Amazing article, Patrick! It's really hard these days to get me to read a full article, but you kept me going!

You really nailed down a lot of the ways people feel towards this problem, and exposed its understanding, but also why its the wrong way to think.

The idea that Oculus was going to be this feel-good indie story forever was a fallacy. Someone was going to buy Oculus. I get the skepticism with it being Facebook but it seems to me that everyone feels the need to have this hard and fast reaction to news like this immediately. No one can know what happens from here. Facebook very well could ruin everything...or they could make everything awesome. It's impossible to know and people acting like Oculus is doomed literally minutes after this announcement was made just look silly.

Great article. The negative reaction is expected but i feel its without thought. Bottom line is Oculus have the means to achieve their goals now.

People hate his deal because they hate the product facebook offers, facebook itself. That is the wrong way to look at it. Facebook as a company is what people need to think about here, and that company will be nothing but an enabler for Oculus.

Just because facebooks primary product has become uncool and the target of much hate doesn't mean the company Facebook is a bad owner for Oculus.

I hate the modern MINI cars, it doesn't mean i hate BMW's. One company can have many products and many successes and failures.

Allot of the backlash has been to do with myth and conjecture. At no point has it been claimed you will need a facebook account to use a rift (Palmer himself rejected the notion). The only things we are sure of is the following.

Facebook will leave oculus to do what they plan to do.

Oculus can now sell Rifts at cost...No VC was going to let that happen. Facebook will play the long game here.

Oculus can now get the custom built components they wanted. This deal will lead to a better Rift. No doubt.

I've heard people say "fine, but why not Apple, or Google" Google are a wonderful company, as are apple. But both have a magnificent history of buying companies and talent stripping them. Motorolla for one.

Facebook wont do that. They need Oculus in ten years time as much as Oculus needs them now.

I still don't know how to feel about this, I don't trust facebook. But as a company they need to make money, and they can only make money if this thing sells. I'm sure at some point they'll do some really questionable things. But I think in the end they may only help bring VR technology to a wider marker. Which will help bring VR to the next level and maybe bring us one step closer to a true holo deck experience ( which in truth wasn't about games, it was just a fancy interactive hangout for friends )

Not a bad perspective on things. Can't say I feel any of the outrage involved. A major company's involvement only heightens the odds of such a device being integrated into a wide range of experiences. Facebook would not be the first company to come to mind when I think of who would bring in the experiences I would most want to have, though.

Thank you for this. Finally some sense on the internet about this I can point people who are having emotional reactions to.

Great article Patrick, really phenomenal writing. Right now I think Oculus needs to show how the facebook Buyout is benefiting the gamer.

You mention several times in the article that people aren't actually investing in the company and can't expect any kind of return. You also end the article by saying:

It's easy to be upset that you're not walking home with tens of thousands in your pocket, but that was never going to happen.

I really don't think that anyone is seriously saying that the Kickstarter backers should receive any money as part of the acquisition. If you truly think that part of the reason for the outrage is missing out on money then I think you have misjudged the reaction. The anger is coming from a feeling of betrayal by Oculus VR and trepidation at the prospect of a company like Facebook deciding the future direction.

It's difficult for Oculus because they began life as part of a crowd funding effort where they set out their goals and the reason why people should back them. Unfortunately, when your company starts this way then I feel like you do bear a responsibility to honour the reason people kickstarted your company. People aren't just backing your project in return for a product, it's more than that.

Whatever this device becomes, there will be developers out there who love games and they will be making games for this device. Nothing so far has suggested otherwise.

Disregarding how I feel about Facebook as a company, I still have little faith in a company who bought this potentially revolutionary device for gaming, and then in their first press release post-purchase talk about how mobile games are the platform of today and how they're looking for ways to integrate social features. These aren't great signs, but I guess it all comes down to how much sway Facebook will have on Oculus. Hopefully none, except for footing the bill.

Great write up Patrick. To me, this just guarantees that Oculus Rift becomes something. What that is, we just have to wait and see.

