea of Mark telling you they will remain independent... you don't spend $2,000,000,000.00 so they can "remain independent". This will be pushed toward social applications and away from core gamers. Was a neat idea while it lasted.

 

[Seanspeed]

Keep reading.

I read it all. VR was never going to be all about games. Oculus Rift was never going to be all about games. I think a lot of people got the wrong idea that they were mainly just interested in creating some revolutionary gaming experience, when that's really only just one of the more immediately obvious applications of the tech. It was always the goal to go well beyond gaming.

Doesn't mean VR gaming has to die, either. Once VR becomes a more established medium to experience entertainment, the gaming support will follow.

 

[Acquiescence]

https://twitter.com/necrosofty/status/448592982862622720

This amuses me.

 

[dose]

Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face

I have no interest in doing any of those things.

 

[mercenar1e]

id love to see some developer reactions that have supported Oculus before the buy out..

 

[dakun]

i don't get it.. 2 Billion sounds way over the top...

how much could it possibly cost to make your own R&D for a VR Device and make it market ready.. i doubt it's anywhere near a billion let alone two.

they are basically paying 2 billion for the name Oculus which isn't worth 1/100 of that money.. also i doubt the VR industry will even be big enough for the next ten years to justify a 2 billion price tag...

this whole thing just doesn't make sense to me at all.

 

[Dr.brain64]

Obviously it had to be bought because they need to install stuff to spy on everyone duhhh...

The internet is really sucking bad right now
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/24/david-byrne-nsa-rebuild-secure-internet

 

[B.O.O.M]

While of course Facebook can do whatever it wants with Oculus now, since it holds a majority stake, this doesn't mean that Facebook will fuck with what Oculus is. Stating otherwise is what I find hyperbolic. I'm arguing that for a good ROI, Facebook knows that it needs to let Oculus do what it's doing. This is a huge resource infusion into the product, and it'll push VR in ways we couldn't even imagine yesterday. I'll go along and say that maybe Facebook will ruin this when they try to reap what Oculus has become, but by then, VR will be so big that even if Oculus disappears, the movement will have started. This is such a huge boost to the fire that VR is, that one should be excited. Someone just evaluated VR at two billion dollars. Everyone's taking note of this. Everyone will want to move into the market. Someone might even come along and revolutionize it, yet again.

Of course there's a chance that Facebook can just fuck the whole thing up. I'm assuming the core team of Oculus wouldn't let that happen, and have made a deal with clauses safeguarding them from such things. But I can't assume they're not stupid, also, so anything is possible, of course. But in the meanwhile, all we do know is that someone just threw 2 billion dollars at unproven VR tech. That's what makes this huge in any regard.

Lol you keep going down this narration where FB dictating things = destruction..if's just funny

I repeat to you as well..FB WILL play a big part of the direction OR takes in the future. Doesn't mean they will scrap OR as it is. Far from it. It however pose the threat of resources/attention getting divided for the company, in a different way that it does now. The mere fact that you can't see this very real possibility is baffling to me. FB isn't going to just sit back, fold their arms and whatever you wanna do broski to the OR team lol Doesn't mean they will not make money..hell they will most probably make a ton of money even then. It's only bad news for core gamers if the division of priorities gets more skewed towards non-gaming services. It's a real risk with this situation and it's FB's call to make. it's not 'fucking things up' from FB's point of view..they will do whatever they feel is more profitable to them.

Time will tell which route they take.

 

[Malio]

Facebook is not a gaming company, nor is it a tech company. It's a creepy ad company, that gets paid by how many people it can sell to businesses. And they just bought the coolest tech to come along in quite a while. There's no reason NOT to hate this buyout. Fucking lame.

 

[criesofthepast]

Facebook is really trying to become the next Google. I wish Google bought them instead. Apparently Google and Facebook have been in negotiations for the same damn companies and Facebook keeps coming out on top. Google lost on WhatsApp as well.

Facebook will never be sold though. Google should just buy Facebook please.

 

[Artakartel]

so ahead of it's time it's not even funny

Technically 20 years behind its time...

 

[Seanspeed]

"After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home." - Zuckerberg

Sounds fucking awesome.

He's not saying there wont be any games after that. Just that the VR experience will be expanded. Just like Oculus have always said they wanted.

