What's with the negativity? What exactly do you think will happen that's so bad?
Not being able to use an Occulus Rift without a Facebook account.
Facebook acquires Oculus VR
401–410 of 871 posts
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#402IMO Facebook just bought $2 Million of R&D and a whole lot of bad PR for 1000x the going price. Doesn't seem like such a hot deal.
Also I'm wondering what the investors do to FB's stock watching them throw cash away like this.
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#403As a game developer that's interested in doing some work with the Oculus, I could see this going one of two ways: 1) Facebook could stay hands off, giving the company the company the breathing room and capital to absolutely revolutionize gaming, and then on to other fields. 2) Oculus as a "communication platform" is attempted too soon and the core team is drawn away working on pet projects resulting in a drastic lack…
>Facebook could stay hands off No, they could have made a sizable investment without having a controlling stake in it. No, they Acquired it. You don't do that unless you want to change something there. My best hope is that the Zuck sees something cool going on with the Oculus and wants to try his hand at something new. My worst fear is that they will develop the 'Oculus API' as a wrapper around the original API and F…
My god, the tinfoil on HN has become unbearable. Are you even listening to yourself?
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#404The only sensible interpretation of this is that Facebook is looking at this as a hail-mary diversification. They've got trouble monetizing and they know it. Having an actual hardware wing, in something new that might be on the verge of finally becoming big is a smart move.
Though if I had to fathom a plan, if Facebook buys some telepresence/robotics people then I'd say they might be thinking about how you could monetize global telepresence via virtual reality. Gaming is one app for the Oculus, but it's got an unknown market dimension. Whereas something like that - you could sell it to everyone, and they would actually pay for it.
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#405[deleted]
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#406I'm kind of speechless here... Certainly did not see this coming.
Nobody did. Well, besides this guy http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/1wf6mg/so_no_way_to_...
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#407Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but Instagram and Parse are services that fall within Facebook's major product area and have teams with related experience to Facebook's daily operations. Oculus is not a service, just a technology; one that has no relation (nor clear route to one) to any Facebook-held product.
Oh come on. I can think of a hundred applications Facebook could use the technology for and I am not a smart man. Just because Facebook does a few things well doesn't mean they can't... you know... grow and adapt with new technology. Facebook as a whole is probably a lot smarter than you and wouldn't spend 2 billion dollars on something without a "clear" route.
Who couldn't think of a hundred applications you could apply Oculus to any product out there? That's why people get so excited about it!
My point is that its unfair to compare the acquisitions listed above to Oculus simply because it of sticker-price or being so high profile. Oculus is a consumer device, a market that Facebook has tried numerous times and ran screaming from numerous times. Can they do it right? I'm sure they can. Is Oculus the right choice to start? Not my call. But is Oculus a web service? No. Does Oculus, company or product, relate at all to Facebook's product line? Not really. Did Instagram and Parse? Yes. Full stop.
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#408This is a big step in the direction of data collection. Imagine gaming with the goggles on and FB is tracking your eye movement, monitoring your heart rate and how you react to certain visuals. Say you are playing DeadSpace or some other jumpy game and they see that when you get "scared" your heart beat becomes abnormal. They could then use that data to insert an ad for a local heart specialist or some fancy new heart medication. I'm not against new tech but people should always be informed on what data is being collected and most of the time that is not the case.
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am shattered right now. I was so happy for Oculus VR, I wanted it to become big, I wanted it to become something truly special. And now this happens. I'm horrified and speechless. This is the day I stop cheering for Oculus VR and get behind Sony's Morpheus: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/tech/gaming-gadgets/sony-morph... Notch on this deal: "We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. I j…
>I am shattered right now. Oh come on -- this is just ridiculous. They (Oculus) now have many many more times the resources at their disposal than before to make countless imaginative projects. I know i'll get down votes for saying this, but if Google was the buyer, there would be much more positive comments here. Use some rational analysis here, folks.
"if Google was the buyer, there would be much more positive comments here."
The HN reaction to Google's acquisition of Nest makes me think the comments would be equally negative.
I'd be hard-pressed to think of a buyer that WOULDN'T lead to negative reactions on HN...
Apple: they'll make it iDevice-only, and also it will disappear for a year if not longer until Apple feels it's good and ready
Microsoft: they'll screw it up
Etc...
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#410Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not like there were many positive comments about Nest and Google, IIRC.
I'm unsure what FB is thinking here. Do they plan to make Facebook a VR site? Do their games need more immersion to be addictive? Google acquiring Nest has obvious plan. Make Android based devices with highly usable GUI.
They could make VR services for person-to-person communication. Be in the room with someone a thousand miles away, rake in cash for in-world ads and purchases... it could essentially become a future iteration of facebook (for when VR catches up to mobile).
If nothing else they could follow the original plan and sell a standalone rift for a profit.