Facebook to buy Occulus Rift :/

The more I think about this, the more I think to be disappointed about losing the OR to FB is the wrong thing.

The real crime here is (as many people have pointed out) how a crowd funded idea can be allowed to sell out and not benefit the people who backed the idea. I don't mean benefit in the form of "you'll get your backed project quicker", I mean by way of financial remuneration.

I think there needs to be a) a rule change in Kickstarter to make people shareholders in companies or ideas or b) a clear statement at the start of a Kickstarter funding to say whether or not the company would sell the idea or stay true to their fans.

Or, someone needs to make an ethically motivated Kickstarter clone. Like now, because this won't be the first time thousands of investors (backers, whatever) have their hard earned used to line someone's pockets in this manner.
 
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.
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Don't see the problem, as long as it gets made and works well with the games I want to play then I couldn't care less if Facebook/Prince Phillip/Max Clifford own it.
 
Believe it or not, Facebook didnt just spend 2 billion to kill the OR.
Whatever their long term plans are for OR, it is too far along its current path to massively change tack, for it to see "2 billion" worth of value it needs to become mainstream, that means it needs to be better and cheaper.
If anything this news means the 4k version is likely to happen sooner, as they now have the funds and potential market penetration to justify buying 4k screens.

The best course for Facebook to get what they want from OR is to let them continue their current path to CV1. I can understand peoples concerns "because Facebook", but for me personally I couldnt care less, big money means a bigger chance of getting improvments sooner. Everything it needs to become the mass market media/social tool will also be needed to make it a useful gaming tool. The actual content is secondary to making an immersive Vr experience.

I am also confused by people who kickstarted getting uppity... Kickstarter is a way for startups to get funding, the aim of a startup is always to make money for the owners, there is always a risk the company will get bought or fold. I'm utterly perplexed as to why someone would pledge thousands of dollars to a private company without any promise of some kind of return, be it shares, or however many dev kits / consumer versions that money would buy.
 
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As longs as they don't **** it up, hoovering up all of these companies is OK but I just hope it doesn't stifle innovation.
 
Nail in the coffin for me so I won't be buying it.

Also interesting to see that Marcus Persson (Mojang) has cancelled Oculus integration into Mjnecraft on this news.
 
HEADRAT said:
As longs as they don't **** it up, hoovering up all of these companies is OK but I just hope it doesn't stifle innovation.
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What like how they messed up Instagram and WhatsApp? I mean look at how much they've changed those platforms to date.

How dare they.
 
andybird123 said:
Believe it or not, Facebook didnt just spend 2 billion to kill the OR.
Whatever their long term plans are for OR, it is too far along its current path to massively change tack, for it to see "2 billion" worth of value it needs to become mainstream, that means it needs to be better and cheaper.
If anything this news means the 4k version is likely to happen sooner, as they now have the funds and potential market penetration to justify buying 4k screens.

The best course for Facebook to get what they want from OR is to let them continue their current path to CV1. I can understand peoples concerns "because Facebook", but for me personally I couldnt care less, big money means a bigger chance of getting improvments sooner. Everything it needs to become the mass market media/social tool will also be needed to make it a useful gaming tool. The actual content is secondary to making an immersive Vr experience.

I am also confused by people who kickstarted getting uppity... Kickstarter is a way for startups to get funding, the aim of a startup is always to make money for the owners, there is always a risk the company will get bought or fold. I'm utterly perplexed as to why someone would pledge thousands of dollars to a private company without any promise of some kind of return, be it shares, or however many dev kits / consumer versions that money would buy.
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I agree with everything here, except for the 4K bit. Even if we can get the screens, we don't have enough horsepower to drive two 4K screens, and still be considered anything near mainstream.
 
"But this is just the start. After games, we're going to..."

All the fail you need right there,
If I want an immersive environment outside of a game I will just open the front door and step outside. There is no "after games".

Burning Chrome isn't a future I want to rush into to thanks.
 
OK, we're on a gaming / pc enthusiast form but I personally think people are missing the bigger picture.

VR has got so much more to give than simple first person shooters and generic gaming that we know today.

The social side of VR is pretty amazing in my book. As an owner of first dev kit, and with two coming for the second, I can personally vouch that some of the most compelling examples of VR is based in a social environment.

The one thing I've spent the most time experimenting in is a VR theatre, where you can look around and interact with others in the room. They can look at you, even wave (through use of the hydra) and it's uncanny experience.

Lets not forget as well that of the most interesting aspects of the couch knights games demoed at GDC wasn't the game itself but the full body avatar sitting opposite you that could look into you eyes and give you a nod to start the game. Subtle, but genius in my opinion.

Or how about the mobile market? If you could get the rift working in conjunction with your phone it could be incredible. A simple example would just be using it on a plane with noise cancelling headphones on to watch a movie in a VR theatre. Unless you've tried it you maybe don't know but I'm telling you it's possible to use the rift in a tiny cupboard but have your mind convinced you're sitting in an open field.

And this takes me on the other markets - how about medical? How about bed bound people being able to experience inaccessible locations? How about the elderly (or just people that are far away) being able to experience the "presence" of being at an event or show.

VR crosses boundaries. Young / old, male / female - everyone i've shown it to, regardless of their interest in games, is blow away by the possibilities and manys first thoughts for it's use don't even touch on gaming.

You know why I've got two DK2's coming? Because even before the Facebook announcement I had changed my targeted development and interests from single player experiences to social engagements.

In my opinion Facebook is a surprisingly good fit, and the people at Oculus wouldn't have taken a deal they didn't think was going to work.

Whether that turns out to be the case is a completely different story! :)
 
randal said:
I think there needs to be a) a rule change in Kickstarter to make people shareholders in companies or ideas or b) a clear statement at the start of a Kickstarter funding to say whether or not the company would sell the idea or stay true to their fans.
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No one would put their products on it then, and someone else would make a kickstarter site which works like the existing one.
 
I completed HL2 using the Oculus Rift a few weeks ago, freaking amazing experiance even at the low resolution the DK1 has. Brought it back to the office today as I quit my job and they were asking for it back :p The hoverboat part was insane with the Rift, all the parts where you are chased by a combine helicoptor thing, round around looking about in the sky. Was great fun.

The mouse aiming was interesting, as it was more like having a 2 inch box in the centre of your view and the aiming reticle is more like moving a mouse on a desktop. So it was a combination of the mouse and your head to looking around. People susceptible to motion sickness should probably avoid.
 
I'm really really hoping that he talks about it, however as the acting CTO, he probably can't tell us his real opinion on matters.
 
"Oh no, facebook is becoming less relevant to society - best buy something new and hip"

This does really **** me off though, I was looking forward to some VR gaming, looks like Facebook are going to completely ruin that for me.

It's going to be a stream of poor games, expensive DLC which you need to complete said game, data mining and advertisement. It's going to set back VR by years if not decades.
 
I believe there are 2 companys in the world at the moment who can make something obscure into something mainstream, they are Facebook and Apple. This is a good thing IMO as if AR or VR becomes properly mainstream and not just a geeky niche for the socially awkward then it opens the doors for other company's to pump money into the market to compete. Look at what marketing did for Apple and the iPod and iPhone and the surge in popularity led to other company's scrambling for a piece of the pie which in turn drove development.

Sure Facebook have iffy privacy ethics and is populated with narcissistic **** but it is probably the most well known brand in the developed world, and if they say wearing a brick on your face is cool and it catches on then good times all round.
 
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