Oculus will require an Facebook Account For New Products

There it is people. Most of you probably saw it coming when Facebook acquired Oculus, but now we have a date. From October 2020, you will only be able to log in to your Oculus device for the first time by signing in through a facebook account . If you already have an Oculus account, you can continue using it until 2023, before you will have to switch to a Facebook account to continue using your Oculus device.

Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR responded to his earlier promises that this day would not come on the Oculus subreddit.

I am already getting heat from users and media outlets who say this policy change proves I was lying when I consistently said this wouldn't happen, or at least that it was a guarantee I wasn't in a position to make. I want to make clear that those promises were approved by Facebook in that moment and on an ongoing basis, and I really believed it would continue to be the case for a variety of reasons. In hindsight, the downvotes from people with more real-world experience than me were definitely justified.

A few examples below so people won't make up their own version of what I actually said:

• I guarantee that you won't need to log into your Facebook account every time you wanna use the Oculus Rift.

• You will not need a Facebook account to use or develop for the Rift

• Nope. That would be lame.

• I promise.

How are people feeling about this? Does this impact your decision making regarding Oculus? Do you already have an Oculus device? Will you be using it beyond 2023?

More information: https://uploadvr.com/oculus-facebook-account-required

I have a Rift and a Quest but knew this was bound to happen when they made Facebook mandatory for social features. I don't think I'll be continuing the Oculus route. It's not so much that I don't want to make a Facebook account: my family uses it extensively to communicate so I already have one. I just don't want to link a personal account to a gaming one. I can easily see Facebook dropping usernames in favor of real names since they're already going to force that for Facebook Horizon. I just feel that has the chance to go horribly wrong.

With that being said, it's frustrating because I think Oculus has been nailing the mix between price and quality for VR. Their stuff isn't top of the line but it's a fair ways better than "good enough." Given Vive has kind of screwed up repeatedly since getting away from Valve, Windows Mixed Reality being disappointing, and the Index being way more expensive there isn't good competition at that price point.

Honestly the Quest was the first time the cost/quality equation had me thinking, genuinely thinking I might go for it...but I've not used my Facebook account in a decade or more. I really should write that letter. So if this is how it works out, and you can't use the hardware without an active FB account? I absolutely will not be using Oculus. Just not worth it for me.

Wow, that sucks. I hope I'll be able to link a dummy FB account. How easy is it to make a new FB account nowadays anyway?

@goosemunch: People have been trying dummy accounts and apparently Facebook bans them and sometimes asks for a driver's license matching the name on the account to verify it's real if you want it unbanned.

@goosemunch: For some reason my dad keeps trying to make a dummy account but he won't supply a photo or a real name so they keep banning him. To which I say: Good.

This means I will use my Quest till 2023 then move on to other VR-products. I deleted my Facebook account over a year ago and I am never going back. I am using Messenger though, as too many family members use it as a primary means of getting in touch.

I have a Rift sitting here that i got from my brother when he upgraded to the index, which i have not been able to use because it may be the CPU in this PC not working with the headset (it technically makes the specs but is not supported by oculus), but it could also be the cable. I went to buy another cable just to troubleshoot the problem (the cable looks like it has seen better days) only to see they immediately stopped making them as soon as the new headsets came out (this was only a few months after there new headset). which left me with the impression that they do not care to support there hardware or customers for very long. That in itself left me not wanting to buy there products in the future. But even still i considered maybe getting a quest just because the price and no PC needed was enticing, but this move combined with there walled off store solidified it.

I have not had a facebook account, and will never have a facebook account.

What a bummer! As Squadaloo said, I like Oculus' midrange pricing, compatibility with SteamVR, and (until now) their focus on being a gaming & entertainment brand first and a Facebook subsidiary second.

I bought my Rift S last fall and have lots of fun using it. If Facebook follows through on this plan, I will probably sell my Rift S in 2023 and switch to something else. I'm sure most of the big players will have new headsets out by then.

