Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Report may suggest that login requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is anticompetitive

vrfinal.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 185 posts

Re: Report may suggest that login requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is anticompetitive

#161

Post by the8472 »

jlarocco wrote: post #63
save_ferris wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangentially related: newly-created Facebook accounts are a whole lot harder to keep up these days if you’re just using them for a single purpose, like following events. I created an account last year to get more socially involved in my community but I didn’t want to post any personal information and my account kept getting disabled unless I added pictures and filled out certain sections of my profile. Not sure if it…

I'm 100% in agreement that a Facebook account shouldn't be required to use an Oculus. But to continue on your tangent, I'm curious what people expect Facebook to do if they don't collect some amount of identifying information. On one hand they have a huge problem with bots, fake likes, and misinformation accounts, and on the other hand people complain about and avoid the steps they take to prevent those accounts. So,…

Make it so that a tree in the forest unobserved will fall without a sound.

Re: Report may suggest that login requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is anticompetitive

#162

Post by jmiskovic »

raxxorrax wrote: post #158
jmiskovic wrote: post #156

I think Quest 2 will be extremely influential device and this decision will shape the market for years to come. The Quest 2 is important because it's being mass-produced at very affordable retail price. It will be the first and most impactfull VR experience for huge amount of people. I only have experience with Quest 1, but it's already apparent that Q2 is improvement in every way while being noticeably cheaper. Q1 w…

VR has been a nice toy but the acceptance and content was underwhelming. I own a quest 1 since I impulse bought it in retail. After finding out what it was I ordered a rift s which I use more frequently. The software package is actually decent, but the lock-in is repulsive. With facebooks decision both devices will certainly be scraped soon. I probably need to make sure my oculus account isn't automatically migrated.…

The Facebook Reality Lab is on brink of consumer AR hardware. Q1 has functional "passthrough" mode with 3D content superimposed. Browsing internet with just hand tracking and the camera feed in background is decent AR experience already. Meanwhile FB is actively researching efficient text entry methods based on hand pinching and gestures [1].

I agree that this generation is not comfortable for prolonged use. FB has a prototype of AR sunglasses with monochromatic screens [2]. They've teamed up with Luxxotica to produce AR sunglasses for 2021 [3].

They have team of people wearing experimental AR headsets walking around public spaces, gathering data and working around legal issues [4]. It all seems to be building towards converging point of widespread AR availability that I would say is 2 to 5 years in future.

[1] https://uploadvr.com/frl-pinchtype-ar-vr-keyboard/ [2] https://techxplore.com/news/2020-07-facebook-ultra-thin-vr-e... [3] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/zuckerberg-facebook-to-relea... [4] https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-project-aria-is-test-driv...

Re: Report may suggest that login requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is anticompetitive

#163

Post by amelius »

save_ferris wrote: post #19

> The report states that, “conditioning access to a product or service in which a firm has market power to the use of a separate product or service is anticompetitive.” I agree with this. I shouldn’t have to have a social media account in order to use a product that isn’t directly related to social media. Accounts like Microsoft aren’t the same as Facebook IMO because they tie products and services I’ve purchased to…

What if they sold it as "Facebook Oculus"?

Re: Report may suggest that login requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is anticompetitive

#164

Post by anoncake »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #98
chillacy wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to use the apple watch you must have an iphone, which somehow seems worse: https://www.imore.com/can-you-use-your-apple-watch-your-andr...

It doesn't seem worse to me. Apple is free to make and sell accessories for its own hardware products. It would be a problem if Apple sold its smart watch while also breaking iPhone's compatibility with third party smart watches.

It's also a problem that Apple sells its own phones while breaking the Apple Watch's compatibility with other phones.

Re: Report may suggest that login requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is anticompetitive

#165

Post by anoncake »

supernova87a wrote: post #150

I'm not a fan of Facebook, and I don't really have a lot of interest in VR. But I will opine that it's getting a little ridiculous how every other story these days seems to fall back to the argument that everything you don't like must be "anticompetitive". You don't have to use Facebook. You don't have to use VR technology. These are all voluntary activities that people actively choose to engage in, and are not publi…

> You don't have to use Facebook.

You don't understand what a social network is. It's a natural monopoly.

