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Facebook acquires Oculus VR

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Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#861

Post by saturdaysaint »

aviraldg wrote: post #256

I don't want a "general-purpose VR headset". There are already many devices described that way (that work well enough for that purpose.) I wanted something built exclusively for the extreme requirements of gaming, and I feel this acquisition is going to distract the Oculus team from that. Facebook has no experience whatsoever in that domain, and the only way I see Oculus benefiting from this is the huge cash reserves…

Facebook has no experience whatsoever in that domain, and the only way I see Oculus benefiting from this is the huge cash reserves they'll have access to once acquired.

There's a lot of infrastructure that a gaming company needs in 2014 that doesn't have that much to do with Oculus's core gaming focus and that Facebook has very direct experience with. Look at how long it took Sony to get remotely competitive with the Xbox's interface; look at powerhouses like EA and Nintendo embarrass themselves year after year. System UX, payments, network scaling, "social", building a customer friendly game marketplace. I don't think these are the areas Luckey, Carmack and company can't wait to work on in the morning, but they're perfectly suited to Facebook.

In a better case scenario, I can see Facebook (or Apple or Google, to be fair) helping Oculus build another Steam competitor years sooner than otherwise imaginable. Imagine if there were two brilliant companies competing to push the envelope on Linux gaming.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#862

Post by AlexandrB »

Exenith wrote: post #842
AlexandrB wrote: post #783

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole thing betrays a certain lack of ambition. It's like if the early Microsoft had said: "Microsoft in every home? Nah, fuck it, let's just get acquired by IBM."

That's nonsense. Facebook is in every home. Being bought by them obviously helps Oculus to be in every home. I'm not exactly cheering over this acquisition, but if one thing's certain, it means Oculus is going to be all over the goddamn world -- assuming you guys don't ruin it with your kneejerk assumptions. This is really a branding failure. Facebook's brand conflicts with Oculus' brand. I'm surprised they didn't se…

I think you missed my point. I'm not saying that Oculus is now farther from their goal of "VR in every home" (I don't even know if that is their goal).

But whatever their goal was, it is now in the hands of Facebook. Sure they now have resources, but they also have a new master who has his own agenda which may be in line with Oculus' goals now but what about tomorrow? If Facebook hits hard times do you think Facebook will continue to have a hands-off approach with Oculus?

Also to address this specific point:

> Facebook is in every home. Being bought by them obviously helps Oculus to be in every home.

Facebook software is in every home. The Oculus Rift is not software, Facebook lacks the manufacturing/distribution/RMA/support infrastructure for consumer hardware products so that has to be built up anyways - all Facebook brings to the table (that I can see) is money and HR capacity. In many ways this makes less sense than an IBM/Microsoft merger back in the day because IBM was already selling computers with operating system and Microsoft could have naturally piggy-backed on that.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#863

Post by zimpenfish »

lightcatcher wrote: post #109

I just finished reading "Masters of Doom" last night. The book is about id software, the company that made Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake and that pioneered 3D gaming. The book primarily follows John Carmack and John Romero, two of the founders of id. Carmack was responsible for developing almost all of the 3D engine code. After finishing Quake, (what I believe to be) the first fully 3D PC game, Carmack wanted to wo…

Descent was full 3D a year (March 1995) before Quake (June 1996).

I'm sure there's some subtle point I'm missing as to why Descent mysteriously doesn't count but even nearly 20 years later I'm failing to spot it.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#864

Post by libraryatnight »

threeseed wrote: post #838
sentenza wrote: post #713

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also weird how many don't see the big white elephant in the room: People hate Facebook. For about 3-4 months now, whenever I talk to a non-techie and Facebook comes up _they_ start complaining and telling me how they're trying to get away from it. They even mention other services that are connected with Facebook (Instagram, What's App)! Is this happening only here in Germany? I was definitely surprised to be bac…

> People hate Facebook This is complete and utter nonsense. People would not be using the site if they did.

I haven't had a facebook account in some time, but when I did I hated it. I used it because there was this fear that I'd miss something, I'd be left out of some loop.Once I left, I realized that was nonsense, the people who mattered text, call, or email me.

My dad hates facebook, but he uses it because there's some family and friends on there that make him feel obligated to stick around.

Breaking away is easier than it seems at first, but there are plenty of people who dislike facebook who still use it.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#866

Post by alirazaq »

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…

This is great news for Sony's VR product. They could use this acquisition as a strategic attack towards Oculus as they did with Microsoft's XBOX One blunder.

Opening the hardware up to PC development would be one of the best moves Sony could make. Besides Portal 2 not much seemed to materialize from Sony's partnership with Valve last gen, this could be a game changer if functionality translates well between PC/PS4.

I'm very interested in seeing how all companies involved deal with this.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#867

Post by na85 »

philsnow wrote: post #637
na85 wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really not sensationalist at all. Facebook is run by a man who got rich on selling private data to advertisers, and then used his billions to buy all the mansions surrounding his own mansion so that he could protect his privacy. Zuckerberg is scum and this is a sad day for any fan of the Oculus.

to be fair, put in zuckerberg's position, I would do the exact same thing. the last thing I would want is for my house to be surrounded by people who won bidding wars just to own property near me. it's not like he bought all the surrounding lots and kicked the residents out; iirc he actually went out of his way to essentially set up a pseudo reverse mortgage for one older couple.

>the last thing I would want is for my house to be surrounded by people who won bidding wars just to own property near me.

That's hypocrisy. He's repeatedly gone on record stating that he believes peoples' lives should be fully open and shared.

But he doesn't want his own life to be open and shared?

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#868

Post by jhartmann »

aeberbach wrote: post #837
72deluxe wrote: post #728

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes a "real programmer" though? Do you think he'd be programming in a hut for no money? He isn't daft.

I'd say there are certain programmers, who after reaching a certain financial security threshold, would do exactly that. Just as there are people who would happily sail a yacht around the world indefinitely, though it would bore me silly. Is Carmack one of those? Who can say. This kind of programmer can be disguised by the fact that code hermits often make money by accident! When you love what you do, what you do ten…

I have met Carmack before at Siggraph many years ago and I can say that he struck me as someone who was a 'Code Troll' because he loved it. That he made money was great, but I think he has such a deep love of the technology for technologies sake.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#869

Post by samplonius »

imron wrote: post #856
krick wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 thi…

Why is not having a FB account "disdain"? I realize that you have some sort of anti-FB ax to grind and does most of HN. I haven't logged into FB for 6 months, but it is because of apathy, not disdain. Why would John be any different?

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#870

Post by falconfunction »

xerophtye wrote: post #662
AznHisoka wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exactly. FB has experience with stuffing LOLCat pics in your FB feed. Not innovative tech.

>FB has experience with stuffing LOLCat pics in your FB feed Seriously? Are you really saying that it's FB's evil plan to stuff cat pictures in your pictures? And not the fualt of those with whom you connect on FB? It's rather sad how so many people just think of FB as a "website" and not realize the truly innovative efforts they must go through to keep it running as such a massive scale. Not to mention, they built t…

their intentions are held in as high regards as their technical decisions
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