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Facebook has acquired Oculus VR for 2 Billion US Dollars
- Thread starter ShogunDarius
- Start date
Occam's Razor.
cooltrainer
Member
/v/ meltdowns are the best. Komm susser Tod is so perfect for their reaction lol.
MrCunningham
Member
Holy shit at this news... I'm not sure what to think about it.
Carmack: "I can't hear you over the sound of all this flapping money"
Carmack: "I can't hear you over the sound of all this flapping money"
Mister Chippy
Member
I think so. At least I hope so. From the sound of it they're chasing the sort of "second life in real life" dream, which would imply that they want the best VR they can get.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Imagine if someone invested big money on Oculus...
Potentially all three. Definitely 2.
ramuh
Member
The real winners in this deal is the "real" investors of Oculus. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, it let Oculus line up the "real" investors in exchange of part of the company. Those investors got a huge payday today. People who spend money on Kickstarter need to understand the fine details of what you have donating to. I hate the word that some Kickstarter campaign uses, "Invest". It's not invest, its simply you pay this much, you get this. Or "donation".
gamergirly
Member
I'm super late on this and don't really have time to read a 75+ thread.
But
At that 2 billion.
That's about my reaction
Holy shit at this news... I'm not sure what to think about it.
Carmack: "I can't hear you over the sound of all this flapping money"
Carmack dont need the money. All he cares about is a new challenge in programming. He's already rich.
Glorified G
Member
What a bunch of nonsense. The real money is in software sales and Sony with morpheus is going to have exclusive software too one of the hottest consoles in history right now that they can't keep on shelves and selling every single one they make. The target audience for Oculus hasn't changed. No 'marketing arm' is going to shift consumers to $1000 high end rigs.
VR isn't VHS vs. Betamax or Blu Ray vs HD DVD. Console and PC are two separate markets, this deal hasn't changed that
hemtae
Member
I'm fairly sure this won't affect CV1 at least.
Well, you're being a little hyperbolic. Sony still has a significant advantage in both manufacturing and engineering. Neither Oculus nor Facebook have much practical experience in those spheres. Sony wants it as a straight entertainment platform, anyway. This news will give them a boost in content acquisition which will likely allow them to push to market sooner.
I see where oculus and Sony are after these events as in totally different places.
I posted this in the other thread, but I suppose it's applicable to both. Anyway, I honestly believe people are overreacting to this whole situation. This won't be noticed by anyone, but I might as well put my predictions out there...
The acquisition will, undoubtedly, assist Oculus in bringing CV1 to the market in an even better form than it would be without. $2 billion is not pocket change, and they now have the financial backing to dictate to hardware manufacturers that will create the products they desire.
People will see little to no effect of the Facebook acquisition until the launch of CV1 and most likely a little after where Facebook will eventually bring out a social, Second-Life-like, PlayStation Home-like, VR MMO to the market. I believe this is where Facebook sees their profit opportunity in Oculus. Facebook does not care directly about the hardware, nor do they care about people using it for gaming. What Facebook has acquired this for is so they can create a social VR MMO - something that I've seen many people ask for, albeit from a gaming company and not Facebook.
And yes, this will have advertisements on it. Not very obtrusively like some of you seem to be speculating, but imagine VR billboards as you walk down a street or watching a video in VR will have an advertisement before it (no different than YouTube). Facebook will also expand this VR MMO to include their more casual gaming line - so imagine this MMO will now have Farmville integrated.
I do not disagree that this sounds terrible, but my prediction is that this will remain its own separate entity and, guess what! If you don't want to play Facebook's shitty VR MMO, you don't have to play Facebook's shitty VR MMO!
In terms of the gaming-sphere, Facebook won't touch it. Oculus will continue to operate independently as it has before to bring good gaming VR to the market.