Re: Report may suggest that login requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is anticompetitive

#166

Post by jmiskovic »

raxxorrax wrote: post #160
sdfkkksdfsdff wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you don't want a FB account, you missed out on an incredible VR experience. How does that even make sense?

It is fun but not worth integrating Facebook into your life. Better use the alternatives. Sadly I own 2 devices from oculus. Will use them until they don't work anymore and then they are headed to scrap. Would have a bad conscience selling the devices and maybe that doesn't even work.

I'm also looking forward to alternatives. Pico VR seems to be the only standalone headset? Don't worry about selling them, there were no reported problems with switching Quest/Rift to a different account.

I still expect existing devices will continue to work with Oculus account. The FB account will be required for slew of upcoming social features, like using same avatar across different games, group of people moving between games, the Horizon and other social content... If they make existing HW unusable without switching to FB account, they would face class-action lawsuit and media backlash. I think they want to self-regulate as much as possible so they'll try to avoid those pesky court rulings.

As for your original question, FB doesn't care about few hundered dollars across few tens of thousand users that are reluctant to switch to FB accounts. They are playing the long game of becoming the only relevant player in VR/AR market.

Re: Report may suggest that login requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is anticompetitive

#167

Post by save_ferris »

unishark wrote: post #129
save_ferris wrote: post #19

> The report states that, “conditioning access to a product or service in which a firm has market power to the use of a separate product or service is anticompetitive.” I agree with this. I shouldn’t have to have a social media account in order to use a product that isn’t directly related to social media. Accounts like Microsoft aren’t the same as Facebook IMO because they tie products and services I’ve purchased to…

The issue isn't with being forced to use social media, it's being forced to use only facebook's network. Privacy is a separate issue. They could just make Oculus also connect to other social networks including facebook's competition. Then the anticompetitive complaint is gone as Oculus's market share no longer gives Facebook an advantage. Yet the creepy privacy-violating continues more than ever. Sort of like IOS and…

> The issue isn't with being forced to use social media, it's being forced to use only facebook's network.

Yes it is, read the article. The report states that regulators take issue with the fact that users have to log into an account that has nothing to do with gaming in order to use a gaming product.

This isn’t about using one social media network over another, it’s about requiring users to hand over personal consumer data in order to use a product that has no reason not to function without it.

Re: Report may suggest that login requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is anticompetitive

#168

Post by save_ferris »

amelius wrote: post #163
save_ferris wrote: post #19

> The report states that, “conditioning access to a product or service in which a firm has market power to the use of a separate product or service is anticompetitive.” I agree with this. I shouldn’t have to have a social media account in order to use a product that isn’t directly related to social media. Accounts like Microsoft aren’t the same as Facebook IMO because they tie products and services I’ve purchased to…

What if they sold it as "Facebook Oculus"?

That wouldn’t change anything.

The issue is that Oculus is a gaming platform, and gaming platforms don’t need social media data to play games. It’s an arbitrary requirement that has no practical function beyond collecting user data.

Imagine needing to log into Facebook in order to use your TV, refrigerator, etc. This is what regulators are trying to get ahead of.

Re: Report may suggest that login requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is anticompetitive

#169

Post by amenod »

franciscop wrote: post #139

I was very excited about the Oculus Quest, was considering buying it and suddenly the Oculus Quest 2 came up. Then I dug deeper and I saw I needed a facebook account (which I don't have nor want). So because I don't have a FB account Oculus/Facebook has lost hundreds of dollars for me. How does that even make sense?

To facebook? They don't care about those few hundred of dollars from you, they want to advertise to you. So either you get a FB account and they can, or you don't - and they hope that sooner or later you will succumb.

Re: Report may suggest that login requirement for Oculus Quest 2 is anticompetitive

#170

Post by klmadfejno »

supernova87a wrote: post #150

I'm not a fan of Facebook, and I don't really have a lot of interest in VR. But I will opine that it's getting a little ridiculous how every other story these days seems to fall back to the argument that everything you don't like must be "anticompetitive". You don't have to use Facebook. You don't have to use VR technology. These are all voluntary activities that people actively choose to engage in, and are not publi…

> It's as if people are complaining that because they bought tickets to their favorite live sports event, they were forced to pay to park their car there too. You don't have to do any of those things.

A better example would be people bought tickets to their favorite live sports event, and then were forced to login to facebook before entry.

Post reply on HN