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Facebook buys Oculus VR

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  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    What...

    This April fools day joke is a week early.
  • D4V1DC
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    D4V1DC polycounter lvl 18
    It better be a god damn joke. lol
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    Why's every so pissy? Sounds like Facebook wants to diversify, like most tech companies have been doing. Google and Amazon buys up companies unrelated to their core business and nobody blinks an eye.
  • vik
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    vik polycounter lvl 13
  • Richard Kain
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    Richard Kain polycounter lvl 18
    Yeah, it sounds like this is actually happening. I did not see that one coming. Facebook has generally stayed out of the hardware side of things. Seeing them snatch up Oculus VR is surprising.

    For the time being, it sounds like Facebook isn't intending to change anything up at Oculus. Hopefully this won't effect or change the direction of the company for the time being, and the Rift will be able to come to market without too much interference. A best-case scenario would see Oculus VR able to finish development with the massive pockets and resources of Facebook backing them up. A worst-case scenario would involve Facebook actively sitting on the Rift. I doubt that will come to pass, especially if the rumors of the purchase price are true. They could have paid a lot less if all they wanted to do was sit on it. That level of investment implies that they intend to use the company, and that the Oculus VR owners were reluctant to sell without certain caveats.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    The best thing as all the people using Facebook to post how upset they are.
  • HitmonInfinity
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    HitmonInfinity polycounter lvl 11
    Where's that guy that just got an art job there? I wanna know if he's rolling in dat facebook stock lol!
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    Why's every so pissy? Sounds like Facebook wants to diversify, like most tech companies have been doing. Google and Amazon buys up companies unrelated to their core business and nobody blinks an eye.

    Mostly 3 reasons:

    Facebook has never done anything hardware related

    Facebook has had chances to get into casual gaming but never has, and they just dove straight into a hardcore pc gaming peripheral.

    Poeple feel like facebook is going down hill, and like any social media site, it could get replaced by a different site/community easily.
  • Tobbo
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    Tobbo polycounter lvl 11
    "Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won't be changing and we hope to accelerate. The Rift is highly anticipated by the gaming community, and there's a lot of interest from developers in building for this platform. We're going to focus on helping Oculus build out their product and develop partnerships to support more games. Oculus will continue operating independently within Facebook to achieve this."

    Hopefully Facebook will actually let the Rift team continue doing what they're doing without interfering.
  • cryrid
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    cryrid interpolator
    Hopefully this can keep the price of the final version in a suitable range.
  • MeshModeler
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    MeshModeler polycounter lvl 11
    i hope myspace buys project morpheus.
  • skylebones
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    skylebones polycounter lvl 10
    Ha!
    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 face-to-face — just by putting on goggles in your home.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    I'd rather have Facebook stock that game company stocks, it shot up 150% in the last year. The EA stock I got in 2007 has never regained it's value :P
  • CordellC
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    CordellC polycounter lvl 11
    jesus christ. the whole internet is ablaze over this for almost no sound reasons

    oculus just got funded with $2 billion... that's huge. all the brilliant minds are still there, and their partnership with valve is still strong.
  • Tobbo
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    Tobbo polycounter lvl 11
    It's going to be fun watching FB stock explode tomorrow morning.
  • mats effect
    Not really against the idea of Facebook owning them, if anything they will be much better funded now but I just worry that Facebook is way more interested in using the tech for things other than games.

    Not saying thats a bad thing but I would hate for games to have taken a back seat for Oculus two or three years from now.
  • iniside
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    iniside polycounter lvl 6
    /care

    Never was interested to much in VR in first place.
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    The only postive I can think of is at least they'll now have enough capital behind them now to get display panel manufactures to make what they want. They kinda need that in order to compete with Sony who already has display manufacturing power.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    Kinda low compared to the $19 billion they spent on WhatsApp.
    I wouldn't compare Facebook to Myspace much like Google isn't Yahoo. It seems like this wave of internet companies realize you can't be a one trick pony.
  • MikeF
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    MikeF polycounter lvl 19
    2 things i want to know before i make a judgement:
    1) what does this change for independent developers and how content is released?
    2) Do devs and users alike need a facebook account?

    If nothing has changed here then its a great thing, lots of money to put into R&D and it wont compromise the end product.
    If new requirements based around the above take shape, i'm jumping ship.
  • JacqueChoi
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    JacqueChoi polycounter
    I think this is the best thing to happen to OR.

    :/

    I don't think the future of VR is necessarily in games, I think it's HUGE for education, military, and healthcare.


    - Learning how to drive with an occulus rift, might be safer than driving in a car.
    - Learning how to perform open heart surgery in an occulus rift might be safer than performing on live patients.
    - Drone Strikes might be more accurate when piloted with one of these.


    None of those things would happen if game studios were in charge of this technology.
  • mats effect
    Kinda low compared to the $19 billion they spent on WhatsApp.

    Thats insane money for an app, makes me worry that the tech industry is heading towards a massive crash, way more money being spent than some of these things will ever be worth.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    Thats insane money for an app, makes me worry that the tech industry is heading towards a massive crash, way more money being spent than some of these things will ever be worth.

