Oculus Rift Thread: Consumer release months away - Games

[QUOTE=Clavus;44356138]Can't go to bed yet. Palmer's been answering more questions at the Oculus subreddit, while there's a whole bunch of god-awful twats swarming around him: [url]http://www.reddit.com/user/palmerluckey[/url] One big take-away: you know all those investors that put millions into Oculus a while back? They're all bought out now. Meaning Oculus is actually more free than it was before, with just a single large investor that told them to keep doing what they were already doing. Oh and they're working on a VR launcher thingie. Which will not be requirement, because they're not planning to force anything on anyone.[/QUOTE] [img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/7333627/ShareX/2014-03/25T22-16-01.png[/img] Look at this bullshit.

As pointed out by other people, if a buyout had to happen it could've been better companies than [I]facebook[/I]. Still could've avoided "embarrassing scaling issues"

The last thing i want to do is bring the /v/ anti-hype to Facepunch, but I simply don't see this ending well. Why would Facebook even care about Oculus Rift, if not to further expand it's dominance on the social network business? It's good that the guys behind Oculus now have some backing against Sony's Morhpeus, but when does Zuckerberg's influence end? Also, did they not see this coming? Facebook games are known as the antithesis of fun for a reason. Of course people are going to immediately jump to 3D Candy Crush.

[QUOTE=ArchXeno;44356680]The last thing i want to do is bring the /v/ anti-hype to Facepunch, but I simply don't see this ending well. Why would Facebook even care about Oculus Rift, if not to further expand it's dominance on the social network business? It's good that the guys behind Oculus now have some backing against Sony's Morhpeus, but when does Zuckerberg's influence end? Also, did they not see this coming? Facebook games are known as the antithesis of fun for a reason. Of course people are going to immediately jump to 3D Candy Crush.[/QUOTE] FB is trying to expand beyond just social networking. Similar to how Google went from a search engine to a bazillion services (where its search engine was still effectively utilized). That's not so hard to understand?

[QUOTE=KorJax;44356631]Its just scary because corporate buyouts by megacorps like this have literally been the cause of doom for many companies and thier IP's Westwood and EA are a famous example. EA shut down the inventor of the RTS genre after 5-6 years of them being active because it simply didn't align with their goals anymore. And I'm not even talking about "yeah you guys do your own thing", I'm talking about after a stretch of time where they had complete corporate takeover and control over their offices, they pull the rug out from under the company and decide to dissolve it then and there. People speculate if Westwood was even the same company those last few years they were around because of that - but largely I think they still were considering the leads and creative directors and music guy and stuff were the same from the very start. Didn't really stop EA from shutting them down. This is the risk. While yes, Facebook is undoubtily injecting billions into the company to ensure its startup success, it can easily progress into a total takeover, if it hasn't already. It just strikes me as odd. I wasn't aware of Oculus even needing this - they had a grassroots successful kickstarter, and millions of dollars additional in venture capitalists investing into them. They had industry leaders backing them up and sparked a "VR revolution" and were poised to achieving their own massive success just like Valve and other private tech companies have. Now its like none of that even mattered because Facebook owns the company, and technically is in control of how money gets spent there and in total control over the product.[/QUOTE] Zuckerberg bought Oculus because he believes VR is the [B]next[/B] big platform. He knows its not the current big platform so he knows it will take some time to get returns on this investment. EA on the other hand is known for buying other companies and collapsing them merely to absorb their IPs. I think thats why most gamers are resenting this huge deal as gamers know all too well the potential negative effects of corporate buy-outs thanks to EA.

"About 40 percent of the time that people spend online on computers is on gaming, Mr. Zuckerberg said, and 40 percent is on social communication. You need to fuse both of those together, he said." I'm sorry, but some of you are being over optimistic. Facebook is an evil company and it BOUGHT Oculus Rift. It's just like that. They'll make anything they want of it. There's no stopping them. I'll wait for the next open VR solution. [editline]25th March 2014[/editline] "According to a person involved in the deal who was not allowed to speak publicly because he was not authorized by either company, Facebook eventually plans to redesign the Oculus hardware and rebrand it with a Facebook interface and logo." [url]http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/technology/facebook-to-buy-oculus-vr-maker-of-virtual-reality-headset.html?hpw&rref=business&_r=1[/url]

I'm going to keep being optimistic and not overreact like an idiot over this deal. We know the OR team is going to stay the same and we know they are continuing with the work on DK2 and CV1. We don't know what Facebook plans to do, we assume things, thing that despite being fiction people still can't seem to spell out. Ridiculous.

