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Facebook has acquired Oculus VR for 2 Billion US Dollars
- Thread starter ShogunDarius
- Start date
KoopaTheCasual
Junior Member
Highly unlikely that they'd tether it to Facebook website. That's a dying platform and they realize it. They want the VR space to be their new space. Just like Instagram has been good for them.
Far, far, far too near-sighted. They'll basically create a network parallel to the tradition "internet" for VR users, with potential to be just as massive. (It will also obviously be able to access the normal internet)
Speculation of course.
Alternatively, people don't like the corporate interests of an advertising company to heavily influence the future of the most promising new technology of the decade.
Buggy Loop
Gold Member
The Oculus Rift subreddit is pretty upset over this. The stickied post made by palmer is now negative due to the downvotes. The comments in the various threads indicate that people are canceling their dev kit orders and canceling their projects.
This really isn't looking good for them.
Surely reddit never exagerate?
Only reaction i care about are Carmack's and Newell's. Nobody else matters at this point.
I'm not, he works for Facebook now, so just like how he was everything is A-ok during his Zenimax days even when it wasn't going well.
On the bright side: VRs chance of going mainstream just got a whole lot bigger.
We're almost into conspiracy theorist territory when people start stating that you can't trust anyone who might know anything about the thing your theories deal with.
The Dear Leader
Banned
The Oculus Rift subreddit is pretty upset over this. The stickied post made by palmer is now negative due to the downvotes. The comments in the various threads indicate that people are canceling their dev kit orders and canceling their projects.
This really isn't looking good for them.
Notch spoke in that thread a little bit about some of his thoughts.
http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbx1nu
KoopaTheCasual
Junior Member
Yea, perhaps I'm being overly pessimistic. Like I saw an earlier comment of yours, CV1 will likely remain completely unchanged, and will have no influence from Facebook. So I guess it still will have its wild years (albeit shorter than it would have been without Facebook buyout). I just wish the end of that uncharted glory wasn't already on the horizon. But on the upside the buyout just fast-tracked adoption, most likely. You win some ya lose some.
Am I the only person who was a fan of Oculus before this news broke, and is legitimately not bothered by it?
I've never seen so many stupid assumptions based on conjecture and emotions in my life. Every comment thread and forum post about this news story is a complete clusterfuck. People on Reddit are literally downvoting posts by Palmer answering questions and giving information about the terms of the acquisition, making the responses harder to see.
I guess I'll check back in a couple days when people start using their brains again (oh who am I kidding?).
I've never seen so many stupid assumptions based on conjecture and emotions in my life. Every comment thread and forum post about this news story is a complete clusterfuck. People on Reddit are literally downvoting posts by Palmer answering questions and giving information about the terms of the acquisition, making the responses harder to see.
I guess I'll check back in a couple days when people start using their brains again (oh who am I kidding?).
Great. I just generally love stuff I'm interested in achieving mainstream popularity.
Why, I remember when cRPGs went mainstream, and a grand ol' time was had by all.
Sorry for the greater than average dose of sarcasm, I think I'm off to sleep now
BuggeryBugz
Member
Probably best to quote my whole post as I explain why it's good for them and gamers.
I completely understand people being a bit hesitant about the deal until we know the details in full but I can't help but think that this is nothing but good news for VR.
If Sony was smart, they'd put Morpheus on PC before Oculus launched.
Does not compute.
The masses aren't going to spend the money to get better hardware, and better hardware than what they are currently using is going to cost more, not less.
The fact is that to make this a "mainstream" device they will actually have to cut back on the hardware and make it much cheaper. It will never be mainstream at the current specs (or better) or at the current devkit prices, which are cheaper than the retail are supposed to be.
SneakySneaks
Member
So a social media (ad sellers) with dwindling teen and young adult customers (sale data) is going to buy a very cool, but niche device for 2 billion. What the fuck are they thinking? This seems like a horrible buy unless Oculus becomes a quintessential purchase.
Thanks for the link. Never saw his comments.
That post is so hilariously condescending.
Yup pretty much.
IAmRandom31
Banned
VR was going mainstream eventually anyway. It was just going to take a solid price point to do it.
This just ensures that one of the first devices out the door is designed with the regular consumer in mind instead of gamers, which is the first market Oculus was going after.
When historians read this thread however long from now, it will be this line of commentary that most amuses them.
This acquisition will only benefit VR in terms of hardware, visibility, and resources being invested into it. Even if the original vision behind the Oculus Rift is completely corrupted, not only is it now in a position to have vastly more impact than it ever was before, but that impact will help guarantee it's far from the only avenue for VR.
In general, it's reasonable enough to be down on the Oculus Rift specifically after today's events, but the "we are now decades behind" talk is insane.
You're making that part up.
Nobody else matters?
Surely you would care that a good amount of your developers for your product canceled their upcoming projects for your device.
I think it's time to accept the fate of Oculus. No one wants to develop for Facebook.
metareferential
Member
We're just talking about general technology, though.
You said it yourself: nothing can stop competitors from offering an alternative. So it's definitely good if VR goes mainstream.
