Oculus Rift Thread: Consumer release months away - Games

[QUOTE=alien_guy;44353840]Why would they even do that, I don't see how it benefits Oculus.[/QUOTE] 2 billion dollars. I really don't like the idea of buying gaming hardware from Facebook though. I can't put my finger on it, but I just can't imagine this going well. At the very least they've accomplished what they wanted to in that they made VR a legitimate avenue and created a market for it.

I'm worried about this buyout, but for different reasons. The Oculus Rift is the biggest thing to happen to gaming since we started making actual 3D games. And people are willing to let it die because they're so out of touch with reality that they actually think that Facebook is the worst company in America? Give me a fucking break.

Though I'm really not happy with this news, I don't think this will be the end of Oculus as we know it. As long as the key employees (including but not limited to John Carmack) are still on board everything will stay the way it is. Or maybe I'm in denial.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;44354754]I'm worried about this buyout, but for different reasons. The Oculus Rift is the biggest thing to happen to gaming since we started making actual 3D games. And people are willing to let it die because they're so out of touch with reality that they actually think that Facebook is the worst company in America? Give me a fucking break.[/QUOTE] The rift is far from the only VR project, it'd be sad if the worse case really does play out for Oculus but it's not worth crying over the whole VR segment.

Here's the way I see it: Facebook has a singular purpose: to make money. Oddly enough, Oculus VR has a purpose as well: to make money selling VR headsets. Look at how those goals align. Facebook just dropped two BILLION dollars on Oculus. Think about that for a second. Any illusion or conception that Facebook is going to ruin VR is off the table. They have no reason to. They just invested two BILLION dollars in it. They are now heavily compelled to deliver the best product possible, or they lose two BILLION dollars. So Oculus loses its "indie" spark. Or does it? Facebook is known, has been known, for maintaining an indie atmosphere at its offices. They do a better job of it than Google, which is impressive. Oculus even gets to keep their offices and staff. For them, nothing about their day-to-day has changed. Corporate umbrellas are weird things. Oculus seems to have gotten the best of both worlds out of this deal. They keep their vision, they keep their current roadmap, and they have the backing of a multi-billion dollar company. They're in a better position than they were. Best case, it ends up like OpenCompute. They get to keep on chugging with minimal interference from Facebook. Oculus remains an independent entity with an independent brand, and we get to see the Rift become a popular product. People are thinking Facebook is a social company... But here, they're not. Here, they're playing the role of a capital investment firm. They own Oculus, but there's not a lot they can do with it in their current paradigm. They know that. It's why all the press releases say Facebook isn't going to intervene. Facebook wants to sell the rift and take a cut of the profits, nothing else. Maybe we should all take a step back, and look at this rationally. Yes, they're no longer riding the indie hype train. That's a good thing. It means they're now stable, and stability is important. If you don't believe me, ask Garry. (Check his Twitter.)

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;44354754]I'm worried about this buyout, but for different reasons. The Oculus Rift is the biggest thing to happen to gaming since we started making actual 3D games. And people are willing to let it die because they're so out of touch with reality that they actually think that Facebook is the worst company in America? Give me a fucking break.[/QUOTE] I don't think that, if Oculus still produces a good product at a reasonable price, people will "let it die." People are questioning if that's going to happen at all.

/v/ is going to try and vote facebook worst company in that poll, I don't exactly think it's 100% deserved. I guess it's just time to wait and see what comes out of this. [sp]PLEASE DON'T BE GOOGLE GLASS COMPETITOR[/sp]

Hopefully at most we'll get face time integration as a result of this. While my kneejerk reaction to the news is largely [i]"They aligned themselves with a company I don't like"[/i] objectively I kinda feel like this is good news for the VR industry. Just not very pleasing ones to me.

Wow. Definitely not the headline I was expecting to see at my lunch break. So long as I don't have to make a Facebook account, have some annoying middleware asking me if I want to share my view with the net, and/or have ads slapped everywhere based on what I look at 99 some invasive shit like that, I couldn't care less. I want the Rift and nothing but. So long as they do that, everything will be great. It'll be weird thinking about using a Facebook peripheral, but it'll be fine by me.

[QUOTE=Pixelnator;44354956]Hopefully at most we'll get face time integration as a result of this. [/QUOTE]Facetime is apple. [QUOTE=Pixelnator;44354956]While my kneejerk reaction to the news is largely [i]"They aligned themselves with a company I don't like"[/i] objectively I kinda feel like this is good news for the VR industry. Just not very pleasing ones to me.[/QUOTE] My knee jerk reaction is: holy shit, a lot of people are having a lot of knee jerk reactions.

[QUOTE=danharibo;44354976]Facetime is apple.[/QUOTE] Ah, fair enough. You get what I mean though. Some form of virtual facebook chat thing is pretty likely to happen.

John Carmack now works for facebook.

[QUOTE=xalener;44354576]yeah, now that Oculus has 2 billion bucks to spend on R&D and bettering the product, there's no way I'll invest in that slime.[/QUOTE] there's a huge misconception by people saying they have 2 billion, a chunk will go into the VC's pockets.

Ugh, the Oculus subreddit is pure toxic right now. Palmer is replying though (while being massively downvoted), so here's some more info: [url]http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbvjlx?context=3[/url] (FB allows them to remain operating independently) [url]http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbvl4h?context=3[/url] (they're still committed to gaming first and foremost) [url]http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbvp90?context=3[/url] [url]http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbvt3c?context=3[/url] [url]http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbvyef?context=3[/url] (have faith) [editline]26th March 2014[/editline] I'm rather glad that the tone in this thread has shifted to mild optimism and rational arguments. Thanks guys.

