I think kickstarter pitches will now need a "I will not sell this off to facebook" clause.
Facebook acquires Oculus VR
851–860 of 871 posts
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#852Earlier quoted context omitted.
>>I believe Palmer Luckey will regret this decision. Absolutely. He has lost all credibility he had gained with such a cult following. I don't think he would be able to repeat it with the gamers and supporters again.
Devil's advocate here: Which is bigger, the gamer and supporter group you speak of, or the facebook user base?
There is a difference between a fan base and a user base.
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#853Earlier quoted context omitted.
May I ask, what happened with TotalBiscuit?
In his own words: http://www.reddit.com/r/Cynicalbrit/comments/1xrx27/in_light... boogie2988's response is worth watching: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvSXgBmu2Pc Nerd³ weighs in with his own experiences: http://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/1xs45h/realtotalbisc...
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#854I'm surprised people even think Oculus Rift will catch on beyond the early adopters. It's just another 3D TV technology - sounds cool, is cool, but not in a long term way. Nobody cares much about 3D TV anymore because in practice it wasn't all it cracked up to be. It was hype. When you strap a display to your head and replace your mouse with your own neck muscles, suddenly you are more limited than before. You can't…
You should try one of their latest prototypes before you write off this technology.
The sense of presence is something that is addicting and doesn't wear off. People will want this over and over again.
Fast first person shooters aren't a good match for VR.
And keyboards - yes they are not well suited for VR either.
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#855Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not trying to be argumentative, but is a VR helmet really critical to our future? Is it on the same level as food and poverty and peace?
Technological advancements have a funny way of producing important side-benefits. A change as massive as VR - we simply don't know how big a deal it is. For example, as one of the smaller potential side-effects, imagine VR became good enough that there was no practical reason to have people travel for face-to-face meetings. That would have a significant knock-on effect (closing on single-digit percentile worldwide) o…
Teleconferencing is currently very possible, including video to video or voice to voice, but this hasn't stopped people travelling around. I am not so sure that VR will suddenly be the thing to take off in this regard; if people aren't happy sat in front of a camera for a meeting, will they be happy wearing a headset?
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#856Earlier quoted context omitted.
I expect Carmack is the sort of guy to say "fuck your golden handcuffs, I'd rather work on interesting problems". If it turns bad he'd go.
This is why I'm astonished: it also seemed to me that Carmack is that sort of guy, you know, real programmer . idealistic, stubborn. Maker, not businessman. But whatever be all that "Mark and his team share our vision for virtual reality’s potential to transform the way we"… blah blah — I cannot really imagine why he would do so if not only for the sake of business. Well, it might be easier to make stuff when company…
I would bet that yes your picture is correct.
He posted on twitter:
"I suppose I will get a FB account now, so that may lead to some writing a little longer than tweet length..."
Never signing up for FB account indicates to me that he's got as much disdain for Facebook as many people here.
He also tweeted:
"I have a deep respect for the technical scale that FB operates at. The cyberspace we want for VR will be at this scale."
Which hints to me that he's at least intrigued by the possibilities that partnering with Facebook will offer, and he sees some potential in this partnership.
Carmack has earned enough of my respect over the last few decades that if it turns out he's ok with the acquisition and stays with the company, then as much as I dislike Facebook, I'm going to trust his judgement and be confident that he's hard at work on something 'game-changing'.
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#857Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Oculus is not a service, just a technology; one that has no relation (nor clear route to one) to any Facebook-held product. Exactly. This is what diversification is all about. At it's core, Facebook is now a public technology company, which means that creating value for its shareholders is it's primary focus. Buying something that looks like it might be a big deal before it becomes a big deal is doing that. Killing…
>Diversification Conglomerates have some of the thinnest margins across many industries. Jumping into the electronic devices industry with a product that hasn't even hit market yet is a bad gamble, especially since a dedicated electronics manufacturer (Sony) is going to release the same product but with an already dedicated market (Playstation). It would have been better to wait until OR released, because then early…
Fair point. It definitely looks like an emotional purchase in a tough market. They're already getting creamed for it in the stock market [1]
The way things look, this is largely a win for Oculus for finding a big backer, and a risky gamble for facebook.
I think it's good that FB's putting some faith in a great team and product all the same
-- [1] http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-shares-drop-more-t...
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#858the Oculus Facebook song... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRL1yb9nAko
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#859The reason why people haven't commented yet because we can't find the words. I have no immediate idea what can FB do with Oculus VR, even if I read Zuck's comments.
This is the first indication, to me at least, that Facebook is going to be pursuing the "Bell Labs" style strategy that Google has been. For example, self-driving cars and robots are great new technologies and industries but have less than obvious connections to Googles core business. Facebook now would seem to be doing the same.
I view this more as eBay buying Skype - no clear synergy (at least yet - I'll keep watching), unlikely to yield any. To me, this is a silly acquisition - if I was a shareholder, I'd be angry that they spent $2b on this. Of course, after you spend $19b or so on Whatsapp, anything smaller suddenly seem reasonable. :)
Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR
#860my son said it sounds more like a drug than a piece of technology I think this is for "whales" people who have lots of money and time to spend on games.