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[gutterboy44]

Well, as a side effect, our "likes" on Facebook will be ultra low latency from now on.

 

[border]

Why did the owners need 2 billion? The company was on the fast-track to success long before Facebook stepped in.

They were at best 18 months away from shipping a product, with no discernible revenue stream.

Cash infusion accelerates the entire process. You can hire more engineers, better engineers. Build more prototypes, get sensors and software debugged faster, etc, etc.

 

[atr0cious]

Nowhere in that post did I ever say that VR is JUST games. And you still havent explained why you came to a gaming enthusiast message board only to be surprised you found people laser focused on the gaming aspects of this technology.



As is only confirming the hypothetical positives. Im glad we agree. Your shock is still just as strange to me however.



Yeah, patent wise there's nothing there. OR could crash and burn under facebook and VR would still be just as viable so long as someone pursued it. Its not the end of the medium at all.

So Facebook puts ads on the Rift, now what? PC gamers aren't going to mod it? Facebook money gives them the ability to offer the best specs for the right price, but if you're gonna turn your nose up at the Rift because it comes with a free Facebook account, your mind is already set.

Does anyone really think Sony is not going to partner up with ad agencies, on their low powered closed box, that will be too expensive for mass consumption? Who was the HMD for and how much did that cost? Now that's naive.

 

[SaberEdge]

ITT: people who think VR hardware is somehow locked to proprietary software that Facebook now control in some way.

Naysayers have no idea what they're talking about, this investment has nothing to do with completely derailing Oculus hardware development to insert an ad serving platform. The reason for the acquisition is that FB obviously wants in on the ground floor of an industry they see rapid growth of in the next couple of years. By acquiring the leading VR hardware/software team in the world they are giving themselves a competitive advantage whenever VR takes off, in terms of experimenting with implementation of VR apps, how socialising within VR could work, etc. What this means is that, for example, whenever sports teams, theatres, concerts etc start selling digital seating through VR, Facebook have given themselves a much better bargaining position as the payments provider for these kinds of transactions by being a de facto choice (in terms of quality and market presence) early on. This allows Facebook to completely sidestep entrenched media stores (Google Play Music, iTunes) and beat them to the marketplace for what is basically a new medium (VR media).

None of this negatively impacts the headset, which is a piece of hardware. If anything the price of high quality components will be driven down much more quickly over time once Facebook and other companies start sourcing VR display components in bulk similarly to smartphones.

Somebody that really gets it, how refreshing.

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

John Carmack works for Facebook now.....

....I think that is worse than the Romero Bitch Ad lol.....


Well interest in OR is at 0 now.

 

[bbalde]

He's just young and likely very naive.

He is actually smart... Lots of people were questioning their abilities to mass product OR Vs an advantage SONY had. Not anymore...

 

[GuitarAtomik]

2 billion? Jesus. Palmer must be feeling Luckey.

 

[Cyrano]

honestly, i'm not going to question the intelligence of a dude who started an empire from his basement. he probably has more business training and savvy in his short years heading a company like occulus than we do.

You don't gain business acumen from your basement.

 

[Dr.Acula]

His interviews suggest otherwise. He is very smart, very focused, and speaks like an industry veteran.

He's gonna get Eduardo Saverin'd so hard.

 

[Metal B]

Already posted?

http://www.shareholder.com/visitors/event/build3/stage/stage.cfm?mediaid=63723&mediauserid=0

This is a conference for shareholders about the acquisition.

Not much mention of gaming, but a lot of talk about Oculus as the new social computer platform.

This sounds very worrying ...

honestly, i'm not going to question the intelligence of a dude who started an empire from his basement. he probably has more business training and savvy in his short years heading a company like occulus than we do.

He wouldn't be the first businessman, who made a big mistake by sign contract without taking all the negative possibilities in account.

 

[BeerSnob]

His interviews suggest otherwise. He is very smart, very focused, and speaks like an industry veteran.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=105793316&postcount=3264
So who wrote this then?

His statement runs directly counter to the one Zuckerberg, his new boss, is telling the investors.

