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Facebook acquires Oculus VR

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Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#681

Post by btown »

mcphilip wrote: post #541
s3r3nity wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

In theory, the oculus team will have more resources at their disposal. However, they are now apart of a publicly traded company with an emphasis on meeting investors' expectations on a quarterly basis. Also, new layers of oversight will necessarily be introduced, potentially limiting their ability to pursue industry related partnerships unless FB management can be made to see the worth of such deals. I'm withholding…

I think that the most promising aspect of this acquisition is the fact that with Facebook's resources, Oculus can scale like they never dreamed. Specifically, they have such a large starting cash buffer, they might even be able to sell the Oculus hardware at a loss-leading price, and therefore jumpstart the VR space.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#682

Post by jobigoud »

sudont wrote: post #89
lawl wrote: post #48

Damn! I don't like this. I had hoped they jump in bed with valve. Yes, I just really dislike facebook, so I hate to see them aquiring something i was really excited about. Also from the article: > 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 fa…

Indeed. I preordered the DK2, but I'm not sure if I should try to get a refund. I'm not on Facebook, and I don't want to develop for their platform. Although, one of the ideas was to replicate DFW's "samizdat" as an art project. Something tells me Facebook wouldn't look kindly on it pulling all your friend data to entertain you to death.

Ditto. I just preordered the DK2 yesterday and don't have a facebook account. Don't want to have to do anything with them. Shit.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#683

Post by hrktb »

bhassel wrote: post #657
frakkingcylons wrote: post #179

Palmer Luckey (founder of Oculus VR) just wrote a statement[0] on the Oculus subreddit: "I’ve always loved games. They’re windows into worlds that let us travel somewhere fantastic. My foray into virtual reality was driven by a desire to enhance my gaming experience; to make my rig more than just a window to these worlds, to actually let me step inside them. As time went on, I realized that VR technology wasn’t just…

Palmer responded to some of the criticisms on reddit http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of... : ---- "I am sorry that you are disappointed. To be honest, if I were you, I would probably have a similar initial impression! There are a lot of reasons why this is a good thing, many of which are not yet public. A lot of people obviously feel the same way you do, so I definitely want to address your…

> This acquisition/partnership gives us more control of our destiny, not less!

It's the first time I read a statement by Palmer, it overall seems reasonable, but this one line feels so much like BS business talk.

As I interpret it, being in a situtation where they had less controled that under Facebook means they had almost no control going forward.

Would it mean Oculus was going nowhere, they were seeing a strong competitor entering the market but no clear vision of how they could go on, so their destiny was basically a dead end, and getting into Facebook gives them at least one or two survival paths ?

Also, I'm sorry that you are disappointed...really ? Perhaps this guy at least is a really good fit in the facebook culture.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#684

Post by jobigoud »

clef wrote: post #503
selmnoo wrote: post #146

Earlier 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…

Because money. More seriously, VR is the future of a lot of things, if it hadn't been FB, it would have been son either company. Microsoft and google were probably looking at it too but lost to FB (again),

I'm not sure. Why do they have to sell?

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#685

Post by krisgenre »

hack_edu wrote: post #342
debt wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instagram has been allowed to go at their own pace since they've been acquired. Parse, also, has essentially gone on it's own and created things at it's own pace. It seems they're having the same attitude with Whatsapp. I assume, especially with Carmack coming over, that FB will be extremely hands-off with the base technology behind the rift. Facebook is an engineering company; in the way it's run and with what it pu…

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.

No relation? I can clearly see a Virtual Social Network :)

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#686

Post by jobigoud »

techwatching wrote: post #314
lawl wrote: post #48

Damn! I don't like this. I had hoped they jump in bed with valve. Yes, I just really dislike facebook, so I hate to see them aquiring something i was really excited about. Also from the article: > 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 fa…

Ok, so the hardware landgrab is in full effect. But... Facebook? Facebook is going to be competing with Sony? How does this line up with their competencies? With the track record they have with phones, I'm not holding my breath here. On the other hand, would you rather Google had bought them and siphoned off their team and energy into the Googleplex as they have done with other startups? Or - could Oculus have joined…

Why do they have to sell to anyone? Can't a company live on its own these days? They had everyone cheering up behind them.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#687

Post by illumen »

frakkingcylons wrote: post #179

Palmer Luckey (founder of Oculus VR) just wrote a statement[0] on the Oculus subreddit: "I’ve always loved games. They’re windows into worlds that let us travel somewhere fantastic. My foray into virtual reality was driven by a desire to enhance my gaming experience; to make my rig more than just a window to these worlds, to actually let me step inside them. As time went on, I realized that VR technology wasn’t just…

"My foray into virtual reality was"

Note the 'was'. As in past tense. He's got his exit.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#688

Post by hrktb »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #498
zanny wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 announc…

To be honest, this announcement made me realize how much what I was expecting was unrealistic. Sometimes you believe in miracles.

For the other company that I wouldn't have minded buying them, I'd say Valve getting back their CTO, Sony ready to provide the only VR platform of the market and using Oculus as a test bed, or even Samsung or Intel.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#689

Post by jfoster »

EpicEng wrote: post #663
jfoster wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so disappointing that the discussion is in this direction. I was hoping to come in here and find speculation about Facebook's vision, theories about their strategy, etc. Instead it's just a Facebook hate-fest.

Because those of us salivating over the prospect of Oculus for gaming never wanted it to be subject to Facebook's "vision." Quote from Zuck: "We're clearly not a hardware company. We're not gonna try to make a profit off of the devices long term. We view this as a software and services thing, where if we can make it so that this becomes a network where people can be communicating and buying things and virtual goods,…

The problem with that thinking is that it assumes Facebook is unchanging and just wants to mash Oculus into Facebook as it currently is. Actually they've done quite a good job of sticking to their word on not messing with Instagram.

Zuck also talked about VR being a piece of a new computing paradigm, and threw out that quote in response to whether the business model was selling units of hardware.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#690

Post by jobigoud »

wildermuthn wrote: post #252
lawl wrote: post #48

Damn! I don't like this. I had hoped they jump in bed with valve. Yes, I just really dislike facebook, so I hate to see them aquiring something i was really excited about. Also from the article: > 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 fa…

I'm thrilled. This is a brilliant move designed to bring world-shattering high-quality VR to the entire planet. Consider: Facebook has one of the largest user bases on the planet. Facebook has vast amounts of capital. Facebook has just demonstrated how important they believe VR to be. With Facebook's users, money, and engineering talent, VR is about to arrive earlier, faster, and better than anyone could imagine. I p…

Considering almost everyone hates on Facebook and is sort of forced into it due to the network effect, I wouldn't call this move brilliant.
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