Facebook Just Bought Oculus VR

It was probably the right decision financially--I can only imagine the cost Oculus RIft was facing to bring the product to the main market--but with Facebook's purchase, Oculus Rift seems somewhat less tangible as a self-contained gaming community brand.

It's gonna sound totally pretentious and selfish, but it was cool to see OR develop slowly in the community--for gamers, by gamers. Seeing beta testers trying out the prototype headset on Youtube videos made the brand seem like a homebrew project, a "local" success, perhaps. I fear that the project will fail to hit upon its original vision, and will become Yahoo'd, i.e. made useless by its new owners.

I love how nearly 10.7 trillion people have commented on this

It's odd to hear people saying VR is dead. Because of this news, millions of people who had no idea what Oculus Rift was are now aware of its existence. With this much exposure and the potential of making even more un-godly sums of money, they aren't just going to start idly yanking their dicks around. They already have proven-great-by-all-who've-tried-it prototypes. And now they have the resources to manufacture cost-effective custom hardware, rather than scavenging for parts as they were originally doing. Had FB not acquired Oculus, I believe that the consumer version would've had a similar spec to the new DK2, i.e. the new dev kit with the 1080p 70Hz OLED screen. Palmer Lucky recently said on Reddit how part of the deal was to allow them to produce higher spec/quality hardware at a lower cost, and during GDC (right before the announcement) the OR team expressed their confidence that the consumer version would be greater-than-1080p with a higher refresh rate etc. The hardware will definitely benefit from this deal. However, I am less inclined to say the same regarding the software, but I want to be optimistic. I just want non-compulsory and unintrusive Facebook integration (if there has to be Facebook integration).

Facebook is not a game company. They could care less about the OR as a gaming device. Facebook sees the OR as a piece of tech that they can use in spaces outside of gaming. The thinking that Facebook would negatively impact the OR as a gaming device(while possible) is extremely short-sighted.

We love Facebook and Facebook related news! Best social network eva.

@bgdiner: i think that kind of criticism of the situation is extremely naive, companies like oculus exist to make a product and sell it to make money. They had millions of dollars behind them from vc's so they haven't really been a homebrew/local project for a while and i think that trying to segregate the rift to being only for gamers is very short sighted. There are countless applications for this tech outside of gaming and that's probably where a lot of the profit on this sort of thing could be found

FUCK!

Exactly, you don't buy something for $2 billion and run it into the ground.

Trust can definitely be an issue with these sorts of things, but sometimes trust has a short memory. Facebook has a murky reputation thats more in the spotlight, but we shouldn't forget that Sony hasn't been shining beacon of trustworthiness either. Remember rootkits and other OS? They've built back some reputation since then but thats mostly been from distance not really in changing policy.

Don't be too sure about what older adults might buy into, remember the Wii? Facebook may be losing relevance with younger people but its still very solidly in the mainstream.

I think its too early to call where this thing is going, maybe its a bet by Facebook that VR will be the new TV, maybe they just want to own the tech so they can license it out and have another revenue stream, maybe they build some big scary socially-connected-VR-space-sharing-zone thing.

I'm not sure I like it, I have my doubts about what Facebook intends to do, their track record on acquisitions is far from sunny. But I have it on good authority that Carmack is no dummy. If he's still in this and thinks its going to work that give me some kind of hope for the project. If he leaves in 6 months then that'll be a pretty clear signal where things are headed.

Bully.

Facebook needs to die a horrible, painful death.

Wait, I'm not sure I'm following you. You say that Facebook doesn't care about Oculus as a gaming device, but then say that thinking them owning it would negatively affect it as a gaming device makes no sense? That sounds contradictory.

I pushed "6" on my keyboard while on facebook, but it didn't bring up a rocket launcher. So I guess not.

Well, with Sony coming out with their prototype recently, at least this isn't a one horse race anymore.

I guess we'll have to wait and see where this one goes. Facebook and Spotify are pretty closely linked but Spotify still does what I need it to, and does it well.

In more exciting news, looks like they're going to rebrand it.

RIP Oculus :(

sounds like a bad sci-fi book

@lyfeforce: It looks like Razor are set to throw their hat into the game too.

Facebook sure likes to sling their stock around in lieu of cash, does anyone else find this a bit disturbing given the rocky start the IPO initially had and for quite some time afterward. I'd love to see the number breakdowns for most of these deals.

I also feel negatively towards this news.

Not really, the IPO was a fiasco, but the stock has since stabilized and increased in value, it hit an all time high earlier this month. So for the short term FB stock is about as good as money, better or worse in the long term depending on your outlook for FB as a company.

http://tacma.net/

This documentary explains exactly why Facebook is the damn worst.

I feel sorry for any of the suckers who donated money, time, or effort to this scam. It's preposterous to imagine the founders could believe that this idea they were supposedly passionate about has a better chance of success at Facebook. They did it for the money. Which is fine when your backers are compensated, but monumentally unethical in the case of a Kickstarter.

I feel sorry for the suckers who donated money, time, or effort to this scam. It's preposterous to imagine the founders could believe that this idea they were supposedly passionate about has a better chance of success at Facebook. They did it for the money. Which is fine when your backers are compensated, but monumentally unethical in the case of a Kickstarter.