 

[Symphonic]

1 Toy Story November 22, 1995
2 A Bug's Life November 25, 1998
3 Toy Story 2 November 24, 1999
4 Monsters, Inc. November 2, 2001
5 Finding Nemo May 30, 2003
6 The Incredibles November 5, 2004
DISNEY ACQUISITION
7 Cars June 9, 2006
8 Ratatouille June 29, 2007
9 WALL-E June 27, 2008
10 Up May 29, 2009
11 Toy Story 3 June 18, 2010
12 Cars 2 June 24, 2011
13 Brave June 22, 2012
14 Monsters 2 June 21, 2013
15 Planes August 9, 2013
16 Inside Out June 19, 2015
17 The Good Dinosaur November 25, 2015
18 Finding Dory June 17, 2016
19 The Incredibles 2 TBA
20 Cars 3 TBA

Yeah acquisitions don't change anything...
In 3 years top, OR will be a former of its shelf.

While Disney surely sped up their development of sequels, of-fucking-course they didn't have any sequels starting out; you have to develop the original IP first.

That being said, all of the Pixar sequels outside of Cars are excellent (Monsters University being the worst, but still great in comparison to most animated sequels), and Cars was not a great movie/franchise to start with. The Incredibles universe screams for a sequel, and while Finding Nemo doesn't need one I have no doubt it'll be good.

Funny that the Pixar sequel groaning-machine ALWAYS gets brought up.

 

[TAJ]

Now that its clear the direction we are going I have only one question: Who is the Antichrist? Palmer luckey or Mark Zuckerberg?

Marc Andreessen, clearly.

 

[mugurumakensei]

Who cares if Facebook develops a bunch of applications to leverage VR tech? I guess I'm not seeing why Facebook developing those things for a piece of hardware is more worrying than any random company developing non-gaming software for it.

Shit, Xbox and PlayStation were created to become media centres and win the living room not to be game players. People act like this is the first time a non-gaming company has entered the market.

 

[Moosichu]

Because I'm using the generally accepted definition and you're not.

Its a word being used in a certain context. I was clarifying what they meant. And in software terms android isn't that open. Its open source yes, but the lax license allow other companies to release it as closed software without the source code showing their changes.

 

[HK-47]

Is this correct?

I'm not familiar.

Probably, minus bombarding you with ads and selling your data

 

[Dire]

I don't really understand this purchase at all. It seems fairly clear that the technology behind Oculus is not behind a patent paywall given Sony's Morpheus, and I really doubt Facebook decided to just "reward" innovation. Why not simply introduce their own VR solution? Are they after the Oculus brand which is still largely in the realm of high tech enthusiast types? And while the VR hardware market will be big, it's going to look like a speck of sand on the beach when compared to the software market. If Facebook tries to control that market in any way then it's basically writing a check to Sony or any other new VR alternatives. What in the world are they doing...?

 

[CountAntonius]

To those who don't understand the frustration, this is the VR equivalent of EA buying Nintendo.

As someone not happy with this news I disagree with your comparison.

 

[crozier]

They were at best 18 months away from shipping a product, with no discernible revenue stream.

Cash infusion accelerates the entire process. You can hire more engineers, better engineers. Build more prototypes, get sensors and software debugged faster, etc, etc.

Ok, well they still didn't need a $400 million cash infusion to do their thing. This money has quite a few strings attached.

 

[Betta Lines]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=105793316&postcount=3264
So who wrote this then?

His statement runs directly counter to the one Zuckerberg, his new boss, is telling the investors.

I haven't seen it - do you have a link?

 

[Principate]

He is actually smart... Lots of people were questioning their abilities to mass product OR Vs an advantage SONY had. Not anymore...

He's smart but not for that reason. The dudes just made bank, next stop Bahamas
.

 

[espher]

LeVar Burton has been waiting for this day.

Reading's BACK, BABY!

As long as the butterflies don't come with microtransactions I am in.

 

[border]

Microsoft, Sony, Valve, EA, Activision and many more.

Microsoft is not a game-centric company.

Sony is cash poor, and not a game-centric company.

EA has not had a profitable year in a long time.

Valves financials are completely unknown.

Only Activision and Nintendo might have had enough cash-on-hand to buy Occulus.

 

[Durante]

Yeah, patent wise there's nothing there. OR could crash and burn under facebook and VR would still be just as viable so long as someone pursued it. Its not the end of the medium at all.

Pretty much. It also helps that the API for a HMD is easily abstracted. Would be nice to get an industry standard for that though.