Not sure if this has been posted but [quote]Update: We're on the call now, and Mark Zuckerberg is already pointing out Facebook's acquisition of Instagram as an example of how the company is getting experience buying properties and allowing them to continue to operate independently. Zuckerberg called out virtual reality as one of the computing platforms of the future -- following desktops and mobile -- and yes, talked about building Facebook's advertising into it. Specifically, he talked about the potential of a virtual communication network, buying virtual goods, and down the line, advertising.[/quote] [url]http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/25/facebook-oculus-vr-2-billion/[/url]

[QUOTE=CPShArp;44356784]Zuckerberg bought Oculus because he believes VR is the [B]next[/B] big platform. He knows its not the current big platform so he knows it will take some time to get returns on this investment. EA on the other hand is known for buying other companies and collapsing them merely to absorb their IPs. I think thats why most gamers are resenting this huge deal as gamers know all too well the potential negative effects of corporate buy-outs thanks to EA.[/QUOTE] So we are left with two situations then: 1. Eventually, Oculus is going to have to be making social-friendly VR applications, likely under a proprietary facebook owned platform and directive. Zuckerburg even mentions this as the eventual end-goal of this buy-out after a few years - to push VR into the social space. This is where the EA-merger level stuff starts kicking in. Once facebook's agenda starts kicking into full gear this is where we start seeing the bad side of this acquisition - stuff like the Oculus office being closed and instead Oculus is simply a division on the facebook campus, Oculus is now taking direct orders from Facebook techs instead of the Oculus techs being in charge, etc. 2. Facebook simply can't stay afloat anymore (their website loses its userbase perhaps?), or the OR isn't making them loads of money, or the OR remains a popular niche product but not something that obviously takes the world by storm. In this case, Oculus is just shut down. Neither of these situations are good scenarios. The only good thing is that the first one isn't likely to happen immediately. I'm still confident that Oculus will release CV1 just as it ever would, and things would go on as if nothing happened for the CV1 launch. I am also confident that we'll still get awesome VR experiences from that first and maybe even second Oculus launch product, if not from other companies. I am [I]not[/I] confident that Oculus will retain its integreity much beyond that point. I'm not confident that Oculus will remain a successful first-mover leader in the longer term. I'm not confident that the VR well will remain unpoisoned by excessive social application and data mining desires after this point. I guess the good news is that Oculus already succeeeded in making VR a thing that people care about, and for that they have done their purpose. So when either of the two above paths happen, by that point their "invention of a genre" will have sparked plenty of other companies that keep things going. Its just sad because Oculus literally had everything primed for the perfect VR experience and [I]were succeeding at this model[/I] - not just from a hardware standpoint, but a support/company philosophy standpoint. Get VR in people's homes, even if we have to sell at a loss. Make this stuff super hackable, grassroots funded and open source. Give it to the indies and let them go wild. Give power to the consumer to do what they want with the product because this tech is awesome. Have it be as open as possible. Etc. None of those align with anything facebook as ever done or wanted done, and its a big question if there will ever be another company again in the VR space that aligns with those same views, unless Valve decides to step up.

I see an explosion of posts to see that Oculus joined Facebook. Well... I feel disappointed, but it's still 2 billion dollars that they were given. They can improve and as long as Facebook lets them continue with how they were going before, then I don't see this as an issue. It just might slightly bother me at first seeing a Facebook logo on a CV1. But I still have faith in Oculus. Bring on the CV1

[url]http://www.shareholder.com/visitors/event/build3/stage/stage.cfm?mediaid=63723&mediauserid=0[/url] 29:15 "There might be advertisements" I'm so fucking pissed with all this.

