Facebook Just Bought Oculus VR

Well then...

So you're telling me that Facebook just bought Oculus VR? If the answer is "Yes", like this post. If the answer is "No", write a comment. ;))))))))))))

This honestly feels like a bad dream.

So Carmack works for Facebook now? The hell?

As long as they leave them alone to do their thing. It worked out fine with Instagram. I won't assume this is a horrible thing just yet.

Son of a diddly!

Ha, well put.

At least there's still Morpheus...

Sony won the console war, now they've won the VR war also? Shieeeet

If I donated $300 to the kickstarter how much cheddar should I expect to come my way from this deal

I don't even...... i was really looking forward to oculus

now they will be concentrating on the mobile platform... I'm out

I was thinking of buying one when it was ready for commercial sale but now I will just adopt a wait and see attitude.

For one i really hate facebook for its cavalier attitude to privacy the way it has no qualms about selling your information. also whatever you put on facebook is facebooks property to do with what they will. I wonder how many people that use facebook even bother to read the EULA thing they have.

So I will wait and see what I dont want to see happen is occules becoming just another device that helps facebook build up a user profile on you or a device for them to invade your private life at home.

As an interaction designer doing a bachelor thesis on interaction with in a VR environment....this is good new for my future i guess...still feels dirty somehow

Surprisingly quick, but seems like a good move on a lot of peoples part.

Drawing battle lines. Things are getting heated.

Think of how much they'll be able to accelerate research / production now that they have 2 BILLION dollars and the Facebook behemoth behind them. This is great news!

On the other hand, it was super gratifying to get behind the ambitious startup that blazed a trail, received a groundswell of industry support, hired John Carmack, etc. But it's not a scrappy little startup anymore, and now Sony is even more the underdog in this VR race.

Everybody loves an underdog, right?

Fuck me. Project Morpheus arrived just in time eh? Take a lesson from this kids. When people say it takes money to make money, this is what they're talking about. Couple of years work on $2m in capital turned into $2b in buyout. Shame that the original capital likely stemmed from a high percentage of passionate backers that placed their faith in the original dev team to have the big picture in mind, elevate the experience, take the next step with the right motivation.

I wonder how much "The Facebook Headset" would have earned on Kickstarter?

I have kicked myself at least once a month since the Kickstarter ended, never managing to back the original Rift pitch. Now I'm delighted. Thanks for lifting the weight of regret there boys, The wife/girlfriend/family of Andrew Reisse better see a portion of that fucking money.

I could not be more disappointed.

@milkman: Well that's some more big news, sort of. Isn't it a bit too early for this kind of reaction? Guess people are really afraid of Facebook. Crazy day.

So John Carmack now works for Facebook. Maybe the weirdest thing I've ever said.

Oh good, I was hoping for another Will Smith cumface

$2 billion... motherzucker... But if they got where they are with only $2 million from Kickstarter, maybe with 1000x the loot, they can make something even better. Or not, maybe it's just time for Carmack to get some new fast cars.

are you saying you want your occulus rift covered in fried cheese?

Well fuck

HA!

It does seem a little fucked up that the Oculus possibly wouldn't have been a thing unless those people had backed them on Kickstarter..

And thanks to those people they are.. and now they were just bought out.

I understand that Kickstarter is essentially a charity but man that feels shitty.

Was it even up for sale?

D:

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

I think you actually have that reversed.

Oculus wasn't pimping a product with no future. They had the good ideas, they execute on those ideas and delivered prototypes. They had a plan to bring the prototypes to production level. Oculus was going to get mainstream developers on-board regardless. And in fact, that was already happening. They didn't have to have somebody like Facebook. Exactly the opposite.

It was just a matter of where they would get the capital and under what conditions. Oculus was the hot chick that everyone wanted a piece of. Presumably they shopped around. It's not cynical to say Facebook was probably one of the worst outcomes.

God fucking damn it, my knee just jerked right through my desk.

Serious answer: My initial reaction to this is really harsh. And, upon thinking more about it, my reaction is still fairly harsh. Of course, the most logical thing is to wait and see what comes out of this, but Facebook's interest in this is clearly expanding social media. As someone who has developed a pretty strong distaste for social media (Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, etc.), this is some pretty bad fucking news.

