facebook purchases Oculus VR

I'm excited to announce that we've agreed to acquire Oculus VR, the leader in virtual reality technology.

Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. For the past few years, this has mostly meant building mobile apps that help you share with the people you care about. We have a lot more to do on mobile, but at this point we feel we're in a position where we can start focusing on what platforms will come next to enable even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences.

This is where Oculus comes in. They build virtual reality technology, like the Oculus Rift headset. When you put it on, you enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment, like a game or a movie scene or a place far away. The incredible thing about the technology is that you feel like you're actually present in another place with other people. People who try it say it's different from anything they've ever experienced in their lives.

Oculus's mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their technology opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences.

Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won't be changing and we hope to accelerate. The Rift is highly anticipated by the gaming community, and there's a lot of interest from developers in building for this platform. We're going to focus on helping Oculus build out their product and develop partnerships to support more games. Oculus will continue operating independently within Facebook to achieve this.

But this is just the start. After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.

This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.

These are just some of the potential uses. By working with developers and partners across the industry, together we can build many more. One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people.

Virtual reality was once the dream of science fiction. But the internet was also once a dream, and so were computers and smartphones. The future is coming and we have a chance to build it together. I can't wait to start working with the whole team at Oculus to bring this future to the world, and to unlock new worlds for all of us.

- Mark Zuckerberg

https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101319050523971

Damn, you guys have a fast thread making trigger.

Also, what the fuck?

What the fuck is this real? Virtua-book? We are all fucked.

Well that was nice while it lasted, look forward to Farmville VR Edition.

Megaton.

edit: I also find the "it's dead!!!" comments around the web a bit funny. Come on now.

For $2 Billion

This has got to be fake. Right? ...Right?

I wonder how much this has to do with the Morpheus unveiling.

so Facebook want to do VR conference calls...

Fuck that.

Yeah, absolutely no part of that acquisition makes sense.

I was looking forward to the opportunity to invest in Oculus once they started to get bigger but I don't want Facebook stock :(

@lumley: Tha'ts the part that gets me...I don't know the first thing about business, but 2 BILLION DOLLARS seems insane! That can't just be me, right?

Had no idea they even were purchasable. That's the worry.

I kinda did a Sheila Broflovski "What what WHAT?!?!?!" just now.

Holy shit, that's some surprising news.

DYSTOPIAN CYBERPUNK FUTURE FOR THE MASSES YAY

Damn right you don't want FB stock.

And the PC master race wept a collective tear.

So, John Carmack works for Facebook now. Deal with that for a second.

I saw someone say "Facebook bought Oculus!" in a Twitch chat, and I didn't believe them.

This makes no sense to me. Why would a primarily mobile/web based company want VR tech?

@milkman said:

One of the first things I thought about. What a world...

It's not April Fools yet.

You can access Facebook on PC's these days!

What the hell?

Of all the companies in the world I'd never have guessed that Facebook would be the one to buy them.

Walking around your Farmville is going to be awesome.

Makes Occulus worth only 17 billion less that WhatsApp!

Well I think this pretty much destroys any chance of this thing being good. What a shame.

Is anyone really shocked that Occulus, which has basically been nothing but a giant **** tease ever since it was announced, was sold to somebody? I mean, sure it is odd that Facebook is buying it, but Occulus has always been more about potential than any kind of real ability to get a product out to market.

I can't wait for that moment in the middle of that great VR horror game when I realise that the real horror was the subliminal messaging telling me to poke people on facebook.

@forkboy: unless Facebook is getting into the hardcore PC gaming/pc peripheral business, Facebook has no ties to what occulus was striving for. You have to admit that this makes absolutely no fucking sense. So its possible the occulus we know and love is about to change. A lot...

C'mon, Sony. Ball is in Morpheus' court now.

Ah, uh...what?

Really don't know how I feel about this.

On the one hand, this gives the Oculus Rift mainstream exposure.

On the other hand...it's Facebook. :/

FUUUUUCK THAAAAAAT

Coming soon... Facebook buys Epic Meal Time for $5 billion. Because, why not?

What the actual fuck?

What on earth will they do with it though? I'm hoping they'll just leave it alone and let them do what they where doing anyway.

Although, they could actually do some cool futurey 3d representations of your news feed and stuff like that I guess, still seems like a weird choice to me...

@thesteve19: This has probably been in the works for a while, so I'd guess it has absolutely nothing to do with that. Also, if Morpheus is PS4 only I don't think Facebooks cares anything about it.

Well, at least it wasn't bought by EA.

The last person in the world I want controlling more virtual spaces is Mark Zuckerberg.

Good for those guys, but seriously what the flying fuck? This probably isn't a good thing for people who were expecting Oculus to be the next big revolution in gaming. But I'll remain ever skeptical of the thing until a consumer version ships.

Fuck this, fuck that. What the fuck? This is insane and I can't handle this

@nmc2008 said:

Here is a gif for you disappointed folk:

Me? Oh, I never gave 2 shits about VR tech so I will post this gif as my reply:

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYUM!

That's a fuck ton of money.

I bet this has something to do with why Sony is doing their own thing instead of just acquiring Oculus VR themselves. The price Facebook inexplicably paid is probably too much for Sony to risk on a video game peripheral. But had Facebook not been there, I bet there could have been a mutually beneficial relationship for Sony and Oculus. Technology already existed, and was being developed for, Sony would provide better market penetration. I'm willing to bet the average person wouldn't buy a VR headset for their computer, but if Sony packaged it with their system and some shitty mini game collection, well, Kinect already proved that can be viable. Anyway, competition is good for the consumer, and although these probably won't directly compete, it will be cool to see the technology race. Hopefully we get something better out of it than we did motion control or 3D.

Edit: Bet, bet bet, betbetbet, bet. BET. FUCK.

Definitely see them moving away from gaming and in to more general and medical tech purposes with this purchase though.

@benpicko: Closing this in favor of the article that Alex posted an hour ago -

http://www.giantbomb.com/oculus-rift/3000-41/forums/facebook-just-bought-oculus-vr-1477863/

Also, please review the forum rules when you get a chance. Copy & pasting articles as new threads is generally regarded as spam if not accompanied by some kind of original thought. Thanks.