Feels like Facebook is taking the old Disney approach of throw money at things until it makes us a profit.

Also I still am not really excited for the Oculus Rift at all. Don't really understand why so many people are hyped for it.

This could be a chance for Facebook to rebrand itself as something cool and interesting. Or it could completely fail and fall flat on it's face.

The sale by Oculus is a double-edged sword because of the brand name association with the social media website.

@zevvion: Ideally Facebook will supply Oculus with money and support giving Oculus the ability to perfect their tech and work more with game developers. In return Facebook gets the rights to the profits, and the ability to spin it off into a separate second device that has nothing to do with gaming.

It is possible that I'm completely wrong but I would rather have a positive outlook on this stituation.

2 billion can buy you a lot of Jack Tretton, just saying.

This isn't going to end well.

@orborborb: Kickstarter exists so that you can donate money to a product in order for it to get a kick start and hopefully be made. Most companies or individuals choose to let the backers get something in return. There is never a guarantee that the product will ever get made, or even get to a prototype state. Oculus Rift got one prototype out there already, with another one on the way. If any backer of the OR feel they have waster their money, it is their own damned fault for not understanding what Kickstarter is.

@csl316: They have denied that already. No plans to rebrand or use a Facebook UI.

Ready Player One is one step closer...

Here's what Will Smith thinks. I think I agree with him.

Well, I was looking forward to the future of Oculus Rift. Now I understand that this is stupid garbage shit and will never amount to anything good.

I wonder how many Facebook credits this will go for.

I don't know whether to laugh at or get depressed by the comments in this thread.

@elitefury: Oh, I understand you.

Yeah, I haven't been following Oculus that well, but I picked up some things here and there and financial security or even logistics didn't seem like one of their strengths. I'm sure since Facebook bought them, they'll throw more money and resources at it to make it good. I'm with you on that. I just hope they won't try to spin the original purpose out of control. A gaming device. At least, not at first. I want to see how it turns out.

To everyone saying "RIP Oculus", look at all the cool non-gaming related things done with Kinect. It's like that guy said during the GDC livestream(Phil Fish), the coolest part about Oculus Rift isn't the games but the life altering experiences.

Great now my Mom will want an OR.

Ready Player One - welcome to OASIS Facebook.

lmao ditto

@jedted: I'm not being a smart arse when I say this, but none of that cool stuff is used for gaming and gaming is what most gamers care about. The kinects primary application of being a gaming device is something it falls very short of being good at and nobody really tries to use it as a developer.

So while the OR might get used for some cool projects, most gamers interested in the OR aren't going to care that you can sit court side at a Lakers game but would probably much rather "be" on the Lakers team in NBA 2K16.

Like.

Wait. I mean Poke.

-Checks date...- Not April 1:st yet.

Oculus pre-order: Now canceled.

Also... Shit.

Well that was fun while it lasted. I hope MS and Sony VR is good.

I don't think people have any idea how large companies actually work. It would make no sense for Facebook to purchase a company and immediately change its focus before allowing it develop an asset with value, and create diverse revenue streams from that asset. Allowing Oculus to finish the Rift in its original conception would end with an asset with insane potential that it could market to hardcore gamers AND use as a platform for social applications.

Let's break it down!

1. Why would Facebook purchase Oculus?: Facebook obviously sees VR as an important part of the future of technology, and sees promise in the technology that Oculus has developed so far.

2. Doesn't that mean Facebook will immediately start stamping their logo on it, ship a half-baked product, and place ads in VR Farmville?: Absolutely not. They don't have anything beyond potential yet. The goal is to create an asset that will eventually produce revenue streams. By purchasing Oculus on friendly terms, they also acquire all of the technical ingenuity that helped develop what they find to be impressive technology. It is in their interest to keep key Oculus team members happy, because, believe it or not, human capital is worth a ton of money.

3. Okay, so Oculus might be able to develop their product independently. Won't Facebook just exploit it to hell once it's finished?: No. It would be stupid to create a high-end consumer product and immediately throw out the vast majority of the public as a potential market by making a social game console. Why do people play Candy Crush Saga and Farmville? Because they're easy to access through devices people already own. Wouldn't it make sense, then, to try and create wide market use before really trying to create revenue streams through "nefarious" advertisements?

4. Isn't Facebook evil?: Facebook is no more evil than Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Valve, or any other major tech company. You don't think EVERY SINGLE ONE of those companies hasn't data mined the hell out of everything you do when you use their services?

It's understandable that gamers dislike Facebook because of its association with social gaming, but it is no different than any other major company: it's after the bottom line, and trying to wring value from an unfinished by rushing and exploiting it isn't something that businesses do. You have to CREATE the value in the asset before you can exploit it. Look at Activision: they create value by pushing a huge, new franchise that they dump hundreds of millions of dollars into, and once that franchise carries value (intangible in the form of name recognition and goodwill, and tangible in the form of assets to lower dev costs in the future), they iterate to hell.

That's what Facebook will try do: create goodwill, cache, and a wide market through a release of a gaming Rift, followed by umpteen trillion iterations aimed at targeted markets.

I dont know, Thats what they said about Bioware too.

We definitely need a poll on this one. Drew, please spin up the poll machine. Please.