We'll get our high-end gaming-oriented version sooner rather than later (from Oculus or somebody else, why should we care?).
NathanMcMahon
Banned
haha
CountAntonius
Member
LOL Some of these posts man.
Lots of people pay in advance for commissioned, custom work.
When you need a house built, do you think a contractor will work for free until the project has been completed?
So you're saying more money isn't needed for Oculus to get where they want? Of course none of that is possible right now, but having an actual player in the industry makes it possible for them to be taken seriously by more than a NeoGaf member. They can create their own lenses now, which they couldn't before. Now they can actually beat Sony hands down, but that's a bad thing? Ads will always be a part of the net. Even the early days had bots going from chatroom to chatroom advertising things.
Stop thinking so small, VR is for more than just games, and in the end, the games won't even be a check on the box because it'll be a given, Zuckers is interested in the future. But for the future to happen, the Rift has to be the best possible experience and gamers do have to embrace it first, as they are the only ones who will tech a chance so early.
And sorry, I'm a writer, so repetition is annoying to me, especially when the guy is informal and doesn't care himself.
Throwing more thoughts out there:
Just because a huge company has a product doesn't mean it will be magically mainstream. Look at Google+ for example.
Second of all, the main market that IS interested in Oculus Rift seems to be really turned off by this acquisition, so there's loss of users right there. I do not see many average facebook joe's randomly throwing couple of hundred dollars just to enter a virtual world.
Third of all, a larger userbase isn't necessarily better for Oculus. Just look at games. Does the quality of games increase if the game has a bigger audience? Just look at Call of Duty or free to play mobile games.
Just because a huge company has a product doesn't mean it will be magically mainstream. Look at Google+ for example.
Second of all, the main market that IS interested in Oculus Rift seems to be really turned off by this acquisition, so there's loss of users right there. I do not see many average facebook joe's randomly throwing couple of hundred dollars just to enter a virtual world.
Third of all, a larger userbase isn't necessarily better for Oculus. Just look at games. Does the quality of games increase if the game has a bigger audience? Just look at Call of Duty or free to play mobile games.
call_kotaku
Member
Didn't Ben Kuchera write an opinion piece about how Oculus was going to lead the charge for VR tech and Sony would be content to just follow the market? I guess Ben "Sony will have DRM" Kuchera jinxed it.
It's sort of funny in hindsight because of all the people who dismissed VR because it would fail without consoles and will never see mass market adoption. Be careful what you wish for I guess.
That said, I agree that if Carmack ever leaves it's a definite sign to abandon ship.
It's sort of funny in hindsight because of all the people who dismissed VR because it would fail without consoles and will never see mass market adoption. Be careful what you wish for I guess.
That said, I agree that if Carmack ever leaves it's a definite sign to abandon ship.
KoopaTheCasual
Junior Member
Ding Ding Ding.
Sony is looking to get absolutely buried, if they don't launch to an audience of equal size, and jump in front of this VR movement. Facebook will help with better production chains and possess a marketing arm unlike anything ever seen before. Sony needs to release on PC if they don't want Morpheus to be "that weird piece of Playstation proprietary equipment"
BuggeryBugz
Member
I would have agreed with you before the acquisition but they now have a chance to sell this for lower than they expected to reach the masses as now they can afford to. Whether it will happen or not, is anyone's guess.
From palmer:
The outrage over this will die out and the success or failure of Oculus will depend on how good it is, just like it always would have.
WhatsApp has 450m users on a service already deployed and iterated. Oculus isn't even on the market yet.
Easy to understand the price disparity here.
moltonasty
Member
I really would love to hear Carmack's thoughts on this.
TheChewyWaffles
Member
Except that the tailor is an established business with a marketable product. Most kickstarters are, by definition, not. Risks are the key.
Higher volume means lower per unit costs. OR as a startup cannot reach those critical mass volumes. The 400 million in cash allows them to buy serious manufacturing and reduce the margins. It literally could mean better hardware, cheaper.
But who knows what FB's plans are ultimately.
ZehDon
Banned
... he helped build a social media platform, before bringing other people on board to grow and manage the company. I understand your point, though: taking someone seriously relies on more than just words or presentation. I agree. But hindsight is wonderful. Mark Zuckerberg is taken seriously because had a great idea, and people wanted in on it. The poster I was responding to was presenting relatively unrealistic and un-grounded ideas, and their choice of naming conventions in context made it difficult for me to take those ideas seriously. A good idea presented in a goofy way can be taken seriously. A questionable idea presented in a goofy way, less so.
Said he admires the scale Facebook operates at and wants that same scale for VR. Don't expect anyone to be negative about this.
That's an oxymoron. How does a kickstarter convince anyone to fund it if it's not marketable in any way? Obviously someone liked it enough to spend their money on it.
Coulomb_Barrier
Member
Notch cancelling a VR version of Minecraft on Occulus after this deal and effectively making VR Minecraft a PS4 exclusive. Question: is that a big deal?
This probably won't land until late 2015 mind.
This probably won't land until late 2015 mind.
I find it very alarming that they didn't announce PC support from the get-go.