Everyone who is not either Facebook or Sony should get together and form a consortium for something like OpenHMD. That's their chance to compete on the market. (Of course, Sony and FB would be welcome to join)

 

[TomShoe]

This is completely dishonest about why Pixar's quality declined; all the senior creatives in Pixar got the senior creative positions in the merged company, while the senior creatives from Disney were sidelined or left the company entirely. The idea that Disney sapped the Pixar magic is not true. John Lasseter is Disney's top creative and has been since the merger. He was the one that cancelled Disney's version of Toy Story 3 and other spinoff and DTV cheapquels, and he's the one that's greenlit Pixar's version of Toy Sotyr 3, subsequent Disney/Pixar spinoffs and cheapquels.

The comparison would be if Zuckerberg was ousted from Facebook during the OR purchase, Carmack or whoever became Facebook's CEO, and then years later OR went to shit. Is that what you expect to occur here?

Just because a person becomes a high-up in a new company after a merger, doesn't mean they can't be influenced by even higher-ups within said company.

I don't think Disney's board of Directors would be very happy if Lasseter went and killed a third rendition of the Toy Story series, a franchise that is a guaranteed money printer.

 

[BeerSnob]

I haven't seen it - do you have a link?

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/25/why-facebook-bought-oculus/
This has bits of it, but the entire investor's call was posted up the thread a bit. Hang on I'll get the link in a sec.

http://www.shareholder.com/visitors/event/build3/stage/stage.cfm?mediaid=63723&mediauserid=0

 

[Mlatador]

Haha, amazing! Castle Vidcons really tells the story of the Video Game Industry one great comic panel by one.

 

[TheOohChild]

I don't like Facebook, but I don't really understand why this is bad. The only thing immediately apparent to me is that OR is going to have better funding.

 

[Hale-XF11]

He may not be, but he might be naive.

Time will tell.

At the very least, his entire reputation is on the line. So...there's that.

 

[Bsigg12]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=105793316&postcount=3264
So who wrote this then?

His statement runs directly counter to the one Zuckerberg, his new boss, is telling the investors.

Palmer is doing damage control on the enthusiast side. It will still be game oriented however Facebook will now be able to utilize it in other ways as well. Zuckerburg is explaining how they'll make money on a $2 billion investment for a VR hardware company that has yet to release a non development kit profuct..

 

[Metal B]

He is actually smart... Lots of people were questioning their abilities to mass product OR Vs an advantage SONY had. Not anymore...

By getting bought from a software company, who hasn't any kind of experience in mass production?

 

[atr0cious]

Just because a person becomes a high-up in a new company after a merger, doesn't mean they can't be influenced by even higher-ups within said company.

I don't think Disney's board of Directors would be very happy if Lasseter went and killed a third rendition of the Toy Story series, a franchise that is a guaranteed money printer.

Lasseter shut down the CGI animation studios of Disney for a bit, and forced them to go back to handdrawn, while putting all the CGI projects through Pixar. Lasseter can do whatever he wants, and it sounds like so can Luckey.

 

[rjcc]

Does anyone here think Oculus was going to be able to fight Sony and (insert whoever else is to come here) by themselves?

also, did you think there were never going to be ads in virtual reality ever?

people are kidding themselves.

 

[ScepticMatt]

Everyone who is not either Facebook or Sony should get together and form a consortium for something like OpenHMD. That's their chance to compete on the market. (Of course, Sony and FB would be welcome to join)

Yes, that's what I'm hoping for too.
Maybe Valve could lead the way.

 

[Freeman]

As someone not happy with this news I disagree with your comparison.

You are welcomed.

 

[corn_fest]

ITT: people who think VR hardware is somehow locked to proprietary software that Facebook now control in some way.

Naysayers have no idea what they're talking about, this investment has nothing to do with completely derailing Oculus hardware development to insert an ad serving platform. The reason for the acquisition is that FB obviously wants in on the ground floor of an industry they see rapid growth of in the next couple of years. By acquiring the leading VR hardware/software team in the world they are giving themselves a competitive advantage whenever VR takes off, in terms of experimenting with implementation of VR apps, how socialising within VR could work, etc. What this means is that, for example, whenever sports teams, theatres, concerts etc start selling digital seating through VR, Facebook have given themselves a much better bargaining position as the payments provider for these kinds of transactions by being a de facto choice (in terms of quality and market presence) early on. This allows Facebook to completely sidestep entrenched media stores (Google Play Music, iTunes) and beat them to the marketplace for what is basically a new medium (VR media).