If people here don't have any interest in these things, then they were never onboard with Oculus' vision in the first place.

 

[Exploding8]

I have no interest in doing any of those things.

But being able to do any of those things at a realistic level also means the hardware would need to be capable of doing any of the things you wanted it to do.

 

[Shosai]

Remember when Disney bought ESPN, and then they started making them have Donald Duck do the play-by-play commentary on all hockey games?

Some of you have kind of a dumb viewpoint on what it means for one company to acquire another.

this

 

[SaberEdge]

Question - what exactly dictates a "gaming dedicated" VR set? The things that would make the Rift better for Zuckerberg's suggested uses (courtside seats, lectures), make it better for gaming. Lower latency in movement is going to be key in removing the nausea factor. Surround sound is just as appealing for a sporting arena as a Quake arena. I don't need a "gaming-dedicated" TV, I don't need a "gaming-dedicated" monitor, and I don't see why I'd need a "gaming-dedicated" VR headset.

Exactly. Some people aren't thinking clearly on this. Do they really believe that it would benefit Facebook to suspend Oculus's gaming plans?

Oculus have always said that the RIft and VR in general is a lot bigger than just gaming, so Facebook recognizing the same thing isn't surprising. That said, both Oculus and Facebook know that gaming is going to be one of the main impetuses in getting the Rift into more people's homes.

 

[border]

I remember when they started having "Hey random star from ABC show, how about you come into the booth for Monday Night Football?" and in a much smaller effect, Bill Simmons having to neuter his column as to not offend the Disney overmind.

ABC stars were on Monday Night Football because MNF aired on ABC.

Disney bought ABC/ESPN in 1996, before Bill Simmons was even hired by ESPN in 2001.

 

[Definity]

Came into this thread for the reaction gifs.
Was not disappointed.

 

[Kyzon]

So VR chatting on the book?

This is so weird.

 

[Can Crusher]

People who are optimistic about this aren't entirely off. Facebook just paid a 2 billion dollar headline for V.R. Honestly anybody who is excited about Facebook running Oculus, is really making up wild scenarios where a shady ad based company is going to deliver the goods.

Fortunately the two billion dollar headline also brings other consequences. Companies around the world will now invest in this area like they hadn't before. This is even good news for Morpheus, as shareholders will no doubt feel more generous towards the project.

In the end this is good news for everybody but Facebook.

 

[Blak_Status]

LOL.... Best thread of the year!

You might hate Zuckerburg, but you have to respect him. He keeps his ear on what's hot.

 

[OTIX]

I'm gonna be cautiously optimistic about this. The most important thing is that we get some really cool VR shit within our lifetimes, and hopefully this deal will accelerate the development of VR overall to get us there. Even if OR turns to shit the extra exposure and interest for VR could still have a positive effect in the long run. They're not our only hope.

Not cancelling my preorder, yet.

 

[Alebrije]

I feel sorry the people that fund this project. with the idea of a new videogame device.

 

[TomShoe]

Meanwhile, at Project Morpheus Development HQ...

 

[WooHooAlex]

Yep, I'm gonna read this entire thread tonight before I go to sleep.

This is amazing.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

This guy has a point. How has no one else mentioned you need a thousand dollar graphics card to use the Rift?

Not with the power of the cloud...

Remember when Disney bought ESPN, and then they started making them have Donald Duck do the play-by-play commentary on all hockey games?

Some of you have kind of a dumb viewpoint on what it means for one company to acquire another.

I would totally start watching hockey if that happened.

 

[eot]

SMH
$270 for the dev kit leaves $9300 for Carmack. Do you really think he would have paid $9,300 to meet Carmack outside the context of the Kickstarter and helping push a project he believed in forward? Not likely.

What he paid for was plainly stated on the kickstarter page.
If he thought he paid for something else that's his problem. Those $9,730 were a tip.

 

[Tobor]

Yeah i doubt it, i think Sony is more concerned because now they will be the only one seriously pushing VR for gaming.

Did no one pay attention during Sony's unveil of Morpheus at GDC? They said the exact same kind of stuff Zuckerberg did as far as applications beyond gaming.

You would have to be mental to not see the possible applications of VR beyond gaming. That doesn't mean gaming is suddenly an afterthought.