[QUOTE=KorJax;44357071]So we are left with two situations then: 1. Eventually, Oculus is going to have to be making social-friendly VR applications, likely under a proprietary facebook owned platform and directive. Zuckerburg even mentions this as the eventual end-goal of this buy-out after a few years - to push VR into the social space. This is where the EA-merger level stuff starts kicking in. Once facebook's agenda starts kicking into full gear this is where we start seeing the bad side of this acquisition - stuff like the Oculus office being closed and instead Oculus is simply a division on the facebook campus, Oculus is now taking direct orders from Facebook techs instead of the Oculus techs being in charge, etc. [/QUOTE] Well, you have to remember that the Oculus Rift is not a software. It's a peripheral, no different from a keyboard or a mouse. Your scenarios doesn't really make sense to me, because it seems you are assuming that it's a software. Does Razer limit their keyboards to be used only for gaming? [editline]26th March 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=KorJax;44357071] Have it be as open as possible. Etc. [B]None of those align with anything facebook as ever done or wanted done[/B], and its a big question if there will ever be another company again in the VR space that aligns with those same views, unless Valve decides to step up.[/QUOTE] Quite a weird thing to say, considering that's exactly what they've been doing for the past 5 years: [URL]https://github.com/facebook?page=1[/URL] And what about [url]http://instagram.com/[/url] that Facebook bought almost 2 years ago. I don't see any Facebook logos slapped on top of it despite being quite similar to Facebook, in the way that its a social network where you share photos. Here's my scenario: OR work continues on it as usual. It'll still be the VR headset they've been talking about. Facebook, now having access to technology, experienced people and money expands into the social network area with the headset. I assume by making it integrate better with Facebook services and so on. Zuckerberg talked about educational uses, so I assume VR classrooms and similar things exclusive for the OR. Since it's just a hardware, and doesn't run anything itself, any developer may still develop anything they want for the headset. OR will still be able to be used on games that support it. And in the end money still ends up in FB's pocket.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;44355836]That's not an answer, that's a worthless fucking platitude. I'm going to ask again: Why? [editline]25th March 2014[/editline] I expect sources to back up your arguments.[/QUOTE]I apologise, for the raging. Its because Oculus was a company which was created because independent developers believed in it enough to crowd fund it, they were doing pretty well. Now they have Facebook excs breathing down their necks and generally when a large company such as Facebook buys a smaller one, they ruin the workflow and culture of the workers in the smaller company. EA is an example of this. Oculus will have comply with any decisions made by Facebook whether they're good or bad and given the track record of such things as the Facebook phone, it doesn't look good. I hope I'm wrong.

I love slightly more sensible attitude in this thread. Honestly, no matter how dumb you think this is, the majority reaction were seeing is twice as dumb.

[QUOTE=RoboChimp;44357311]I apologise, for the raging. Its because Oculus was a company which was created because independent developers believed in it enough to crowd fund it, they were doing pretty well. Now they have Facebook excs breathing down their necks and generally when a large company such as Facebook buys a smaller one, they ruin the workflow and culture of the workers in the smaller company. EA is an example of this. Oculus will have comply with any decisions made by Facebook whether they're good or bad and given the track record of such things as the Facebook phone, it doesn't look good. I hope I'm wrong.[/QUOTE] Facebook hasn't changed Instagram. Hasn't touched them. In fact, they still operate out of their original office, making their original product. If Facebook does the same with Oculus (and I have no reason to believe they won't), we shouldn't have any issues. Facebook, despite how "evil" we see them, are not EA. And we can be incredibly thankful for that. As for the ads, the Facebook social services, all that crap... They can't do that in hardware. Wouldn't make sense. You strip the software layer (and this WILL be done. It's done for all peripherals. (Looking at you, Thrustmaster)), and you've got an original, non-Facebook Rift. You won't be seeing ads in your Steam games, unless the developer puts them there. Worst case scenario, the Rift gets a Facebook-themed paint job and some crapware that can be stripped. The Rift still becomes a massively successful device, and we see it being used for experiences other than games. There's not much bad there.

Or check WhatsApp.

[QUOTE=woolio1;44357347]Facebook, despite how "evil" we see them, are not EA. And we can be incredibly thankful for that.[/QUOTE] They're not Apple, that outcome would have been horrible with patents with stuff that already existed.

[QUOTE=woolio1;44357347]Facebook hasn't changed Instagram. Hasn't touched them. In fact, they still operate out of their original office, making their original product. If Facebook does the same with Oculus (and I have no reason to believe they won't), we shouldn't have any issues. Facebook, despite how "evil" we see them, are not EA. And we can be incredibly thankful for that. As for the ads, the Facebook social services, all that crap... They can't do that in hardware. Wouldn't make sense. You strip the hardware layer (and this WILL be done. It's done for all peripherals. (Looking at you, Thrustmaster)), and you've got an original, non-Facebook Rift. You won't be seeing ads in your Steam games, unless the developer puts them there. Worst case scenario, the Rift gets a Facebook-themed paint job and some crapware that can be stripped. The Rift still becomes a massively successful device, and we see it being used for experiences other than games. There's not much bad there.[/QUOTE] This is true. Still I have no concerns over the first CV1 or even shortly beyond that. I'm just worried about the long term of VR. I really don't want to see it basically just turn into a device that is designed to data-mine your life even deeper. Its really hard to say what will happen, because facebook has never bought a hardware company before. While its true they've been playing their instagram buyout well, keep in mind it could largely be because instagram is a software service that basically does something that facebook already does. Facebook doesn't really need to do much to Instagram to benefit from buying them out except have native support for instagram built into facebook and merging the two social networks into one. Oculus really isn't like that though, and its hardware. Oculus will need to make real changes to satisify a facebook design in order to make the buyout relevant for the company. This might not happen now, but it will happen in the future. Otherwise, what does facebook have to gain by owning Oculus? If they just wanted make money off a potentially explosive new tech, they would have just invested. Instead, they bought them.