It is great to see a small project become so main stream in a mere day before your eyes.

I hope it goes well. I see Patricks point in saying that the backers weren't guaranteed anything back for their backing. Thing is that with most of these Kickstarter projects I would choose to back them for the fact they aren't a big company and dreams seem to happen more with their absence. When a big company gets involved you more often than not see a total lack of integrity, and thats what scares me the most.

Agreed. Well done, sir... as usual.

I personally feel no outrage or disgust towards this (possibly because I've never played with an Oculus myself), but I can understand why people do feel that way. I wonder who the internet would have been okay with Oculus being bought by? Would anyone be able to avoid this firestorm? Microsoft or Sony certainly wouldn't (I know, Sony is working on their own thing anyway, just throwing it out there) because the fanboys of either camp would set the world on fire. Nintendo would be raked over hot coals as not being a particularly good hardware company. Activision? Disney? Apple?

No company who had the bread to make this deal would have gotten through it without the court of public opinion utterly destroying them. Maybe Steam, but that's about all I can come up with.

Instagram has remained unchanged because Facebook and Instagram do much the same thing. Facebook didn't need to change them. Facebook just wanted to be a bigger Facebook. The Oculus is not Facebook, doesn't have to be Facebook, but it will now.

It stuns me that people are so quick to assume the worst of Facebook, when they are so quick to assume the best of Google.

I am grossed out by the situation because of Facebook. I deleted my account on that service and every service owned by them a year ago now, and have not looked back.

The quote from Notch's post that resonated with me is this one:

”Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts. Facebook is not a game tech company. Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers, and nothing but building user numbers."

I haven't seen evidence that Facebook cares about anything but expanding and money. When Zuck got pissy about NSA spying it was only after the revelations had potential to disrupt their business. They've done nothing to earn trust, and that's reason alone to be upset about this deal.

When one talks about the future of technology and says Carmack is on board, I have some trust in him as an individual, but if he works for Facebook it's not enough to trust that company.

You know, the way I see it is facebook buying this gives it a much greater chance of being successful, but also I see it as having potential of making it a worse, but more successful product. However, it may turn out quite well for all we know I will be interested.

So in short, NEVER become emotionally invested in anything because in the end it will just break your heart.

@christaran: I'd say a bank, or a global chemical company, or a million other companies are a lot less trust worthy than Facebook, an optional service.

It won't, ever. Kickstarter is a really popular service and with its terms of services creators can retain 100% control over everything they make. Why would they want to give up shares of their company or futur profits to backers when they can get the money for the promise of a product or project?

The only way creators give up the control over is for BIG money. The kind of money that will never be available in crowd funding.

Yeah, capitalism, it fucking sucks.

Great article, Patrick. Thank you.

Thanks for such a concise, well-written article. That's what I like about you Patrick, you're still the same focused kid I saw on The 1Up Show way back when. Keep it up.

The easiest response to seemingly misplaced anger, especially online, is to just ignore it. Kudos for taking the time to write up something that should alleviate some of that anger on the interwebs. Here's to hoping they take the time to give this a proper read.

I've felt the same way about Mike from Penny Arcade. Last I heard about him, he was attempting to make amends though so hopefully that pans out.

@brocknrolla: The problem with this mindset is that the whole "Funded by the crowd" was that Oculus secured tens of millions of dollars from the private sector via venture capitalists. They already had to answer to a corporate overlord. The thought that Oculus would "go public" with an IPO eventually is insane.

If there is one thing that the enthusiast gamer fails at it is grasping the business side of the industry. NPD and sales data are such a small piece of the overall business of the industry, and yet it escapes those that absorb as much information as they can about it.

facebook...skynet...eww

@ocelotfox: My thoughts exactly, Kickstarter and its ilk operate for projects were the creators hold all the keys, and for whom only the the rich can profit (i.e. VCs). I don't see how these systems can be sustained without the possibility of return on investment for the non-super rich.

A lot of people like Notch are being completely dismissive and that's fine. I'll wait and see what happens if this actually kicks off and not flounder in the coming years. Hopefully, everything will turn out just fine with Oculus.

