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[flyinpiranha]

Dread has nothing to do with "lol popups", at least directly, for me. It's more about the data-mining, which Facebook is a king at. It's about the fears of the Rift switching to closed APIs that Facebook completely controls and requires, and can alter at their will at any time to inject anything they desire. Perhaps all avenues of Rift-compatible software distribution will be required to go through a walled garden. 30% of the profit, and nothing too naughty, of course. Maybe it's even about not widening the content approach to the Rift, as many VR fans ultimately hope for, but instead shifting the direction away from the hardcore gaming market.

Palmer Luckey can come out and swear up and down that nothing's going to change, except the resources available to them... But he just sold his company for 2 Billion dollars. To Facebook. No matter what the outcome will actually be, he's going to placate consumers. He can't expect us to take him completely to his word. Not yet.

Wouldn't that require Facebook also owning your PC OS? I mean, the Rift, as it is now, is a display. Just like an HDTV it needs certain hardware and stuff designed for it. So how is Facebook going to control my PC which would control how I display my games in order to get ads onto the Rift in software that is unrelated to Facebook?

It seems people are using "walled garden" in relation to PS4, XB1, iOS, and to a lesser extent Android ... but those are content delivery methods, those aren't just the displays themselves. PS4 and XB1 need a display, while iOS and Android are all in one hardware/display setups. It just seems people are getting this reversed, the Rift doesn't have games on it, it doesn't have an OS, it doesn't have proprietary chargers and inputs, it's a TV you put on your face. Where it goes from here is unknown but at this point in time I don't see how a "walled garden" could even happen realistically.

 

[Mr.Squirrel]

Its $ 2 billion, he sold out, end of story.

Facebook is in the advertisement business, calling them a tech company in the same vein as Google or Apple is an extreme stretch. More importantly they aren't a GAMING company, Mark Zuckerberg isn't buying this as a foray into gaming, there are much more profitable avenues to take this software.

You do know Google's core business is advertising, right? I mean that's literally how they make the vast majority of its money.

 

[roddjbrown]

To that, I will link to this guy's rant (in response to Palmer's post on Reddit):

http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbv53d

And I will quote the most relevant part of the rant:
And on top off all of this, you're not even GOOD at selling out. A measly $2 billion? You're talking about a company that just bought a glofified fucking IM app for $20 billion. You know damn well what this technology is worth and what a future it has, and you know just how deep Facebook's pockets are and just how desperate they are to save their eviscerated whale of a megacorporation, and $2 billion is enough for you? You're not only an unprincipled sell out, you're not even any fucking good at being an unprincipled sell out.

Ignoring whatsapp for a moment as that has the userbase Facebook desperately want, I think 2bn is crazy expensive. Correct me if I'm wrong but do Oculus have anything of tangible value? My understanding was that they have been taking off the shelf tech and applying it using their knowledge. I would be surprised if they had much intellectually property, the value came from the passion and knowledge of the people creating it. And that, from an accounting perspective, is worthless.

Before I get shouted at I'm not suggesting for one moment what Oculus have achieved isn't remarkable.

 

[Odrion]

Neo? Or NeoGAF?

Oh my god.

Morpheus is targeted at Neogaf.

 

[mr2xxx]

Wouldn't that require Facebook also owning your PC OS? I mean, the Rift, as it is now, is a display. Just like an HDTV it needs certain hardware and stuff designed for it. So how is Facebook going to control my PC which would control how I display my games in order to get ads onto the Rift in software that is unrelated to Facebook?

It seems people are using "walled garden" in relation to PS4, XB1, iOS, and to a lesser extent Android ... but those are content delivery methods, those aren't just the displays themselves. PS4 and XB1 need a display, while iOS and Android are all in one hardware/display setups. It just seems people are getting this reversed, the Rift doesn't have games on it, it doesn't have an OS, it doesn't have proprietary chargers and inputs, it's a TV you put on your face. Where it goes from here is unknown but at this point in time I don't see how a "walled garden" could even happen realistically.

I don't think you can label your product as Rift compatible without being sued or paying for the privilege. Not sure though, legal GAF get in here.

