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

Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

thenextweb.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 369 posts

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#201

Post by jodrellblank »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #153
ekianjo wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> scaling crisis for VR. That's supposing Facebook knows how to scale production of electronic items... apart from the cash, they have no relevant experience about that. If it had been Google or Microsoft there would already be people who know how to make it scale to mass production.

Facebook has the buying power to put together a solid hardware production team. I don't think Google has much internal hardware production knowledge right now, aside from the knowledge they bought when they acquired Motorola. Before that, they mostly made things through hardware partners like HTC, Samsung, and LG. I think they produce the Chromecast internally, but it's not much fancier than a USB stick. I'm sure the…

Google builds their own servers, since at least 2005 - http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/google-uncloaks-once-secret-serv... and builds it's own switches, owns an ARM chip design company and "may be" building custom server chips - http://gigaom.com/2013/12/12/google-may-be-making-its-own-cu...

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#202

Post by WalterSear »

batiudrami wrote: post #152
clarky07 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google wouldn't be any better, and I might argue worse. They are more likely than not to just shut it down. Microsoft or Apple would be better though IMO. Alternately Valve might have been nice.

Valve would have been ideal in terms of 'companies who have lots of money and not a lot of people to justify their spending to', but I imagine that $2Bn is outside their price range. Last I heard they were working on their own VR though.

It would be a big step, but I doubt they couldn't afford it. They make more money per employee than Apple does.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#203

Post by bunderbunder »

sliverstorm wrote: post #179
bduerst wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It blows my mind how much people will throw their money at Kickstarter projects for the simple feeling of goodwill or novelty knick knacks (bumper stickers, buttons, etc). $10,000 should have bought some small amount of equity, even if it was only non-voting and non-dilutable.

Well, this guy is a bit of a special case. IIRC he literally made more money than he knew what to do with on minecraft

~33M units shipped, at prices between $5 and $27 a pop, depending on platform and date of sale. So that'd be somewhere between $165M and $831M in revenue (with the actual figure being pretty far from either limit) off of something that originally amounted to little more than a hobby project.

Yeah, it's hard to imagine he saw that coming.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#204

Post by stormbrew »

gfodor wrote: post #139
DigitalSea wrote: post #131

What company isn't creepy these days? Google, Facebook and Amazon are a few companies of many that come to mind when I think of all the user data they hold, what they know and what they could use it for. Thems the breaks unfortunately. I admire Notch standing up for what he believes in, but I just can't see how Facebook is creepier than anything else or affects the acquisition of Oculus. It's not like the gaming devi…

The problem people have is that time and time again Facebook releases products, after massive amounts of engineering and research, that are focused on trivialities. Another way to flirt with people. Another way to post photos to the internet. A more fun way to read about the inane status update your ex-girlfriend posted about the food she just ate. Look at Facebook's commercials, the ones where the person is on the p…

> Zuck gets on stage and talks about this world of global connections, and articulates this sweeping vision of a utopia where your whole life is enhanced by Facebook, but what we actually get are cat photos, fake cows, and people yukking it up about celebrity buzzfeed articles.

Have you ever considered that this may not be Zuck's fault and that, in fact, this may actually be what the connected world he talks about actually wants?

Do you want Facebook to somehow force the world to become not just more connected but more enlightened? Are we to be cut off from facebook if we post one too many cat photos or stupid chain letter memes? Is that a power we really want anyone to have?

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#205

Post by ps4fanboy »

brenschluss wrote: post #177
ps4fanboy wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an investor I would be overjoyed.

That's because investors think about short-term profits, not about world-changing technologies.

$2B isnt a short term profit.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#206

Post by melling »

skore wrote: post #3

> "Facebook creeps me out." Whether or not you agree with his decision, having Notch pull away from talks with you creates an instant credibility "situation". It's also noteable that Notch had been meeting with the Oculus team just two weeks ago[0], was tweeting about them in rather gushing terms[1] and seemed incredibly inspired to work on VR ideas[2]. He is now the personification of the a near universal feeling of…

Nah, it's irrelevant and will be a non-issue in a couple of years. Now that there are two strong VR players, things should progress much quicker. Consumers win. Hopefully, Notch will change his mind and embrace both platforms. Let's keep both companies in the game so the innovation doesn't stop.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#207

Post by samstave »

fchollet wrote: post #169
ekianjo wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> scaling crisis for VR. That's supposing Facebook knows how to scale production of electronic items... apart from the cash, they have no relevant experience about that. If it had been Google or Microsoft there would already be people who know how to make it scale to mass production.

The "scale" JC is referring to is not hardware production. It's the virtual reality. Millions of people interacting in real time in a virtual universe in which they are actually present . Think of it as similar to the scaling challenges of MMORPGs. Only much worse.

It is both; FB makes a shit-ton of HW with their open-cmpute platform....

They have a lot of XP in building real physical shit these days.

Scaling traffic is a non-issue for them.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#208

Post by cwyers »

vehementi wrote: post #199
cwyers wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google would buy Oculus to integrate it with existing product lines, either Android or wearables. Microsoft would buy it for the Xbox. Apple would buy it to make it part of the iOS line. Facebook by far seems like the weirdest of the possible major buyers, because they have by far the fewest obvious complements to Oculus, but by the same token, that makes them the most likely company to be buying Oculus to expand int…

Sorry if I'm not completely convinced by your half-sentence dismissals of those incredibly multifaceted organizations you listed.

I doubt the sincerity of your apology.

But if you really desire more convincing, all of those companies have large existing business units devoted to selling consumer devices or licensing things to people selling consumer devices. Those business units have executives, budgets, reporting structures, etc. It is very unlikely any of those companies would buy Oculus to run it as an autonomous unit, like Facebook is saying they will do with Oculus for now.

Re: Minecraft creator says he’s canceled talks for Oculus Rift version

#210

Post by anigbrowl »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #186
fchollet wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it is factually true. JC on Twitter: "I have a deep respect for the technical scale that FB operates at. The cyberspace we want for VR will be at this scale." https://twitter.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/448631430533246976

If Oculus's plan all along was to create a giant MMO powered by Rift headsets, then this is the first I've heard of it. Interesting. I think a bunch of smaller apps created by developers has a better chance of being successful. EDIT: By "giant MMO" I mean "metaverse from Snowcrash," not "video game."

Well Second Life is instructive here, I felt they ran into scaling problems. You could also consider Eve's non-sharded world - OK Eve is a game, but a sufficiently complex and elaborate one as to be a good proxy for an immersive virtual environment.

I don't know exactly what Oculus's plan was but it'd be foolish to ignore this obvious application, and that certainly seems to be where Mark Zuckerberg sees the value in it, if we are to take his speech on the conference call at face value.

Post reply on HN