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Facebook acquires Oculus VR

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Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#491

Post by thearn4 »

froo wrote: post #413

It is really astonishing the amount of anti-Facebook hate in this thread. Yes, this isn't part of Facebook's core competency. They still bought it. Could it mean Facebook is attempting to diversify? How about lets wait and see what happens before we vilify the Oculus founders.

I think it's because FB is basically a modern day white pages, whose core mission is mine user data and deliver ads to people who don't want to see them. I think much of the disdain is in the fact that a company like this can manage to gain so much valuation in the first place.

Not saying I necessarily agree with that, but I can at least understand how it does leave one with the impression that priorities in the tech industry and wall street are completely out of whack. Instead of solving 'real' problems (energy, medicine, education, etc.) we disproportionately value some rather inane activities.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#492

Post by arg01 »

s3r3nity wrote: post #262
pfraze wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not ridiculous - at all. Facebook is the kind of company that wants to control their market and their platform. The Oculus Rift was an exciting piece of tech that was untied to any platform, giving an open opportunity for software developers to explore VRUI. Now, it gives Facebook the opportunity to explore VRUI. Of course, I'm afraid they're going to tie the hardware to their awful, invasive Web platform. I'd b…

> bottom-of-the-ethical-barrel Again, this is silly sensationalist thinking -- companies aren't people capable of "good" or "evil" choices. If they were, I'd note that Facebook was one of the only companies NOT conspiring to deflate the wages of half of the people that visit this site. (Note: I don't work for FB -- I just rail against silly hyperbolic thinking.)

Companies may be formally structured in such a way that they effectively act in an amoral fashion and merely seek to fulfill the wishes of their shareholders.

But they are also made of some less formal structures. Groups of people that believe privacy is important will be predisposed to assume that disrespecting that tenet will affect profit and the companies operating environment later. Even if this is not the case perhaps a company gains additional political capital in some area for it's behaviour and no single product is likely to be worth the loss of that clout.

If you take factors like these into account you can judge whether a company is predisposed to create outcomes you'd say are good or bad based on it's previous actions.

As to FB and the wages I do not give them the benefit of the doubt and assumed that it wasn't them acting on some outpouring of principal but purely needing the engineers as they grow more than they needed depressed wages. This may be unfair to them but their past actions do not align well with a more generous interpretation, though give it a few years with similar incidents and I'd reevaluate in their favour(I'd love to see it but I wouldn't hold my breath).

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#493

Post by rodgerd »

xbadxapple wrote: post #210
DEinspanjer wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow.. I came to the comments page wanting to express my disappointment. I really wasn't expecting to see so many other people sharing the sentiment. I thought I was one of the last people in existence who deleted their Facebook account years ago and left it deleted. :)

I haven't deleted it, but for me the problem lies somewhere else: The tech-sector is slowly growing into an oligopoly or at least that's my impression. I expect it to be diversified but deals like this leave me questioning and yes, they make me a bit sad. Perhaps the Oculus guys can use the resources Facebook will flow into them but...I have a bad feeling about this. Really.

Slowly?

The waves of patent and copyright attacks unleashed on Google are basically the giants who were born in the 70s and early 80s (Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle) trying their damndest to make sure no-one will ever grow in the shadows they cast.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#494

Post by prawn »

pekk wrote: post #338
Ygg2 wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'll make you a gentleman's bet that Facebook is thinking about eye tracking. Google acquiring Nest has a plan: collect data on electricity usage, presence in house and have a basis for inferring what people are doing generally all day.

Could they do eye tracking with a phone's camera easily enough?

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#495

Post by sgy »

According to sources close to the situation, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg started his quest to buy Oculus VR, the maker of the nifty Rift virtual reality headset, several months ago, before wrapping up the deal this past weekend. It was signed this morning.

http://recode.net/2014/03/25/in-googles-shadow-facebooks-zuc...

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#497

Post by ps4fanboy »

It amazes me how negative people are acting, this is a very logical move by OculusVR with Sony announcing a product competition is going to be fierce in this space. Now they have just as many resources as Sony.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#498

Post by AndrewKemendo »

zanny wrote: post #447
kamkazemoose wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 expe…

> Basically they want to have everyone share virtual experiences together within your network. Over proprietary facebook-only protocols, on their proprietary software, using proprietary device drivers, with systemic data collection, and virtual reality advertising. Yeah, no thanks. Occulus was poised to be revolutionary because it was going to be bigger than one headset, it was going to be an open platform for an ent…

What is the wonderland you live in that makes you think an insanely expensive platform (yes for the average person the Oculus is crazy expensive) with expensive to create content and little use outside a static environment would be open forever? Can you name anything massively successful with wide adoption that has those features?

If it wasn't facebook it would have been Google/Msft/etc...

The vitriol to this announcement is really staggering given the whole hacker ethos around here. Both of these two CEOs are by this community's standards the most hacker of the hacker.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#499

Post by aetherson »

saraid216 wrote: post #120
jusben1369 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best early random guess is this is defensive against Google Glass. Basically the world is going to stay mobile but the form factor will move from phones to glasses. FB won't be caught lagging this time (like they did from Web to Mobile).

This was also my first thought. The value proposition is basically, "Google Glass."

I don't think so, for two basic reasons:

1. Despite similarity in the fundamental form factor, Glass and the Oculus Rift are trying to solve pretty different engineering problems. Rift is all about trying to be low latency, capture motion accurately, and be sufficiently high resolution to make an experience feel immersive. Glass is about battery life, hardware miniaturization, and a display that you can see in daylight without it obscuring your vision. While, if both products were successful, they might eventually start to converge towards each other, owning one does not really help you solve the challenges of the other.

2. Facebook is threatened by Google Glass now? Glass has really, really failed to take off and become a big thing. It's hard for me to imagine that Facebook felt the need to do a multi-billion dollar acquisition to position themselves defensively against a product whose main accomplishment is coining the term "glassholes." Facebook manufactures its own opprobrium in house, very successfully. They don't need to acquire it.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#500

Post by dnr »

pjmorris wrote: post #181
Kapura wrote: post #119

This is probably the most forward-thinking move that Facebook can make. I've personally been kicking around ideas about what society will look like in a post-VR revolution world, and it seems that Zuck et. al. have come to the same conclusion that I have, namely, it will change what it means to interact socially with others. Imagine a 10 year high school reunion that exists not in the old gymnasium, but in a virtual…

Imagine going on an epic ski run from your sofa. Or wheelchair. Imagine jumping out of the Stratos like Felix Baumgartner, from your desk. I wonder whether GoPro is working on a stereo vision headset (with microphones) so extreme athletes can capture what desk jockeys will play back on their Rifts, Walter Mitty style. Edit: Imagine what playing Madden 2016 could be like.

Sorry to nitpick, but when you write "Imagine going on an epic ski run from your sofa" I have to wonder whether you've actually had an epic ski run. If you had, I think you'd agree that the primary senses that make it so incredibly enjoyable are kinesthetic and touch (feeling and responding to the texture of the snow), not visual or sound or anything that could be captured by a VR device.

This isn't to say that a recording like that would have no value, but it would only be a small step above watching a ski movie. And wheelchair users aren't excluded: paraplegics can use sit-skis to experience the real thing.

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