 

[Chili]

Ignoring whatsapp for a moment as that has the userbase Facebook desperately want, I think 2bn is crazy expensive. Correct me if I'm wrong but do Oculus have anything of tangible value? My understanding was that they have been taking off the shelf tech and applying it using their knowledge. I would be surprised if they had much intellectually property, the value came from the passion and knowledge of the people creating it. And that, from an accounting perspective, is worthless.

Before I get shouted at I'm not suggesting for one moment what Oculus have achieved isn't remarkable.

You hit the nail on the head. Oculus has a talented team behind it. The actual product is something that could be cobbled together for less than $2 billion if Facebook wanted. I read in another thread that Oculus don't even have any patents so the hardware side of things really isn't worth a lot.

However, a lot of companies will acquire based on talent alone, and it is far from worthless in an industry where talent at the top level is thin. That's why Facebook have made dozens of acquisitions in their relatively short existence. It is an easy way to recruit top people, and all the more reason as to why they won't take the product out of their hands and turn it into an advertising monster or something like some people are fearing.

 

[Mr.Green]

Few relevant tweets (sorry if already posted):

Nate Michel

We had two roadmaps: plausible and impossible. This partnership means the impossible roadmap just became ‘very likely’.

John Carmack

I have a deep respect for the technical scale that FB operates at. The cyberspace we want for VR will be at this scale.

 

[call_kotaku]

Ignoring whatsapp for a moment as that has the userbase Facebook desperately want, I think 2bn is crazy expensive. Correct me if I'm wrong but do Oculus have anything of tangible value? My understanding was that they have been taking off the shelf tech and applying it using their knowledge. I would be surprised if they had much intellectually property, the value came from the passion and knowledge of the people creating it. And that, from an accounting perspective, is worthless.

Before I get shouted at I'm not suggesting for one moment what Oculus have achieved isn't remarkable.

They're basically paying for 2 years worth of dedicated R&D, which might mean a lot if they get a head start on a big upcoming industry

 

[TAJ]

My takeaway from the Kickstarter discussion is that GAF is comprised almost entirely of people who only do for other people the bare minimum that they're required to by law, at best. All the tipping threads really make sense now.

 

[Mr.Green]

A very good post by Tycho at PA:
The Nexesse

Before yesterday, The Oculus Rift was technofetish gear. It ceased to be so in an instant. If you want to know how you get to the future described in books, any of the futures, it happens when technology has broad social meaning. I’m not going to tell you it’s not fucking weird. I’m as surprised as anybody. I don’t like the idea of a fully three dimensional banner ad anymore than you do. But do you want to live in a society where telepresence and virtual reality are… normalized? This is how that happens. I used the shitty, old Rift, and I thought I was underwater. Think of every corner they had to cut because they were trying to make this thing in the finite realm of men. Now imagine the corners restored, and the corner cutting machine in ruins.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

I think Facebook detractors are really over-blowing this news.

Right.

If you think Oculus Rift signing with Facebook is a deal with the devil, then you have a very naive understanding of what evil is.

 

[A-V-B]

A very good post by Tycho at PA:
The Nexesse

Except the first devkit was awful and they acknowledged that. Even DK2 is a big improvement and they already had that ready to go before the Facebook funding. Don't confuse the two, PA...

 

[bbdude]

Regardless of how everyone feels about the acquisition, everyone will be forced to love Oculus again when they completely blow our pants off with the results of their newfound quintillion-dollar r&d money

 

[TAJ]

A very good post by Tycho at PA:
The Nexesse

He says, just before Facebook decides to target tablets only.

 

[Natureboy99]

I don't see the point of this thread. Luckey can say whatever he wants, but he doesn't hold the reigns anymore. If he believes he holds the reigns still, then he really is naive.

 

[-COOLIO-]

A very good post by Tycho at PA:
The Nexesse

great post

 

[Azure Dream]

Wouldn't that require Facebook also owning your PC OS? I mean, the Rift, as it is now, is a display. Just like an HDTV it needs certain hardware and stuff designed for it. So how is Facebook going to control my PC which would control how I display my games in order to get ads onto the Rift in software that is unrelated to Facebook?

