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Facebook acquires Oculus VR

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Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#501

Post by jfoster »

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.

I think it's going the other way. Remember that circa 2000, consumer tech was a monopoly.

Now there are quite a few big players. Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, etc.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#502

Post by leoc »

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…

There doesn't seem to be that much difference between a good general-purpose VR headset and a good gaming-focussed one though. The refresh rate, positioning accuracy, latency and so on have to hit a certain high standard or you simply have a bad, non-immersive and likely sickness-inducing VR headset. (So the situation is very different from monitors: 60Hz and high latency is "good enough" for general-purpose monitor use but poor for competitive gaming.) If anything non-gaming applications may be more demanding when it comes to resolution: games can manage with 1080p but it's not really sufficient for reading text, viewing photos and so on.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#503

Post by clef »

selmnoo wrote: post #146
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 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),

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#505

Post by saraid216 »

parasubvert wrote: post #443
saraid216 wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know HN has a natural tendency towards wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I don't understand this reaction at all. That's fair. I didn't bother explaining it since the details of implementing a democracy is a hobby horse of mine and dropping a couple paragraphs seemed... beside the point. But, > Why would watching a debate from a virtual auditorium be any worse for democracy than watching it on TV? It's not the a…

Presidential elections have been a "looks good on TV" contest since the first televised debate in 1960, when Nixon lost. 54 years later, there is no sign of that changing. Humans are humans - the soap opera is more important than the policies.

Why would you expect it to change? No one is trying to change it.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#507

Post by jusben1369 »

pinaceae wrote: post #400
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).

right, that's why pure software companies now need to get into hardware, just like, erm, who exactly? do they want to be the next apple? hardware is such a different skill and mindset than software, it's not even funny.

I don't understand your point. Were you railing on Google when they bought Nest?

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#508

Post by lotsofmangos »

selmnoo wrote: post #146
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 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…

If it comes down to having to choose between trusting facebook or sony, then we are all in a pretty bad state of affairs.

Re: Facebook acquires Oculus VR

#510

Post by parksy »

dzlobin wrote: post #403
nobodysfool wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Facebook could stay hands off No, they could have made a sizable investment without having a controlling stake in it. No, they Acquired it. You don't do that unless you want to change something there. My best hope is that the Zuck sees something cool going on with the Oculus and wants to try his hand at something new. My worst fear is that they will develop the 'Oculus API' as a wrapper around the original API and F…

My god, the tinfoil on HN has become unbearable. Are you even listening to yourself?

Facebook is a company whose revenue is entirely based on advertising spend. They pitch their network's services based on the fine level of control you can have over market segmentation - the more information Facebook has about people, the better they can promote these services.

It's reasonable to speculate on the extent to which Oculus can resist being assimilated into the already-existing business model. It seems less reasonable to speculate that Oculus will become Facebook's flagship product and not just some sidekick to enhance their current revenues if possible (or if that doesn't work, consigned to the dustbin of history).

Since all of this is speculation anyway, what do you think is going to happen?

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