Moving into future versions of the Rift (CV2, CV3...), the acquisition will have minimal affect beyond providing Oculus with more resources to improve the quality of their product. You might see one or two useless features in there for the purpose of Facebook's MMO, but usage of these features will be up to developers to integrate them, so they'll likely be ignored for the hardcore gaming population.
TL;DR: All in all, I'm not happy about the acquisition, but I believe that people are vastly overreacting. I will withhold judgement until I see something concrete that sways me one way or another. My predictions are that this will vastly assist Oculus in bringing a better platform to the market, quicker, with no interruption to their original vision. In the future, Facebook will utilize their new hardware to bring a social VR MMO to the market where they'll bombard you with ads, but this will not negatively affect the Rift as you don't have to play their game.
The acquisition will, undoubtedly, assist Oculus in bringing CV1 to the market in an even better form than it would be without. $2 billion is not pocket change, and they now have the financial backing to dictate to hardware manufacturers that will create the products they desire.
People will see little to no effect of the Facebook acquisition until the launch of CV1 and most likely a little after where Facebook will eventually bring out a social, Second-Life-like, PlayStation Home-like, VR MMO to the market. I believe this is where Facebook sees their profit opportunity in Oculus. Facebook does not care directly about the hardware, nor do they care about people using it for gaming. What Facebook has acquired this for is so they can create a social VR MMO - something that I've seen many people ask for, albeit from a gaming company and not Facebook.
And yes, this will have advertisements on it. Not very obtrusively like some of you seem to be speculating, but imagine VR billboards as you walk down a street or watching a video in VR will have an advertisement before it (no different than YouTube). Facebook will also expand this VR MMO to include their more casual gaming line - so imagine this MMO will now have Farmville integrated.
I do not disagree that this sounds terrible, but my prediction is that this will remain its own separate entity and, guess what! If you don't want to play Facebook's shitty VR MMO, you don't have to play Facebook's shitty VR MMO!
In terms of the gaming-sphere, Facebook won't touch it. Oculus will continue to operate independently as it has before to bring good gaming VR to the market.
Moving into future versions of the Rift (CV2, CV3...), the acquisition will have minimal affect beyond providing Oculus with more resources to improve the quality of their product. You might see one or two useless features in there for the purpose of Facebook's MMO, but usage of these features will be up to developers to integrate them, so they'll likely be ignored for the hardcore gaming population.
TL;DR: All in all, I'm not happy about the acquisition, but I believe that people are vastly overreacting. I will withhold judgement until I see something concrete that sways me one way or another. My predictions are that this will vastly assist Oculus in bringing a better platform to the market, quicker, with no interruption to their original vision. In the future, Facebook will utilize their new hardware to bring a social VR MMO to the market where they'll bombard you with ads, but this will not negatively affect the Rift as you don't have to play their game.
I'm super late on this and don't really have time to read a 75+ thread.
But
At that 2 billion.
They got it for a steal
But that's then a flaw with any product you buy from a company. I didn't get a share of Lays when I bought this bag of chips!
In all seriousness though I do believe there are legal restrictions that don't allow investment into companies that way. Work is being done to change that because it would be fantastic. It's just not what Kickstarter was ever designed to be, so comparing it against that isn't really fair.
valkillmore
Member
Huge boost to Project Morpheus' chances of serious traction as a platform due to this announcement. This is nothing but good for gaming. I trust Palmer to deliver on his promises.
Mister Chippy
Member
From the sound of it they're thinking about maybe making some sort of virtual world. Honestly sounds like something Carmack and Facebook would both be really into trying to make happen, albeit for completely different reasons.
The Dear Leader
Banned
Holy shit at this news... I'm not sure what to think about it.
Carmack: "I can't hear you over the sound of all this flapping money"
Carmack pulled himself out of the shit, now he's getting pulled back in.
This would not be aimed at Facebook users. The Facebook platform is a diminishing one, there's a reason why they're branching out so aggressively (following in Google and Amazon's foot-steps). This is aimed at VRs inevitable end-goal (even before the buy-out), computers within the device itself. It won't happen for a while though.
