He's now an employee of FB. I don't expect him to badmouth them at all.
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Facebook has acquired Oculus VR for 2 Billion US Dollars
- Thread starter ShogunDarius
- Start date
He's now an employee of FB. I don't expect him to badmouth them at all.
Outrages don't always die out. Especially when there's competition. If Sony makes their Morpheus available for PC, people will choose a company they can trust. Especially people interested in VR. They tend to care more about that kind of stuff.
CountAntonius
Member
Because they are trying to sell consoles.
Mister Chippy
Member
Well, I'm done freaking out. Time to be realistic here.
Firstly, this is actually really cool. If this does become the technology of the future, then we gamers will actually have played a huge part in shaping the world. That's actually pretty awesome. Plus, even if it's not used primarily for games VR is still something that I've always wanted and I think facebook has the money to make it happen. I'm sad the the Rift is likely not going to be primarily a gaming platform, but honestly I think this is a pretty good thing in the long run. Plus, it's not like there aren't competitors.
Firstly, this is actually really cool. If this does become the technology of the future, then we gamers will actually have played a huge part in shaping the world. That's actually pretty awesome. Plus, even if it's not used primarily for games VR is still something that I've always wanted and I think facebook has the money to make it happen. I'm sad the the Rift is likely not going to be primarily a gaming platform, but honestly I think this is a pretty good thing in the long run. Plus, it's not like there aren't competitors.
Michael Cera publicly stated he had no interest in Arrested Development season 4, and ended up writing half of it. Let everyone kneejerk and come back a month or so later when Rift starts talking about the "improvements" this acquisition brought.
Not if Oculus is better and has more support. No one will care who owns the company.
And gaming will still be the main priority according to Mark.
Of course people would rather just believe the worst, it's easier to have a knee jerk reaction than just wait and see.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Right, but he goes by Zuck so I'm not sure how points for or against this acquisition are hurt by someone calling him what he likes to go by. The weirdness here isn't that people are referring to him unprofessionally, it's that somehow a burnout kid ended up an entrepreneur so the traditional rules of decorum for people in a position of power are turned upsidedown.
andrerobot
Member
So what is going to happen to Oculus if the services thing doesn´t take off? If Facebook doesn't pretend to make it profitable from the get go, then I guess they'll kill it after they realize it's a money sink.
I'm not sure why any thought Carmack would badmouth this or leave. He just cares about coding for whatever interests him at the moment.
TheLostBigBoss
Banned
Doesn't this show a huge flaw in funding Kickstarter?
They just took around 2.5 million in pledged money from 10,000 people and turned it into 2 billion.
These people who pledged money will see nothing out of this, they just sold the company.
They can take the money and run, and the people who initially funded this will have nothing to actually get their money back.
There needs to be a kickstarter like system where the people who invest actually have a share in the company, that way the people who actually back the product have to live up to their claims and can't just sell out, while rewarding early investors if something like this happens.
I mean really, where else in the world can you make a product with such low risk, high reward initial investment?
They just took around 2.5 million in pledged money from 10,000 people and turned it into 2 billion.
These people who pledged money will see nothing out of this, they just sold the company.
They can take the money and run, and the people who initially funded this will have nothing to actually get their money back.
There needs to be a kickstarter like system where the people who invest actually have a share in the company, that way the people who actually back the product have to live up to their claims and can't just sell out, while rewarding early investors if something like this happens.
I mean really, where else in the world can you make a product with such low risk, high reward initial investment?
The Dear Leader
Banned
This whole thing just feels like when your favorite band sells out and releases a shitty concept album to try and capture the tween markets, just feels scummy. This move took all the wind out of Oculus' sails in my opinion. Turned Oculus from a small indie upstart with a lot of passion to another corporate branch that will probably get ran into the ground. I hope I'm proven wrong but my gut is telling I'll probably be disappointed.
As a KS backer who is not happy about this, no, not at all.
Why is this indicative of a flaw?
he was an executive at Oculus, with his own wealth, before the deal closed.
if he didn't like it, he'd have already walked out. he doesn't have to be there tomorrow
Jibbajabbawockky
Member
wut
Seriously... what the hell?
Seriously... what the hell?
T
thepotatoman
Unconfirmed Member
When Microsoft was getting into gaming and said they wanted to own the living room everyone imagined windows in a box focused more on non-gaming things than gaming things. In the end they did much better towards gamers than the pessimists expected, but as time goes on they have done more and more to prove the original pessimists right, particularly with the Xbox One.
This could very well be a similar situation.
This could very well be a similar situation.
This "huge flaw" has been known from day one. You back at your own risk. Your money has never been a share in the company.
Huh? There was no scenario where anyone who purchased anything on the Kickstarter got anything but what they purchased on Kickstarter. This acquisition changes absolutely nothing in that regard.
Oculus generated close to $90 million worth in investments. Kickstarter was $2.5 million of that.
Mister Chippy
Member
Yeah, honestly I think he's probably nonplussed by this at worst and is most likely thrilled to have all these resources at his disposal now. I've never heard him have any problem with facebook before, no reason to start having one now that they've probably promised to let him do something like make a whole virtual world type thing.
No, we're having this exact conversation in another thread. The Kickstarter was for the DK1, which they delivered. As a backer, you are not investing in a company but rather pre buying a product, you have zero equity in the company. Kickstarter is a platform to spring board off of and grow from, Oculus is the golden child of Kickstarter working at its best.
Chill Penguin
Member
The smartest thing Sony could do now is make their camera and vr tech compatible with pc. People will buy ps4 in droves anyway, and after this news they could scoop up a lot of the pissed off oculus backers.