So, yes, my reaction remains something along the lines of "fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck." It might be a good idea to wrap up any pending hopes you might have had for this thing, unless those hopes involved playing shitty microtransaction-filled and spyware-infested games with your worst friends.

I had wondered how the dream would die. I didn't think it would be like this though.

It's a ridiculous deal. Between this and the King IPO I am lost for words!

Too much cash in silicon valley.

Facebook, the website, is a bit of a cancer and they don't have any good way to monetize their own product but so far I don't think they have messed up any of the things they've bought have they?

I think they have all this money but no business model so they are trying to buy the next big thing before the bubble bursts.

I hope they don't try to interfere with the vision over at Oculus. Luckily I think that it is in Facebook's interest to let them do their thing and just leverage the results not trying to steer them in a new course.

D:

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

You know how in Ready Player One the whole focus of the story is keeping something beatiful out of the multinational organizations hands? Well it seems truth is crueler than fiction, we didn't even get past the starting line.

got some news for you brother if you are reading, posting and paying to support Giantbomb you are a nerd.

Ok so this might be some high flying fantasy pie in the sky sci fi bullshit, but bear with me for a moment.

Think about what Facebook used to be, what it is now, and what it will be in the future. Young folk are migrating from Facebook to other sociL networks, partly because Facebook is getting older, and so is Its user base. Also, it's not that much fun being on Facebook when your parents constantly comment on your photos and send you farmville crap every five minutes. The likes of Snapchat, twitter etc are doing well partly because of that scenario. I don't know about you guys but my Facebook usage has dropped to almost nothing as I have simply gotten bored with it.

Now also take into account that Zuckerberg is a colossal nerd. He is THE nerd, pretty much. Of course, he is excited about VR. How could you not be? Imagine combining some kind of wide angle head mounted capture equipment (like a higher tech Google glass), with Facebook and Occulus rift. Now the status update, or video of a party you post takes on a whole new dimension. Why bother posting a photo album of your trip to the Himilayas, when you can post an immersve, virtual experience that anyone can just plug in to?

The capabilities of VR as a training platform are endless. Entertainment will be a relatively small asset of VR, but probably the most publicised and will certainly be profitable . Zuckernerd and his contemporaries are probably not interested in the entertainment side of things, as that much is obvious and better men will run with that. They are thinking about the many many other potentially lucrative applications of VR and they have to make some moves to get the ball rolling.

My brain hurts

@itsmadness: amazing

Bug out bag Go!

The nerd rage for this is so weird.

Remember the last time Facebook got involved in the hardware business?

You don't? Probably because the Facebook Phone was such an abysmal flop that it was quickly and quietly swept under the rug.

The only difference with the Rift is that it's a completely new market with no competition. Our only hope is that Facebook gave Oculus a ton of money and will leave them completely alone.

This is not great.

I hate to be all reactionary and ridiculous, but this doesn't seem like a good thing in any way. I like that Oculus will be getting support toward finishing and producing the Rift, but not like this.

I'm still not convinced a bulky VR headset has a future as a major gaming platform, but as a interesting gadget they could probably benefit from the wide crowd an advertising blitz from Facebook could reach.

@lanerobertlane: Well, personally I have no faith in Sony's VR because it'll be a $200+ accessory that's exclusive to one console (prove me wrong, Sony). And that won't have mass appeal even if it's the best thing since sliced bread. What appealed to me about the OR was the more open nature of it, and that the PC will always get more powerful etc.

I don't really care that much about the "THINK OF ALL THE ADS!!!" aspect of Facebook buying the OR, it's just that I really doubt the focus will be on games now. The whole thing about FB is that what they buy is Integrated into their ecosystem in some way, and a VR headset for core gamers don't fit that so they'll change the focus.

I actually checked the calendar when I read this to make sure it wasn't April 1st. Just... damn it...

Great, VR memes on the feed

This sounds like a bad thing. More Farmville and Mob Wars requests, but now straight to your headset. Micro transactions, updates about the shit you don't care your friends are doing, just... blech.

Well shit, the company that wants to own you as a person just bought a device that replaces your full field of vision. Nothing bad could happen with that. Nothing at all.