The complications involved in this are... complex. The point of crowd sourcing is to get money to fund your project and still retain complete control over it.
Your idea, albeit noble, simply wouldn't work fundemantally.
I wholeheartedly disagree. VR is potential goldmine. There are tons of applications ranging from science to millitary to entertainment. Gaming, in comparison, is such a miniscule market compared to the potential that VR devices like "Morpheus" can reach out to. The money to be made in Virtual Reality, for the most part isn't in gaming and I hope that Sony realizes that. Limiting themselves to only PS4 is shooting themselves in the foot.
The idea of virtual vacations, or virtual meetups with family members has immeasurable possibilities and that's where I believe the money will be made. If Facebook (or Sony) release the right applications for VR it will be a huge product in its first years in the market.
Sony does make medical products, so it is entirely possible that they do find application for VR in the medical sciences. VR will be big.
Was his stake in Oculus public? Did he even have a share of the company?
He may move from rich to mega-rich, I suppose.
Holy shit at this news... I'm not sure what to think about it.
Carmack: "I can't hear you over the sound of all this flapping money"
If there is one person that you can trust to be brutally honest, it's Carmack. You should see his quakecon 2013 talk and thoughts on the xbox one uproar. It probably fits here nicely
ZehDon
Banned
Hahaha, that actually makes sense. I was probably a bit harsh, so please accept my apologies.
Occulus never had an issue with funding. Being able to custom-order their own hardware is great, and is a terrific benefit, absolutely. But Facebook is not a hardware company, so they're going to have to strike deals to get those components made. Now, you're automatically expecting mainstream adoption - I don't think we're going to see it adopted in numbers large enough for the kind of discounts you seem to be expecting. This isn't going to be cheap enough for impulse purchasing.
Advertisements are apart of the net, no question there. However, VR isn't inherently apart of the net, and thus advertisements are not inherently apart of VR. Until today. And why would I want to pay a premium to go into another world if that world has all the same bullshit as this one? We're potentially skipping the "fun, wild west" VR and jumping straight into "EA micro-transaction bullshit" VR. "Here's a 10 second ad before your virtual tour of the Sphinx begins on the device you already paid through the nose for". I feel that this a very valid concern.
You seem to be presenting conflicting ideas here. Gamers need to adopt VR so that VR doesn't need gamers. If this is the case, why would gamers adopt VR?
Gamers are important to VR in the same way that gamers are important to long-term computing progression. This is because, at least for the foreseeable future, locally rendered imagery is going to push VR, and no one spends money on local compute like gamers. Live action VR is a decade away, at least. Locally rendered imagery in VR requires a lot of power to make that happen, which counts out a lot of mainstream adoption due to the cost of that power and the ramifications - such as being tethered to a PC or PS4.
It's not about thinking "small", it's about understanding growth. And until we get flawless wireless VR in goggle-like-sunglasses with 200gb/sec wireless internet connections to stream the content, mainstream adoption is going to be slow. In the meantime, games and other locally rendered experiences are going to be all that VR can offer. Facebook is going to need to make money on this from day one, and placing themselves in this position given them the ability to steer the medium towards accepting in-VR advertisements.
Will VR still be awesome? Sure. Would it be better if we didn't have the shadow of in-VR ad pop-ups looming over it? No question.
Did you even read my post?
shinra-bansho
Member
Oculus now has far deeper pockets to draw from (limited by Facebook willingness in the same way Xbox and MS can't be equivocated in terms of resources), but they don't gain any production competencies via this acquisition.
Content is really king these days in any platform environment. I don't just mean games. And really Facebook brings nothing to the table there... although I suppose they can just throw some money and stock around to gain it.
What are you doing?
Well, to a certain extent I can see why Sony chose to focus on the PS4 as the delivery system for Project Morpheus.