The Rift is not "just a display", as I've seen repeated by people lately. It's a display, optics, software shaders, motion tracking equipment, and APIs so that the thing can talk to your PC and vice versa. All of these things have to come together. And while the Rift is open now, there is the chance that future versions could be closed down. The hardware could require specific private keys to function, for example, which are only provided by going through Facebook's APIs. If you think peripherals can't be locked down to proprietary software, you are sadly mistaken. Yes, to a degree sometimes this can be hacked around, but that does skirt legality issues, especially depending on how it's done. And I'm sure the last thing most devs interested in VR want to do when the Rift hits the market is go, "Now, how do we reverse engineer all of the system software and rebuild it from scratch?"

After tearing through lots of quotes and discussion on the subject, namely that most VR developers aren't flipping their lid at the news (besides Notch, who didn't exactly do a lot of developing, it seems), I'm leaning back toward a "Glaring Warily While Mouthing 'Do Not Fuck This Up'" position.

 

[Elfforkusu]

The Rift is not "just a display", as I've seen repeated by people lately. It's a display, optics, software shaders, motion tracking equipment, and APIs so that the thing can talk to your PC and vice versa. All of these things have to come together. And while the Rift is open now, there is the chance that future versions could be closed down. The hardware could require specific private keys to function, for example, which are only provided by going through Facebook's APIs. If you think peripherals can't be locked down to proprietary software, you are sadly mistaken. Yes, to a degree sometimes this can be hacked around, but that does skirt legality issues, especially depending on how it's done. And I'm sure the last thing most devs interested in VR want to do when the Rift hits the market is go, "Now, how do we reverse engineer all of the system software and rebuild it from scratch?"

Well said.

 

[doomquake]

 

[Calabi]

A very good post by Tycho at PA:
The Nexesse

I dont believe that, some supposed mainstream company buying something doesnt automatically make that product mainstream. It just means the companies and everyones expectation are so high they are bound to be disappointed(especially at that price).

 

[The Henery]

I've played with the dev kit (think it was 1) and felt like I was going to spew after about 30 seconds. I've heard people say there will always be a proportion of VR users who will experience motion sickness and it has nothing to so with the tech. Is this true? It's an incredibly flimsy piece of commercial property if part of a potential consumer base don't know if they'll be able to use it.

 

[ashecitism]

lol, what the hell is this from?

 

[Seanspeed]

Regardless of how everyone feels about the acquisition, everyone will be forced to love Oculus again when they completely blow our pants off with the results of their newfound quintillion-dollar r&d money

Yup. I'm looking forward to it.

I've played with the dev kit (think it was 1) and felt like I was going to spew after about 30 seconds. I've heard people say there will always be a proportion of VR users who will experience motion sickness and it has nothing to so with the tech. Is this true? It's an incredibly flimsy piece of commercial property if part of a potential consumer base don't know if they'll be able to use it.

The problems with motion sickness with the first dev kit was an inherent problem with the primitive state of the hardware. Most everybody experienced issues with it to some degree. A few lucky people escaped this, many got their 'VR legs' with extended use, and some others could never get over it.

Either way, its obviously a huge issue, because as you say, the product would likely be doomed if this wasn't addressed. But fortunately, many of the improvements on the new dev kit do alleviate this massively. I think people that get naturally motionsick in real life might still have issues with this, but it should be good enough in the end that it should only really be an issue if developers make games/experiences that do not mesh well with VR. Basically, it'll become a software issue, not a hardware issue, and that's solvable.

 

[bj00rn_]

Palmer Luckey receiving death threats after Facebook deal:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/...so-many-death-threats-after-facebook-deal/#p3

"We expected a negative reaction from people in the short term, [but] we did not expect to be getting so many death threats and harassing phone calls that extended to our families," Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey said in a Reddit post this weekend. "We know we will prove ourselves with actions and not words, but that kind of shit is unwarranted, especially since it is impacting people who have nothing to do with Oculus."

 

[Feep]

Palmer Luckey receiving death threats after Facebook deal:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/...so-many-death-threats-after-facebook-deal/#p3

Ugh, fuck you, internet.

 

[Aaron]

He says, just before Facebook decides to target tablets only.

This would be an insanely stupid move by Facebook, and whatever you might think of them, they're not a stupid company.

