Facebook buys oculus for $2 Billion

http://time.com/37842/facebook-oculus-rift/

Any interest I had in it is dead now.

Not the best news, that's for sure….

Originally Posted by Nameless one
http://time.com/37842/facebook-oculus-rift/

Any interest I had in it is dead now.

I agree but then VR technology has three major problems right now.

1. It's to expensive for the average buyer.
2. They have to get the consumer market to adapt.
3. It will need more support from Publishers/Developers.

Anyway Facebook probably has more than just games in mind. So time will tell as I have seen allot of hardware touted as the next big thing only to fail in the end.

And that's the end of any chance that ever had of being worthwhile.

Oculus + face-recognition technique already built in into FB = "face recognition to go" or "drive-by face recognition".

Horrible.

I'm certainly not happy about it but I'm also not certain its a death knell for it. It was a 100% buy for me but its now in the wait and see category. At least we have competition now with Sonys.

Isn't Valve working on their own solution as well?

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Oculus + face-recognition technique already built in into FB = "face recognition to go" or "drive-by face recognition".

Horrible.

I don't understand what Oculus has to do with face recognition. I mean… it's not a camera, but a display device. What am I missing out?
When it comes to face recognition you have to be more concerned about Xbox One and especially Google Glass.

I don't like it either that Facebook now has direct access to this technology. But in fact that's not a big deal. Sooner or later all big (software) companies will have access to all key technologies. That's just a matter of a few years.
I think what Facebook is going to do are social meetings in VR. So you can have a chat with multiple "friends" just like being physically with them.

I wasn't really interested into o.rift at all. It's being developed as a toy, players should finance it more buy buying the unpolished product and eventually it's gonna be used as an army combat simulator.

Thus I don't really see the interest facebook has there, wouldn't they be better with developing something like googleglass of their own? Dunno.
In any case, I'm not buying.

Originally Posted by Lemonhead
Isn't Valve working on their own solution as well?

Yep, Valve, Sony, and Microsoft all have modern VR systems in development; Microsoft had paired down their development for the last couple of years but they may step it back up again to avoid ceding the space to others by default.

While I'm not thrilled about Facebook grabbing up Oculus, they really did need a company with hugely deep pockets to push them through the interations it requires to take something from cool toy to good+cheap enough for mainstream adoption. The good news is that even if you hate facebook, there's 2-3 other sizable companies working on entrants into this space. That kind of competition at least bodes well.

The only thing I see out of this is avatar "chat room" like in Ghost in the Shell.

Oh and in-game adds right in your face too…

Well, Im not sure how I feel about this one…

But one thing I can say Azarhal is that people from the media who tried it and played things like space combat games were mostly awed. Stating how natural simply looking around and seeing the space ship fly by you and simply angling your head to track it down.

I am still looking forward to see what they make out of this… It was supposed to be fairly inexpensive, heck the dev kit with a pair of VR glasses is 350$…And they hinted that the final product would be a little cheaper.

Not good…

I wish Facebook would just implode.

Originally Posted by Galaad
But one thing I can say Azarhal is that people from the media who tried it and played things like space combat games were mostly awed. Stating how natural simply looking around and seeing the space ship fly by you and simply angling your head to track it down.

Maybe I should have been more clear. The only thing I can see Facebook develop that support the tech is a virtual 3D chat room. I do not see other dev changing what they are doing because of this buyout.




N.B. I do no understand why people always cap the first letter of my forum nickname. :/

Just saw this on reddit. Simpsons once again predicts the future!

Boooo.

Well it didn't take long for the kickstarter backers to demand their money back.

Link- http://kotaku.com/oculus-kickstarter…nds-1552041702

I wonder what excuse they will use as I don't see it happening though.

It certainly goes against the spirit of crowdfunding no matter what, and it will make people more cautious about backing stuff in the future.

That alone is reason enough to lament this. I had high hopes for the Rift - but I have no idea what this will mean for its future.

All I know is that the concept of the power going to the people and the passion being the driving force has now taken a huge hit - no matter how they spin this with bullshit PR.

I have no doubt this is a blow for future kickstarters especially ones that deal with new hardware. I wonder if new laws need to be made to regulate this from happening.

I'm glad at least Notch saw through the PR you should see all the developers, and journalist writing this is good for everyone. I don't agree with them.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Not good…

I wish Facebook would just implode.

Well, look at it this way - Google makes more money harvesting and selling your private information … they just offer better candy to lure you into the back of the van.

As for this one, I agree on the 'lost any interest' sentiment. Basically, from a revenue perspective it is best to think of companies like Facebook (and Google) as advertising companies - they only make money using YOU as the product, so when they buy a company, it isn't about what they can sell you (selling products isn't their business model), but about how they can entice you to give them more of yourself.