As a quick recap of points other people have raised:
+ Mainsteam appeal: Purchasing a PS4 is simpler than purchasing a PC with the requisite specs (note, I said simpler, not more cost-effective)
+ Ease of use: Plug and play with PS4, no drivers or calibration needed (which would be the case with PC given the wide spectrum of PC configurations out there)
+ Reinforces the Sony ecosystem
+ Avoids cannabilizing the same market as Oculus Rift
The biggest takeaway from the Facebook acquisition for me is that there's some serious money behind VR in general now. If I were Sony, however, it's bittersweet, because now their main serious rival has some deep pockets to continue with development.
AlberichMX
Member
Buggy Loop
Gold Member
Uh... wasnt their intention to make VR successful? They succeeded big time. The technology never got this much money poured into.
I repeat what i said earlier.
Oculus today made 3 years worth of Sony's NET INCOME. Sure its not all cash because of actions and so on but cmon, value is still value.
If the backers are pissed because they dont get a share out of the buyout.. well tough luck, who expects to get money out of kickstarters? STOP throwing money out of the window and expect it to return 100 folds. Did Oculus not respect its initial goal?
Its not going to go straight facebook at first obviously. There idea is for buying and interacting with goods and services in a vitual "world"
There will be other VR attempts at gaming but this probably won't be it in the long run.
Bluekaveli
Member
Sony wins
It's only journalists at E3 nowadays right? I could only imagine the booing if it was a Free4All...
It'd be like Triple HHH in the WWE - doing what's best for business...
WAIT A MINUTE!!!
Yeah, I couldn't get angry with the Oculus Rift guys at all, if you turn down that much money you either have rock solid will, have about that much or more to begin with, or it's something truly reprehensible you're being offered it for (and this definitely isn't that.)
Holy shit at this news... I'm not sure what to think about it.
Carmack: "I can't hear you over the sound of all this flapping money"
It's true though. The scale of Facebook's tech is impressive as hell - definitely something Carmack would be into studying.
Kinda, it's pretty easy for anyone to get passes if they have the money. I'll be going this year on an industry pass so if they do do something hopefully I can attend it. I'm already going to the Microsoft and Sony press events, why not add a third.
Holy shit what news to wake up to lmao.
I remember just last week oculus fans were trying to convince people that luckey isn't in this for the cash and that they are just VR purists trying to advance the tech. Good god how silly do they look now. Not to say anything about the millions of screwed kick starters.
I remember just last week oculus fans were trying to convince people that luckey isn't in this for the cash and that they are just VR purists trying to advance the tech. Good god how silly do they look now. Not to say anything about the millions of screwed kick starters.
MrCunningham
Member
I've seen his Quakecon 2013 key notes and many of his previous ones before that. I was partially joking about the money thing. Though the extra capital that's going to be infused into the Rift will be unprecedented.
Yeah the online infrastructure Facebook has right now would make this kind of thing almost non trivial to achieve. Though just thinking about Facebook makes my skin crawl.
What do they win?
CountAntonius
Member
The smartest Thing Facebook could do is fund it and help them get to retail as an open platform.
Why? Because then all those developers will be selling your product and making you money. The more people who buy your product for whatever reason be it gaming or whatever the more people who have access to some Playstation home-esque facebook world they seem to want to build for it. That's where you place your ads and make microtransctions.
It makes no sense for them to put commercials on it and alienate not only the people who will buy it but the developers who will make the software that makes it a compelling in purchase in the first place. "Yeah let's not let people make us money."
This isn't me being optimistic this just makes the most sense,.
Why? Because then all those developers will be selling your product and making you money. The more people who buy your product for whatever reason be it gaming or whatever the more people who have access to some Playstation home-esque facebook world they seem to want to build for it. That's where you place your ads and make microtransctions.
It makes no sense for them to put commercials on it and alienate not only the people who will buy it but the developers who will make the software that makes it a compelling in purchase in the first place. "Yeah let's not let people make us money."
This isn't me being optimistic this just makes the most sense,.