    It's got a huge userbase and is growing fast, it's just not popular in developed countries so the average joe justs scratches their head. It breaks down to them paying $42 per user, $12 more per user than their Instagram purchase.
  • AlexCatMasterSupreme
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    AlexCatMasterSupreme interpolator
    Why's every so pissy? Sounds like Facebook wants to diversify, like most tech companies have been doing. Google and Amazon buys up companies unrelated to their core business and nobody blinks an eye.

    This is how I feel, it seems they want to become like google or microsoft.
  • StephenVyas
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    StephenVyas polycounter lvl 18
    I now dub thee.. Faceglasses :icon60:
  • Dataday
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    Dataday polycounter lvl 8
    For some reason, if someone told me McDonalds acquired the Dungeons and Dragons franchise... I would probably feel the same as I do now hearing this news. Not entirely a big fan of these guys selling out, especially this early into what was obviously an extremely successful startup with limitless potential.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    Dataday wrote: »
    For some reason, if someone told me McDonalds acquired the Dungeons and Dragons franchise... I would probably feel the same as I do now hearing this news. Not entirely a big fan of these guys selling out, especially this early into what was obviously an extremely successful startup with limitless potential.

    I keep hearing the McDonalds comparison being thrown around, Facebook is a tech company. It would be like McDonalds buying something related to the food industry (which they do all the time).

    I have a feeling in the near future we'll think of Facebook as a social media company as much as we think of Google as a simply a search company or Amazon as a book seller.

    I look forward to all the market news about Facebook buying this relatively unknown company making strange tech. If you never step out of the game industry echo chamber you forget how small it is.
  • Ark
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    Ark polycounter lvl 11
    So they use kickstarter to fund this only to sell out to Facebook. No they wouldn't have funded this from the start.

    I see once OR started to gather interest the big guns were ready with their chequebooks and dollar sign emanating from their eyes.
  • AlecMoody
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    AlecMoody ngon master
    I find this super disappointing. Privately held companies get to think long term and take risks without worrying about what a board of investors thinks. Also, in 10 years who is going to be left running the show? My guess is some MBAs who think their only job is finding new ways to monetize users.

    The up side of this is that in the short term Oculus has a lot more leverage to get better custom panels and electronics manufactured.
  • Dataday
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    Dataday polycounter lvl 8
    I keep hearing the McDonalds comparison being thrown around, Facebook is a tech company. It would be like McDonalds buying something related to the food industry (which they do all the time).

    I have a feeling in the near future we'll think of Facebook as a social media company as much as we think of Google as a simply a search company or Amazon as a book seller.

    I look forward to all the market news about Facebook buying this relatively unknown company making strange tech. If you never step out of the game industry echo chamber you forget how small it is.

    Really? I havent seen anyone make that comparision but its still valid in my opinion. McDonalds also sells "toys" in the form of their happy meals, its equally equatable in my mind, though the premise of the comparision was to convey that its not something I personally feel comfortable with.

    I dont expect everyone to share in this feeling, but having OR under FB kind turned into a personal party pooper, the excitment level for the device has dwindled as a result.
  • Ark
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    Ark polycounter lvl 11
    Dataday wrote: »
    I dont expect everyone to share in this feeling, but having OR under FB kind turned into a personal party pooper, the excitment level for the device has dwindled as a result.

    I feel the same way, most of my interest is lost with this news.
  • Dataday
  • Muzzoid
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    Muzzoid polycounter lvl 10
    Is John Carmack actually someone with a lot of power at occulus as if so this doesn't surprise me.

    It's inline with his ideas about making money.
  • arshlevon
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    arshlevon polycounter lvl 18
    LOL, really love the cry baby responses. Oculus will still operate independently of facebook, like almost all the acquisitions facebook has made, Oculus gets some venture capital, and facebook could reap some profits when the device starts actually producing some type of consumer hardware, win, win. It dosent matter if facebook hasn't made hardware before, neither has Oculus, they have made some prototype devkits, and were running out of capital. anyone truly interested in oculus should be happy they have a capitol to operate, if they didn't the hardware would have become vapor when the funding runs out. they also need capitol to innovate and make advancements. Now they have 2 billion to make something awesome, that might actually make it to market. All the nonsense about ads in oculus, and facebook integration are totally stupid, Facebook has to do those things to make any money, they are a free service with no other income. oculus is a physical product people will buy generating income from sales, not marketing.
  • skyline5gtr
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    skyline5gtr polycounter lvl 9
    Very interesting i wonder what his interest in it is
  • D4V1DC
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    D4V1DC polycounter lvl 18
    I now dub thee.. Faceglasses :icon60:
    ^That was perfect, i rolled. :\

    OcularPages a.k.a. flipbook. :poly142:

    Naw though at first i was like god damn but if they leave everything alone and just throw money their way great, otherwise i was looking forward to facebooks end. I predict some sort of integration with facebook though in the future of Oculus to prevent the death.
  • Joopson
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    Joopson quad damage
    arshlevon wrote: »
    LOL, really love the cry baby responses. Oculus will still operate independently of facebook, like almost all the acquisitions facebook has made, Oculus gets some venture capital, and facebook could reap some profits when the device starts actually producing some type of consumer hardware, win, win. It dosent matter if facebook hasn't made hardware before, neither has Oculus, they have made some prototype devkits, and were running out of capital. anyone truly interested in oculus should be happy they have a capitol to operate, if they didn't the hardware would have become vapor when the funding runs out. they also need capitol to innovate and make advancements. Now they have 2 billion to make something awesome, that might actually make it to market. All the nonsense about ads in oculus, and facebook integration are totally stupid, Facebook has to do those things to make any money, they are a free service with no other income. oculus is a physical product people will buy generating income from sales, not marketing.