I was rolling my eyes pretty hard at all the knee jerk reaction. Just because a company is invested in or "bought" doesn't mean the company investing is going to take full control of the product.

Contracts can be written up to ensure that there is minimal outside interference. And I would hope that Facebook wouldn't be stupid enough to start sticking their noses into the development of the OR since that would be disadvantageous as well.

In other words, there was no way the Rift would be going anywhere with just small investments and backing from Kickstarter. So people need to calm the fuck down.

Excellent article Patrick!

I'm not an engineer but to produce this product in a big way, issues such as yield could very well sink a company without massive money to spend, right? All those 1080p screens come with defects and it's not hard to imagine that when placed against large competitors such as Sony, Oculus could have a very difficult time being profitable or competing on price if they couldn't order production on a large scale. Without this purchase the lone wolf road could have simply led to a situation where the Oculus is derided upon release as being more expensive than customers wanted (relative to competition).

Another point, that the two other well known technology Kickstarters, Ouya and Pebble, have both gone no where past their initial Kickstarter hype. Looking at history, and the realities of the tech industry, it seems likely that selling consumer technology on a wide scale isn't really possible without a large amount of money for support.

This is probably your best article I've read yet, Scoops, that said I haven't read all of them. Your Facebook deletion method is both monstrous and ingenious, however. Now to apply it myself.

The whole "No one really knows how this is going to turn out, let's all stop the kneejerk reaction thing" goes both ways, here. People freaking out about how this is decidedly the end of the Oculus are being idiots, and people who are blindly declaring this this a great thing within 24 hours after it became public knowledge are similarly placing some sort of bullshit bet based on blind, naive faith. There's no evidence aside from lip service in press releases that this is going to suddenly become an amazing acquisition that does nothing more than give Oculus endless financial resources.

I appreciate this article's tone and everything, but I feel like it's zooming in on an incredibly minor portion of the outrage; this adds almost nothing to the actual conversation. People are upset because they don't trust Facebook, think Zuckerberg is kind of a scumbag, and are worried about how the Oculus will be monetized and eventually integrated into Facebook's ecosystem. If the entirety of the positive scenario rests on Facebook not interfering with Oculus in any way, shape, or form, then you're going to be disappointed if you seriously believe that's going to happen.

I don't like all the doom and glooming, but there's more reason to be skeptical and uneasy than there is to just be optimistic for no reason, given the quality of services that Facebook tends to attract, the kind of games Facebook hosts, and the fact that something like 90+% of their revenue comes from ads; particularly mobile ads. Their entire business model is "expand the userbase at all costs so we can put up more ads." All of this legitimate pessimism is getting swept under the rug by yet another round of "I bet it won't be as bad as you people on the internet think it will be." After last year, I think I've heard that about ten too many times.

(I also think the argument that "So what if it provides all these other experiences and services? It'll still be about games." isn't very comforting. The Xbox One is a great example of a product that purported to be about games... and a bunch of other stuff. Despite insistence that focusing on other efforts wouldn't detract from the gaming experience of the product, that happened by necessity. Splitting the focus, meeting a bunch of different demands and needs, stretching their attention to the dictates of corporate. There's every possibility that Facebook could compromise Oculus and its strongest aspect; its purity of vision. That is also entirely legitimate, and anyone upset about has reason to be.)

Thought-provoking. But...

But without the Oculus Rift project on Kickstarter, none of this would be happening. It's easy to be upset that you're not walking home with tens of thousands in your pocket, but that was never going to happen.

Could this be a bit of a misinterpretation? I'm sure there are those who are angry for this reason, but I don't think it's the main driver. I'm guessing it's a mistrust of Facebook, period. The reaction is similar to what I imagine if Oculus had been bought by, say, BP or Monsanto. But if Oculus had been purchased by Valve, on the other hand, the backlash would not be anywhere near as fierce.