 

[Triple U]

This would be an insanely stupid move by Facebook, and whatever you might think of them, they're not a stupid company.

Their last big two moves haven't been viewed in a positive light, as far as the finacial world is concerned.

 

[exmachina64]

lol, what the hell is this from?

It's from a recent Kia car commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob-wn52Dkmk

 

[PairOfFilthySocks]

Yeah yeah, Facebook is totally gonna throw 2 billion at you guys and leave you to your own devices.

Da fuck out my face with this bullshit.

 

[Jakoozie89]

I don't know what to think honestly. I want to believe both Facebook and Team Occulus. But the thing is, Facebook didn't give Occulus 2 billion just to be nice. And if Zuckerberg isn't expecting to make money from the hardware, where will they make their money?

The funny thing is that Zuckerberg made that announcement to calm people down. Strange. I would actually prefer if Facebook bought Occulus to make money of the hardware. Now they will be looking to recoup their investment in other ways, and they all seem to require comprimising the Occulus vision.

 

[SkeptiMism]

Their last big two moves haven't been viewed in a positive light, as far as the finacial world is concerned.

Of course because it's a long term move and investors often don't see the sense in those that fast.

My takeaway from the Kickstarter discussion is that GAF is comprised almost entirely of people who only do for other people the bare minimum that they're required to by law, at best. All the tipping threads really make sense now.

Well, that's certainly one way to downplay people's opinions.

..

 

[StuBurns]

The internet can be a disgusting place.

Wait till we get the internet he's going to build, we've seen nothing yet.

 

[Kitty]

The nerd-rage is just mindblowing and pathetic.

Also Notch aka one-hit-wonder is acting like a little kid who is denied candy.

 

[wwm0nkey]

Yeah yeah, Facebook is totally gonna throw 2 billion at you guys and leave you to your own devices.

Da fuck out my face with this bullshit.

They didn't buy them to set them up to fail either. They know why the Oculus is popular and they know people want to make and play games on it so nothing will change on that front. They can now however sell the kit at a cost to get more people to buy it and grow the VR market and Facebook will obviously have its own things going on for it but ther are not going to lock people out of using it. They are not stupid enough to close the system off to Candy Crush or that other BS like some of you believe.

I swear its like some people think you will need to be online and logon all the time to see VR ads. Sounds stupid but from what I'm seeing it's like some people think that

 

[exmachina64]

The internet can be a disgusting place.

Wait till we get the internet he's going to build, we've seen nothing yet.

The ability to sabotage one another's lives with almost the same range of possibilities as face-to-face interaction.

 

[Dreamwriter]

I don't know what to think honestly. I want to believe both Facebook and Team Occulus. But the thing is, Facebook didn't give Occulus 2 billion just to be nice. And if Zuckerberg isn't expecting to make money from the hardware, where will they make their money?

The funny thing is that Zuckerberg made that announcement to calm people down. Strange. I would actually prefer if Facebook bought Occulus to make money of the hardware. Now they will be looking to recoup their investment in other ways, and they all seem to require comprimising the Occulus vision.

What? They are going to be selling the Oculus Rift at cost, no profit at all, which is definitely the way to make it catch on as fast as possible with the largest audience as possible, which is great for VR (and not something Oculus could have done on their own). That's exactly in tune with what Oculus wants, they don't want it to be expensive, because they want it available to everybody. They turned down investors who wanted to sell the Rift as a premium device.

As for where will Facebook make their money, they've already pretty much said this, in an investor's conference call - in the short term (the next few years), they are going to be creating a VR Hub website where you can get all the Oculus-compatible software, and that site is going to have advertising on it. That doesn't require compromising the Oculus vision one bit. They probably hope to eventually turn it into the Steam of VR, and that doesn't require compromising it either. Even if they eventually start charging developers 30% of their profits to host the game there, that still doesn't require compromising Oculus' vision

 

[Dreamwriter]

Yeah yeah, Facebook is totally gonna throw 2 billion at you guys and leave you to your own devices.

Da fuck out my face with this bullshit.