None of this negatively impacts the headset, which is a piece of hardware. If anything the price of high quality components will be driven down much more quickly over time once Facebook and other companies start sourcing VR display components in bulk similarly to smartphones.

Thank you, put it better than I ever could. For fuck's sake, people. This outrage is childish and embarrassing.

 

[D4Danger]

I think Facebook was not the only company that was interested in buying Oculus VR. Maybe other like MS, Google etc. offered them a lot of money too and FB had to overbid them all.

I'm sure there's a lot of vc money on the line too which is why you'd accept the highest bidder (even if it's not from necessarily the best company). I'm just saying for my own selfish reasons I wish they'd ended up at Valve.

 

[HK-47]

Lasseter shut down the CGI animation studios of Disney for a bit, and forced them to go back to handdrawn, while putting all the CGI projects through Pixar. Lasseter can do whatever he wants, and it sounds like so can Luckey.

What do you mean by forced them to go back to hand drawn?

 

[border]

Ok, well they still didn't need a $400 million cash infusion to do their thing. This money has quite a few strings attached.

They needed to work faster. They do not have any patented technology in the Occulus Rift, so any faster and better-funded operation could swoop in and steal their market. I'm inclined to speculate that Sony's Morpheus kinda spooked them into this.

 

[mugurumakensei]

To clarify Zuckerberg's statements, he's basically saying Facebook will create a VR social network utilizing OR. He also mentions facebook is not a hw company. As such, there's an implicit statement that hw development and the OR SDK will be left to Oculus.

 

[Truespeed]

So John Carmack is now a Facebook employee?

THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.

 

[Betta Lines]

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/25/why-facebook-bought-oculus/
This has bits of it, but the entire investor's call was posted up the thread a bit. Hang on I'll get the link in a sec.

http://www.shareholder.com/visitors/event/build3/stage/stage.cfm?mediaid=63723&mediauserid=0

I haven't listened to it all, but I've seen the key points which you are probably referring to, and I don't see how it is going against what Palmer is saying. Facebook's ideas outside of gaming in VR is in addition to gaming.

 

[railGUN]

This is me, except replace "playoffs" with "Facebook".

 

[Sectorseven]

Can someone please give an example of social VR? I guess I'm just not very creative.

 

[Mushroomer25]

To those who don't understand the frustration, this is the VR equivalent of EA buying Nintendo.

It.. really, really isn't. EA already has a vested interest in videogames. Facebook does not.

This is the VR equivalence of Facebook buying Nintendo. Or another large company with no existing gaming presence, buying Nintendo.

 

[Stet]

Can someone please give an example of social VR? I guess I'm just not very creative.

Playstation Home in VR.

 

[KMS]

Thank you, put it better than I ever could. For fuck's sake, people. This outrage is childish and embarrassing.

Listen to Mark in his own words and tell me that developers won't have to bend to the rules set by Facebook to bring their software to the Oculus. In the short term can only hope it's released as a stand alone product with a driver only with no software suite.

 

[Truespeed]

Can someone please give an example of social VR? I guess I'm just not very creative.

Second Life and PlayStation Home.

 

[enzo_gt]

Can someone please give an example of social VR? I guess I'm just not very creative.

VR Skype.

 

[GetemMa]

I don't like Facebook, but I don't really understand why this is bad. The only thing immediately apparent to me is that OR is going to have better funding.

You need to think deeper.

Oculus Rift apps will probably be run through Facebook the same way Zynga games are run through Facebook.

The same way you would sign into Steam or Origin, now you will need a facebook account to use OR apps.

It could also change the entire type of software being developed for the OR. What once was an open development platform could very easily turn into a toy that Facebook will use to give some mild rejuvenation to it's business model by emphasizing social experiences.

Gamers were looking forward to this tech changing the game in the videogame industry at least in first person games and interactive story experiences. Now, that could change completely for the OR.

VR tours and VR farmville instead of VR Battlefield because EA doesn't want to share the goods with Facebook. Get it?