OcuBook is just another reminder that the middle class has enough money to pre-order $300 toys but not enough money to properly invest

— Chris Plante (@plante) March 26, 2014

Is Mr. Plante saying that the "middle class" are too stupid to invest, or don't have money in sufficient amounts to justify use of the term "invest?"

How about their github projects page where they regularly update and develop open source code?

https://github.com/facebook

This article is great if you agree with most points, its not if you disagree with most points.

That's no journalism Patrick, that's punditry.

Be careful not to confuse them. They have a different value. One is dry facts, the other one opinion.

@feller13: Pretty much. I love how all of you who have zero clue about any particulars of this deal are so quick to dismiss the opinion of a man who has invested 10,000 dollars into the company, and had real BUSINESS, keyword: business, meetings with said company and is positively more aware of what this deal entails than any of you, Patrick included. Talk about "knee jerk reactions".

Oh man....this is bringing back memories of a s- OH BILLY CORGAN WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?? WAIT, NO! BILLY CORGAN ARE YOU GOING TO SING THAT SONG OH NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO PLEASE NOT THAT SONG AGAIN BILLY CORGAN NOT THAT SOONG OH GOD NO PLEASE BILLY NOOO GAAAAAAAAAAHHH-

Great stuff, Patrick. Would be great to hear some of the opinions of Oculus employees on the matter—a sort-of "other side of the coin" piece when compared to those members of Irrational that spoke out on its closure.

This reaction couldn't be more similar to the punk rock/major label uprising of the early 90s.

Consider Oculus as independently focused and intelligent. Consider Facebook commercially driven and a time vacuum of dumb. When your heralded vision that you've nurtured since its inception aligns itself with something you consider suboptimal, you become stompy and outrageous.

Realistically, if you owned a company and a multi-billionaire knocked on your door and offered you the money, resources and freedom to build your dream AND set you up financially for life, you're going to say no because you're steeped in punk rock ethos?

I understand backer outrage. I'd hope Oculus takes care of you with a free commercial unit (at least). Otherwise, us plebs should realize this will aid the R&D outreach and put Rifts on faces faster.

I'd be more concerned about Morpheus. Sony's been doing VR stuff for years, the Rift was a big enough threat to force their hand and invest more. Depending on what Facebook does with the OR will also affect a lot of what Morpheus will end up doing.

I'm getting a Holodeck out of this some way, dammit. And I'd rather it not be laden with advertising.

Patrick's Facebook deletion method is...diabolical.

If Oculus wanted to be a company producing electronics for the masses, that was not going to happen on its own.

We don't know that that's true, for one, and second, that's not what Oculus told people. This is a huge part of why people are having this reaction that I think you're underplaying in this piece.

As Jeff Atwood tweeted today:

"I was going to change the world with VR and try to change humanity forever, but here's a number."

Hah! Take that naysayers! More money for Oculus is only a good thing and Notch is an idiot, why pull out when he could cash in even more on Minecraft VR

An incredibly exciting project with the potential to revolutionise all forms of visual media, backed by thousands of fans (mostly gamers), lead by what seemed to be very idealistic/ intelligent people, (gamers?) whose major concern was videogames and their eventual improvement, have been bought by a publicly held social media company whose primary concern is money and/or social networking.

You don't pay 2 billion for anything and not have plans for it, I am entirely sure that in the long run, facebook has no interest in pushing VR past what is merely acceptable.

also, facebook having a good track record after only acquiring other social networking services is meaningless, those services were probably bought because they were somewhat inline with what they were already doing.

The Rift does seem cool, but honestly, my initial reaction to hearing the news was "2 billion dollars? Really? There's no way this thing, with no guaranteed content, is worth that much." Seeing that the majority of the payout is in "funny money" it makes a little more sense now.

I find it hilarious how people are shooting this down. Oculus always needed capital, I was just waiting for someone to come and scoop them up. And I feel there were much scarrier options out there, like MS, Apple and Sony. But when that is said, this is fucking boonkers! I find this extremely funny and I cant wait to see hos this turns out. I guess I am alone in feeling this way?

Thank you @patrickklepek...for putting that picture of will up! :P