[QUOTE=KorJax;44357430]This is true. Still I have no concerns over the first CV1 or even shortly beyond that. I'm just worried about the long term of VR. I really don't want to see it basically just turn into a device that is designed to data-mine your life even deeper. Its really hard to say what will happen, because facebook has never bought a hardware company before. While its true they've been playing their instagram buyout well, keep in mind it could largely be because instagram is a software service that basically does something that facebook already does. Facebook doesn't really need to do much to Instagram to benefit from buying them out except have native support for instagram built into facebook and merging the two social networks into one. Oculus really isn't like that though, and its hardware. Oculus will need to make real changes to satisify a facebook design in order to make the buyout relevant for the company. This might not happen now, but it will happen in the future. Otherwise, what does facebook have to gain by owning Oculus? If they just wanted make money off a potentially explosive new tech, they would have just invested. Instead, they bought them.[/QUOTE] They've got a few markets, actually. Business, education, communication, even their own social market... They've got a lot of possibilities, and those possibilities don't necessarily require them to change the Rift at all. Just change the software layer underneath it, and you can sell a custom Rift to anyone who wants one. They've got a great, versatile device. It'd be irrational to squander it on FarmVille.

[QUOTE=KorJax;44357430]This is true. Still I have no concerns over the first CV1 or even shortly beyond that. I'm just worried about the long term of VR. I really don't want to see it basically just turn into a device that is designed to data-mine your life even deeper. [/QUOTE] I get that you're worried because of facebook's reputation but I don't understand what data you could mine with a set of goggles that has a screen and some gyroscopes inside it.

[QUOTE=latin_geek;44357605]I get that you're worried because of facebook's reputation but I don't understand what data you could mine with a set of goggles that has a screen and some gyroscopes inside it.[/QUOTE] And a camera in front of you?

[QUOTE=MatheusMCardoso;44357649]And a camera in front of you?[/QUOTE] And a headset over your face. Sure, facebook might force oculus to include spyware into every headset... but that's a hell of a leap of bad faith to make from a single announcement.

[QUOTE=latin_geek;44357605]I get that you're worried because of facebook's reputation but I don't understand what data you could mine with a set of goggles that has a screen and some gyroscopes inside it.[/QUOTE] My favorite conspiracy theory is that Facebook is going to sell your IPD to the NSA :v:

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;44357680]My favorite conspiracy theory is that Facebook is going to sell your IPD to the NSA :v:[/QUOTE] Why does the NSA have to buy things? They can strip it straight from the fiber optics! [editline]26th March 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=MatheusMCardoso;44357649]And a camera in front of you?[/QUOTE] Because you can learn a lot about a person by watching them masturbate.

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/7333627/ShareX/2014-03/26T01-19-38.png[/img] That's it. The single dumbest thing I've ever read. Well buddy, I hope you don't want to go to the hospital any time soon because most of modern medicine is built on Dr. Mengele's work from Nazi Germany. You don't want medicine from Nazis, do you? Oh wait, I forgot, Facebook is literally worse than Hitler. Better continue being an edgy antisocial nerd and never back up my opinions with reasoning or facts because that's the cool thing to do!

I think we're seeing something here... Does this not scream of "X company's going to ruin X series!" comments whenever they buy a game series? Those same people then go out and buy that game, and typically enjoy it. I think we'll see much the same. There's nothing the gaming community loves more than to bitch and moan about inconsequentialities.

[QUOTE=MatheusMCardoso;44357649]And a camera in front of you?[/QUOTE] The camera only tracks IR LEDs, it can't actually take proper video. [editline]25th March 2014[/editline] Goddamn, the reddit comments are so fucking infuriating.

[QUOTE=Zatar963;44357840]The camera only tracks IR LEDs, it can't actually take proper video. [editline]25th March 2014[/editline] Goddamn, the reddit comments are so fucking infuriating.[/QUOTE] This is the most anti-intellectual circle-jerk I've ever seen to come out of Reddit since everyone got pissed off that r/atheism wasn't allowed to post witty image memes anymore.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;44357874]This is the most anti-intellectual circle-jerk I've ever seen to come out of Reddit since everyone got pissed off that r/atheism wasn't allowed to post witty image memes anymore.[/QUOTE] Reddit's a terrible place. It's also a great place, if you go digging. I love /r/mid_century, for instance, because it's small enough that the idiots sort of never visit us.

[QUOTE=woolio1;44357897]Reddit's a terrible place. It's also a great place, if you go digging. I love /r/mid_century, for instance, because it's small enough that the idiots sort of never visit us.[/QUOTE] I believe the fitness subreddits are the finest beginner resources on health, nutrition, and strength training available on the web. r/bodyweightfitness changed my life.