    This.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    and yet Notch is fine with Minecraft being on Microsoft and Sony products. I wonder if he'll stick to his guns and not be involved with whatever Amazon is planning.
  • The Flying Monk
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    The Flying Monk polycounter lvl 18
    The Facebook hate reminds me of the way everyone hated Microsoft back in the 90's. And then DirectX and Xbox became a big chunk of gaming and it's now hard to imagine them not being there.

    I also just had a friend try and convice me that this will meen that the Oculus rift SDK/drivers will now force you to log into Facebook and log all your data. Because apperently thats something a hardware peripheral can do now.
  • Dataday
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    Dataday polycounter lvl 8
    and yet Notch is fine with Minecraft being on Microsoft and Sony products

    I think it has more to do with what FB is, what is has done and what its doing now... mixed with how the Oculus Rift started and how it felt like an independent project funded by the community.

    Facebook deals with a lot of private data, few actually trust or like it despite using it. Having facebook also involved in politics wont help make it easier as well.

    Its hard to put a finger on it but something just doesnt feel good about it being acquired by such a group, im sure many of us didnt want to see it acquired at all actually.
  • Codexus
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    Codexus polycounter lvl 11
    And I just ordered my Oculus dev kit earlier tonight. Just before the announcement that is. I feel so stupid now.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    lulz ninja edit:

    It feels just like an easy protest. Meanwhile how many people have no qualms about making games that rely on Microsoft, Sony, Google or Apple products?
  • The Flying Monk
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    The Flying Monk polycounter lvl 18
    Don't worry, I'm going to kickstart my fairtrade organic VR tech pretty soon

    Too late, I'm going to make an open source, peer to peer, distributed VR solution. Kickstarter is too corperate. I'll fund it with comunity input and wishful thinking.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    Notch says he's creeped out by facebook, he can't be that uncomfortable: Official Minecraft Facebook Page
  • Lennyagony
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    Lennyagony polycounter lvl 14
    arshlevon wrote: »
    Now they have 2 billion to make something awesome,

    I don't think it works like that, surely the two billion in cash and shares goes to the owners for the sale of their business, with funding for future development being signed off on by Facebook.
  • Codexus
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    Codexus polycounter lvl 11
    Has anyone noticed how they don't even use the word 'game' in their post? Instead they talk about a "VR platform" and "connecting people".

    I guess games are no longer the priority...

    EDIT: well actually they mention 'gaming' at the end below the picture, silly me. It still feels like an afterthought...
  • AlexCatMasterSupreme
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    AlexCatMasterSupreme interpolator
    To be honest, while I think Oculus Rift is cool, now their budget has potentially exploded and (maybe) will be a good thing for the future of VR and help bring it into homes. Facebook seems like an odd buyer but it would seem to me they want to be more like Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Able to be more than a social network. If Myspace shows anything it’s that trends change fast and I think that Facebook is trying to step into other markets and possibly help grow one in order to not only become bigger as a company but also solidify their future.
    As long as they don’t interfere too much with what the core goal was, gaming, which Facebook is all for, this seems to be a good thing.

    I mean could you really turn down 2 billion dollars as a small company when your future may be bright, but also is dependent on a device that currently is a small market? Maybe with Facebook (Oculus), Sony, and Microsoft all get going with them that might not be the case.

    TL;DR

    It’s good or bad, make sense.
  • Dataday
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    Dataday polycounter lvl 8
    They are already planning a new Brand for their VR experiences...

    Its called... FaceFook.

    Marketing slogans can be "hey lets get Fooked up" and "fook me" as well as "dont forget to like my fook request"...
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    Nintendo is a company that is primarily focused on games, it hasn't really worked out that great for us developers.
  • lurked
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    lurked polycounter lvl 10
    I think it's fair for people to react to this with a fair bit of skepticism.

    While MarkZ's intentions might be genuine, facebook is still a publicly traded company that puts profits before innovation that's largely focused on the casual market. So for a startup that has had innovative ideas on VR gaming, which really excited people, it's logical to assume that facebook's involvement could muddy the waters.

    With that being said, if facebook is smart they'll leave OR completely alone. I cringed a little reading MarkZ's statement that once it releases for gaming they'll begin broadening OR's market into all these other areas. I was quite happy that OR kept it's focus on gaming and expanding on that alone.

    But don't forget, there's always Valve, Sony and MS.
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