That said, I find this odd from a business standpoint, because you'd think it'd lower sales. Most of the VR games I own are on Steam, but I have 8-10 exclusives on my Oculus wishlist for whenever I beat Half-Life Alyx. With this announcement, I'm reluctant to spend $30-40 on software that'll be gated behind a Facebook login in 3 years.

It's a bad look anytime the platform owner decides to change the terms of access for content we already paid for.

Bummer. No Oculus for me, then.

I ditched Facebook LONG ago, and I make a point of not using any of their businesses, when at all possible. I'm not giving that Silicon Valley Sociopath Mark Zuck any outlet to steal my data.

P.S. - Palmer Luckey can suck sh*t from an ass. The guy 100% human garbage.

You'll probably still be able to use the Rift(s) with other platforms like SteamVR, but this is bad news for the Quest. This virtually guarantees that I'm out of the Oculus system within the next two years.

Its a bit sad really, was eyeing that new version of the Quest. But this news stopped that notion dead in its tracks.

But then again the HP Reverb G2 looks mighty impressive with those lenses. Its not wireless sadly.

Lol even with Palmer being a POS I was considering it, but no way in hell now. I haven’t had a FB account in a decade and every time someone I know mentions their FB it just reaffirms my decision.

Then there’s the public fact that FB sells your data to the govt illegally. Yeah I’m fucking goooood with all that. There’s plenty of other ponies in the race at this point.

I wasn't really planning on buying any VR, but this pretty much guarantees that if I ever do, it won't be an Oculus. Which seems to be pretty much the same response that everyone else on the internet is giving.

Glad I didn't get an Oculus (at least since I had the DK2). I saw this coming a mile away, but was still semi tempted.. Just going keep my PSVR and wait for the next offering from Sony before I decide what to get next. Oculus is definitely off the list.

Good to see Palmer grow up a bit. His voice has way too much sway over the industry even to this day. Sycophants need to stop hyping up these people....

Upgraded from a WMR I am almost always too lazy to hook up to a quest not too long ago.

On principle I dislike this. But FB have been trying to use FB as the one account you use for plenty of services for ages and in my mind this isn't too different than my gmail also being my youtube account or my amazon being used for/syncing to (I honestly forget) twitch and hobbyist cloud stuff. I have privacy concerns but... those were always going to be a mess and if one more company finds out that I bought superhot vr it isn't going to be the end of the world.

Same with "adult content" that I obviously totally never use because I am a good boy who goes to church or whatever the hell people claim when they are claiming they don't wank for comedic reasons. Oculus doesn't sell any. I have concerns over them identifying what third party apps I sideloaded on there are but that is a concern with anything where you make a purchase or have a tracking cookie on when you sign up with your totally untrackable protonmail address.

And I am under no illusions they hadn't already matched my oculus account to the facebook I use to see my sister's kid pictures and be aware of what my town is doing this weekend so I can adjust accordingly.

So it sucks but I am not sure this really sucks any more than it ever did?

I have to say that this is one of the more naked effocts to force people into an eco system by straight up changing the rules years after selling the product. I would say it is a deceptive business practice, but tech companies seem to be immune to those laws by the magic of having unlimited money to spend on lawyers.

^ oh man this post says it all really. Well said.

This is very dumb and short-sighted. That is all.

There's no way I'm trusting Facebook with anything.

It's almost like facebook doesn't understand their audience and how bad a reputation they have as a company right now. Just seeing facebook on instagram I make the yuck face everytime now lol.

I don't think VR is at a point where it is financially viable for companies though, and I could see occulus being sold before that date tbh. Not to mention what will happen to big data companies like facebook by then.

As far as VR, hopefully valve or someone makes an affordable non cumbersome version in the near future. But I am honestly expecting AR to take off way before VR does when the costs come down for it.

There goes what little interest I had in Occulus