[QUOTE=Clavus;44355096]Ugh, the Oculus subreddit is pure toxic right now. Palmer is replying though (while being massively downvoted), so here's some more info: [url]http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbvjlx?context=3[/url] (FB allows them to remain operating independently) [url]http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbvl4h?context=3[/url] (they're still committed to gaming first and foremost) [url]http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbvp90?context=3[/url] [url]http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbvt3c?context=3[/url] [url]http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbvyef?context=3[/url] (have faith) [editline]26th March 2014[/editline] I'm rather glad that the tone in this thread has shifted to mild optimism and rational arguments. Thanks guys.[/QUOTE] The top response to that last one sums up exactly what's wrong with this situation. [quote]We want VR but not like this. [/quote] Like [i]what[/i] you imbecile? so far Facebook has bought Oculus for $2Bn, that's an incredible amount and even if only a small part of that goes into actual R&D for the Rift it would do wonders. While I'm sure Facebook would like to support VR for communication I don't think the would do something counterproductive like hamper the adoption of the very thing they just invested $2Bn into.

Notch gives a proper explanation of his stance: [url]http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-change-the-world/[/url] I think he has fair points. It's an ideological thing, Notch doesn't like Big Brother. But these points are subjective and do not need to be shared by everyone.

[QUOTE=Clavus;44354669]After 30 minutes of deliberation, I think my opinion has settled in being "cautiously optimistic".[/QUOTE] [url]http://kotaku.com/facebook-buys-oculus-rift-for-2-billion-1551487939[/url] From FB's offical statement "Mobile is the platform of today, and now we're also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow," Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says. "Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate." Basically, they're running it into the ground and turning it into a social device, it's dead ladies and gents.

Plus it's not like we wanted a toned-down version of Minecraft specifically for the Rift anyway :v: [editline]26th March 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Dwarfy77;44355261][url]http://kotaku.com/facebook-buys-oculus-rift-for-2-billion-1551487939[/url] From FB's offical statement "Mobile is the platform of today, and now we're also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow," Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says. "Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate." Basically, they're running it into the ground and turning it into a social device, it's dead ladies and gents.[/QUOTE] It's one of the many uses for VR. Oculus' roadmap hasn't changed. They'll enter the gaming fray first. FB's resources will allow them to build the Metaverse after.

What many people don't seem to realize is that the "2 billion" number they're throwing around sounds like a lot, until you realize it's $2b mostly in Facebook stock shares and closed investment opportunities, and not a lump sum. They would have to sell those shares to get much money at all from this deal, and even then they're limited by how much those shares themselves are actually worth. $2b today, who knows what tomorrow. And it doesn't help that [URL="http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/25/facebook-stock-slides-in-after-hour-trading-following-acquisition-of-oculus-rift/"]Facebook's net worth is dropping like a rock in the after-hours market[/URL], which undoubtedly lowered the effective value of the buyout already.

/v/ right now is really emotional, Moot just changed the board name to "where were you when video games died?" Internet isn't happy with this acquisition.

I know it won't become covered in ads, but I'm scared it will all become closed to the outside.

Fun fact: DK2 preorders are first-come first-serve. All these kids impulsively cancelling their preorders means everyone else moves up in the shipment line. Yay!

I can't wait for VR farmville :suicide:

[QUOTE=Dwarfy77;44355261][url]http://kotaku.com/facebook-buys-oculus-rift-for-2-billion-1551487939[/url] From FB's offical statement "Mobile is the platform of today, and now we're also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow," Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says. "Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate." Basically, they're running it into the ground and turning it into a social device, it's dead ladies and gents.[/QUOTE]I want to beat Fuckerburg to death even more now. The only thing we can do is copy the rift hardware, I'm dead serious, lets do it. [B]Let's create our own, it won't start off that good, but it will get better. We know how it works, it's a lower persistence display with a motion tracking device and IR sensors [/B] Still ordering devkit 2 incase they don't fuck with it, only the consumer version.

[QUOTE=Brandy92;44355542]I can't wait for VR farmville :suicide:[/QUOTE] Zynga haven't done anything related to VR.

[QUOTE=RoboChimp;44355600]I want to beat Fuckerburg to death even more now. The only thing we can do is copy the rift hardware, I'm dead serious, lets do it.[/QUOTE] Why?

I don't really see this as a problem. As long as they stick with their word and keep Oculus autonomous and the hardware stays open and easy to develop for I don't see how wanting to use it for more than just gaming is a bad thing. Pretty much everything we use for PC gaming at the moment isn't designed exclusively for games, if anything this opens the Rift and other VR devices up to be more than just a gaming accessory and turn it into a standard computer peripheral like a monitor.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;44355665]Why?[/QUOTE]So it's not fucked up by Facebook garbage.

It's amazing to see how many people on fp and in the news comments have a bad opinion about this Facebook.

[QUOTE=Dwarfy77;44355261][url]http://kotaku.com/facebook-buys-oculus-rift-for-2-billion-1551487939[/url] From FB's offical statement "Mobile is the platform of today, and now we're also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow," Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says. "Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate." Basically, they're running it into the ground and turning it into a social device, it's dead ladies and gents.[/QUOTE] Social is a huge buzzword right now. Valve's been using it a lot lately, have you noticed? Is Steam dead because of it?