Facebook buying Oculus VR for $2 billion

[DD_bongodriver]

Wow.......I just +1'd a raaaid post

Edited March 26, 2014 by DD_bongodriver

[BraveSirRobin]

I'm sure raaaaaaid is on multiple "watch" lists.

[Freycinet]

Of course they will, but you simply decline if you don't want to allow that level of access.

 

It's OK to be paranoid, it's up to us how our data is used.

 

I would have entered a discussion about this, but if it starts out with me being called paranoid then sorry, I'm not up for it. I have better things to do than discuss with someone who starts out by insulting me.

[DD_bongodriver]

I would have entered a discussion about this, but if it starts out with me being called paranoid then sorry, I'm not up for it. I have better things to do than discuss with someone who starts out by insulting me.

 

like you've never been rude to anybody.

[Rama]

Should I close this one?

[DD_bongodriver]

No, maybe merge them?

[Bassly]

[johncage]

i was never going to bother with it anyway. it's like 3d imax movies. it's not that great. i get just as much enjoyment on a regular screen without 3d.

 

but clearly zuckerberg sees the moneypot potential with gamers.

[=AVG=Zombie]

Why are people so against FB? I use it everyday, no big deal. Just hope they dont screw up OR for BOS...... 

Really pop ups while your in game, noway people quit trippin.

[Sternjaeger]

Come on fellas..

 

Rama it might be a good idea to merge them, yes.

 

I started it here cos I thought it'd be an off-topic thread?

[Bladderburst]

Anyway if you don't like facebook why don't you close your account?

[dburne]

So this is where this thread disappeared to???

Thought I was losing my mind looking for it!

[Sternjaeger]

..not to mention that if I had crowdfunded something that was sold for $2billions, I would want in, because if it wasn't for the crowd investment, that bloke wouldn't be cashing in that fat check.

 

And regarding his comments of "if this happens I'm out" well boo-hoo, I guess a life of poverty would await..

[DD_bongodriver]

it's pure jealousy, same jealousy that made everyone turn on Zuckeberg is now being turned on Palmer, irony being that Iribe is the one laughing.

[Tektolnes]

Best thing about this acquisition is the purchasing power it gives the OR devs. Once the VR battle properly kicks off with new entrants to the market one of the driving factors will be the race to increase screen resolution. Custom screens will be needed and you need hundreds of millions of dollars to scale that. A company with $75m in venture capital funding is not going to win a that race.

[Rama]

Right, itt's better merged.

It will be a single thread to close in case of overheating.

[Freycinet]

Facebook can profile you if you feed it. That's it.

 

There is no big brother, you are your own big brother.

 

Read about Facebook shadow profiles:

 

http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/what-exactly-is-a-facebook-shadow-profile/#!Bw0jl

 

- YOU are already in the FB database.

[DD_bongodriver]

Scary.....I just realised that everyone in my village knows what I look like and where I live

[Tektolnes]

The amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth over this acquisition on the likes of reddit is kind of comical. When OR got $75m in venture capital funding everybody thought it was great like these venture capitalists would let the devs just get on with whatever they wanted and had no interest at all in a quick return on their own investment. Now that they have an exponentially higher amount of money to work with and the freedom to work with an eye on the long term as FB themselves are actually in this for the long run and not to turn a quick buck suddenly people are up in arms. It's in their long term interests for OR to be the best VR peripheral out there for pc games. If they succeed in that I'm pretty sure I can put up with whatever else FB wants to branch it out into. 

[Matt]

I must be the only one here who finds it a bit funny that the most vocal anti-FB posters in these forums use selfies for their avatar picture.

 

(i don't have a FB account btw., i don't like them either)

Edited March 26, 2014 by Matt

[79_vRAF_Friendly_flyer]

I'm no fan of Facebook, don't use and don't want to use it.   BUT.....The Oculus Team will remain the same, and still work out of their own headquarters.  Facebook gives them unlimited funds, and tech to deliver the best possible VR.   Initially I was upset, but think this will only help to bring the OR out sooner, and better.   My only worry might might be that the Oculus Rift consumer version cost just went up.  That said it really doesn't have too, as the market for the OR will be so huge, that the profit margin for each unit won't have to be that high, but you can never underestimate greed in todays world.