People who donated (which is all kickstarter is - a donation) know what they would get in return for their contribution. Oculus would not have been been worth 2 billion dollars if it weren't for the backers. That is a real success story. Now Oculus Rift has the possibility to be a massive, massive product and could reach high that would not have been possible without the funds that a company like Facebook will provide.
Oculus was the high end device no? Sony VR is restricted by its platform.
Doctoglethorpe
Member
HeavenlyStriker
Member
therein lies your answer.
some things got to give. i don't believe the "after gaming" bit at all.
so say bye bye to immersive high end vr gaming.
and say hello to cool stylized vr glasses with "social" messages, images and adverts naggin at your eyeballs 24/7.
Not until those shares are vested, at least.
TheLostBigBoss
Banned
They just got two billion from a buyout and you are seeing none of that from your investment.
Wait, strike that. It's not an investment, it's a donation. That's my issue.
I think Kickstarter would be a much better system if it worked off actually investing and being able to pull out if your don't like the direction where the product is going, instead of hoping for the best.
Or best case you make a profit because the company your invested in just got bought out for two fucking billion.
KoopaTheCasual
Junior Member
While the folks at Oculus are more than an adversary for the combined research of Sony and NASA, Sony probably did not consider Oculus to be able to match their marketing and production. Sony probably thought they could enter the Playstation ecosystem at a lower price point than the CV1, with a much bigger marketing push to the casual crowd. They probably thought they could slowly roll out PC support, once Morpheus pushed PS4 sales out the ass.
Now. They no longer have this luxury. Overnight, they've lost their marketing and financial advantage. They really need to launch on PC if they don't want to be left with scraps.
john carmack's twitter
https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/448631990560903169
"I suppose I will get a FB account now, so that may lead to some writing a little longer than tweet length..."
hahahaha
https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/448631990560903169
"I suppose I will get a FB account now, so that may lead to some writing a little longer than tweet length..."
hahahaha
Mister Chippy
Member
I don't think it'll stay platform restricted for very long. Sony is more than a videogame company after all, they make all sorts of other technology. It wouldn't make sense for them to limit the potential earnings they could get from having a VR product to just people who had a PS4.
So the flaw is that it doesn't do the thing you want it to do that it never said it did?
It'll probably be nicer in the short term, a better quality CV1 with more marketing, software and consumer interest, but it's the future that I'm concerned about. Being bought out by anybody, whether Facebook, Google, Samsung means they have access to all of Oculus' patents, which could diminish innovation and VR upstarts in the future. If this does become big it'll just be another patent war.
Chill Penguin
Member
Not anymore. 99% of Facebook users are on some crappy pc, laptop, or tablet. You can bet OR is going to aim at an even lower denominator than ps4 now.
I want Sony to compete directly with Oculus Rift, but at the same time it would probably be a bloodbath.
Artakartel
Banned
They Lupe Fiasco'd, in other words.
Wait, why did they buy Occulus and not CastAR then?
I swear, some of you come up with the most ridiculous ideas...
VR will be such a small market at first that it won't be a big deal.
That's the thing you guys need to understand, and why Facebook isn't going to fuck up Oculus' roadmap. They need to establish Oculus as a viable technology first. And to do that, they need to become successful in the gaming market. That market isn't that big, in Facebook's view, it's mainly next-gen consoles and high end PCs.
But for Oculus to establish themselves and VR as a means of interaction, they need to get that hardcore market first. So Facebook isn't going to push their services on you, because they know you don't want that shit. They know you'll go to someone else if they do.
But they're playing the long game. A decade from now when most machines will be capable of doing VR with ease, then the market is a lot larger. Suddenly there's a market for the bullshit that Facebook wants to sell. And what better way to make sure that people use their software and services then to make the hardware as well. Apple will tell you that.
So them coming out and saying that they're still committed to gaming and aren't going to force you into Facebook's services, and Zuckerberg saying they see Oculus as the next communications platform are not mutually exclusive. They can do both, but for Facebook to capture the market they really want, the reason they payed $2 billion for Oculus, they have to nail the gaming part first. Because if they don't and they scare everyone off, then they threw that money out the window.
From Palmer's answers on Reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgc07mj?context=3
Can't tell if:
1) He's being misled.
2) He's misleading us.
3) Really..?
http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgc07mj?context=3
Can't tell if:
1) He's being misled.
2) He's misleading us.
3) Really..?
Well the thing is whatever FB puts out there has to be somewhat high end like what Sony and Oculus put out there, at minimum. Anything lower and you get heavy motion sickness which nobody would wants. Facebook is not going to be able to put out some cheap VR that can be run on low end PCs so everybody can play.
As for this news, I'm conflicted I see good and bad, I'm going to wait until the dust settles before making up my mind and I suggest others do the same before making rash decisions like canceling rift preorders.
Save 'N Quit
Banned
I'm super late on this and don't really have time to read a 75+ thread.
But
At that 2 billion.
But
At that 2 billion.
TheLostBigBoss
Banned
Well sure, I think it would be better if it did what I want it to do.
So in my eyes it's a flaw that it doesn't do it.
It was but do you think facebook is seriously going to put out a high end tech VR?
FB is going for something more mainstream then high end PC games.
thelatestmodel
Junior, please.
Jeez, I step away from the internet for a few hours, and this happens. Very concerned.
If I don't have my VR headset in time for Star Citizen, there will be hell to pay.
If I don't have my VR headset in time for Star Citizen, there will be hell to pay.
The Dear Leader
Banned
Yeah that's definitely what I fear, innovation is the central pillar to VR right now in these early stages.
I did say was.