A smart company spending that kind of money to invest in another company is going to leave that other company alone to continue doing what they do best - Facebook bought the company because that company was smart enough to know what people want and able to build it. Yes, some stupid companies will buy someone and then dismantle them and/or change the way they work, and kill the company they bought, but Palmer Luckey says he knows about those companies and chose Facebook because they aren't one (and since he knows companies are like that, he probably had his lawyers put it into the purchase contract that Facebook wouldn't do that to them).

 

[GraveHorizon]

If $2 billion gets stereo cameras on the Rift, I'm cool with it.

 

[brain_stew]

Yeah yeah, Facebook is totally gonna throw 2 billion at you guys and leave you to your own devices.

Da fuck out my face with this bullshit.

Oculus isn't worth $2 billion to Facebook without Luckey, Carmack and Abrash. They don't have $2 billion worth of patents but they do have all of the best VR talent in the world under one roof. Driving that talent away isn't going to help Facebook recoup their $2 billion investment.

 

[SaberEdge]

Oculus isn't worth $2 billion to Facebook without Luckey, Carmack and Abrash. They don't have $2 billion worth of patents but they do have all of the best VR talent in the world under one roof. Driving that talent away isn't going to help Facebook recoup their $2 billion investment.

And driving people away by flashing ads in people's faces isn't going to help them either. Not on an open platform like the PC. There is nothing stopping other competitors from bringing VR headsets of their own to market and people will go wherever they get the experience they are looking for. Facebook and Oculus are only going to become a leader in VR if they give people what they want. It's not like they can force us at gunpoint to put on a VR headset we don't want to use just so they can flash ads in our faces.

 

[Moze]

Does anybody know how much Luckey actually made off the deal?

 

[Wereroku]

Does anybody know how much Luckey actually made off the deal?

Depends on how much equity he still had in the company.

 

[riflen]

Yeah yeah, Facebook is totally gonna throw 2 billion at you guys and leave you to your own devices.

Da fuck out my face with this bullshit.

Actually they threw $400 million dollars at Oculus, which is almost chump change for Facebook. The remaining 1.6 billion was in shares and incentives. The holders of those shares cannot just go out tomorrow and cash them in, as there are legal agreements in place. Hopefully this adds some perspective.

 

[rjinaz]

Palmer Luckey receiving death threats after Facebook deal:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/...so-many-death-threats-after-facebook-deal/#p3

Not really surprised after reading the things people were saying here after this was announced. People were losing their minds. I can only imagine what was being said on other boards. These people that did this should be ashamed of themselves. I love video games as much as anybody but it's just a form of entertainment when it comes down to it. Life goes on. If I was so invested that I would resort to death threats when things don't go my way with video games, I'm not sure how I could live with myself to be honest.

 

[KHarvey16]

Not really surprised after reading the things people were saying here after this was announced. People were losing their minds. I can only imagine what was being said on other boards. These people that did this should be ashamed of themselves. I love video games as much as anybody but it's just a form of entertainment when it comes down to it. Life goes on. If I was so invested that I would resort to death threats when things don't go my way with video games, I'm not sure how I could live with myself to be honest.

In the end it's not even that things didn't go their way, it's that they merely think things won't go their way in the future. The whole thing has been terrible.

 

[rjinaz]

In the end it's not even that things didn't go their way, it's that they merely think things won't go their way in the future. The whole thing has been terrible.

Yeah you're right, which makes those callers even more pathetic.

 

[SaberEdge]

Yeah you're right, which makes those callers even more pathetic.

I agree with both of you. A lot of the reactions and behavior has been shameful.

 

[Miguel81]

As long as Carmack stays on, I'll remain optimistic. The dude has passion, and I'm still nostalgic for the 90s VR period.

 

[Faith]

Yeah yeah, Facebook is totally gonna throw 2 billion at you guys and leave you to your own devices.

Da fuck out my face with this bullshit.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/29/mark-zuckerberg-salary_n_3178371.html

Mark Zuckerberg's salary is changing drastically, but his lifestyle probably won't. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will take a huge pay cut and join the $1 salary club, according to an SEC filing. Zuckerberg will not receive any bonuses.

Yeah yeah. Zuckerberg only cares about money.

 

[Dictator93]

Yeah yeah. Zuckerberg only cares about money.

He probably cares about control and appearances. 1 dollar salary thing is usually about saving face, not solidarity.