 

I think you nailed it fairly well. Facebook has the money to see the development through, and I can see no reason why Zuckerberg should buy it just to delete the project. He probably see it as an investment, which means he'll have to make sure it is developed into something usable he can sell.

[Tektolnes]

Zuckerberg really only had to spend 400m in hard cash for this acquisition. The rest is stock for OR. If OR is a great success and FB successfully branch out into an emerging new market their stock will rise which is good for both. Spending 400m to buy the most commercially viable VR peripheral out there that has good people working at the company represents a good long term gamble. Whatever about FB Zuckerberg clearly likes the tech and can see a big future market that FB can diversify into. 

Edited March 27, 2014 by Tektolnes

[DD_bongodriver]

Michael Abrash formerly of valve is now on the oculus team

 

http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/introducing-michael-abrash-oculus-chief-scientist/

[Tycoon]

How exactly is face to face going to work when everybody has a black box strapped to their face?

That's the first post I've ever voted up.        

[skullbiscuit]

How about this?  From the SimHQ http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3931495/2

 

"Listened to the conference call about the acquisition and mentions they are not hardware people but software and services people; that if they can turn it into a "network where people are communicating and buying things and virtual goods then ads might happen" around at 29:10."

 

If they put that into their conference call...well then...that should dispel a lot of speculation as to why they made the acquistion.  Though another poster over there noted that this might be a spoiling attack vs Google...I think that idea has validity....Zuckerberg might not know what to do with this tech now...but he is sure that he does not want Google to have it.

[DD_bongodriver]

Thats right, they are not hardware people, they rely on hardware for their software though, and they saw the potential in VR and secured their place in it, simple survival tactic and not necessarily evil plans of world domination, who cares if they bought it to prevent google getting it, I'm sure google will live.

[skullbiscuit]

That's the first post I've ever voted up.        

 

yeah...the irony of Facebook and Social vs VR which has a reputation for being anti-social...I mean you go into VR to escape the reality of people around you

 

This is good stuff ...however this turns out....this is the ironic biz acquisition of the year 

[DD_bongodriver]

yeah...the irony of Facebook and Social vs VR which has a reputation for being anti-social...I mean you go into VR to escape the reality of people around you

 

This is good stuff ...however this turns out....this is the ironic biz acquisition of the year 

 

you say that as if we've had mainstream consumer VR for years, fact is we haven't and therefore the rules of VR are not written yet.

[skullbiscuit]

you say that as if we've had mainstream consumer VR for years, fact is we haven't and therefore the rules of VR are not written yet.

 

video gaming has a long history to it (30+ years) and through much of that history it has been associated with anti-social --- the gamer disappears into the artificial reality of the game

 

VR goggles being a more complete realization of that blocking out of the external prospects for social interaction

 

Now with contemporary tech that has changed a lot with social games...but popular culture and opinion still associates gaming with turning away from more conventional social activities

 

Or...you can say...do you want the Blue Pill of the VR Goggles....or go out and take the red pill down at the local pub?

 

Choose your reality....."and may you find yours equally pleasurable".....from the original Star Trek series and The Menagerie

 

Ha ha

Edited March 29, 2014 by skullbiscuit

[Aracno]

 the rules of VR are not written yet.

 

This is what worries me, the idea that the rules, the born of VR world, will be managed by companys like FB and Sony.

What if in the nineties the birth and development of the internet had been managed by private corporations rather than by a large, not organized community, do you think now would be as free as now?

I would also have preferred a competition between hardware companies similar to what happens between manufacturers of screens and graphics cards, I fear instead that we will see the birth of packages viewer / sotware compatible in competition with each other, as happens now among playstation and xbox, with games dedicated to individual platforms.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Aracno

[DD_bongodriver]

there will always be the simple monitor and 2 lenses option to a VR headset, the patents on VR have all expired, any one of us can make a VR headset and sell it, if facebook try to control the hardware then they will die.