I'll just repost these here
[quote]I won't change, and any change at Oculus will be for the better. [B]We have even more freedom than we had under our investment partners because Facebook is making a long term play on the success of VR, not short-term returns.[/B]
I guarantee that [B]you won't need to log into your Facebook account every time you wanna use the Oculus Rift.[/B]
This deal is going to immediately accelerate a lot of plans that were languishing on our wishlist, and [B]the resulting hardware will be better AND cheaper. We have the resources to create custom hardware now, not just rely on the scraps of the mobile phone industry.[/B] There is a lot of good news on the way that is not yet public, so believe me, things will become a lot more clear over time.
The appeal of Oculus (as compared to Sony, for example) is because it is on a PC platform, and thus allows us, the developers, freedom over what we want to do with it.
None of that will change. Oculus continues to operate independently! We are going to remain as indie/developer/enthusiast friendly as we have always been, if not more so. This deal lets us dedicate a lot of resources to developer relations, technical help, engine optimizations, and our content investment/publishing/sales platform.[B] We are not going to track you, flash ads at you, or do anything invasive.[/B][/quote]
Facebook is investing in the [I]platform[/I]. Oculus just happens to be the biggest player on it. They want VR to grow so they can make a (very profitable) VR-facebook of some kind in the long term future - Oculus Rift will still be mainly a gaming device. And Oculus gets practically unlimited funding and mass-market appeal. Like going back to the nineties, investing into the internet and creating Facebook 10 years later and profiting billions. You'll still have your porn and games on the Rift, but "VRbook" as well to tap into if you so wish, and that's what FB wants. To be [I]the[/I] boss on the social VR side.
Those who think Facebook is going to fuck up the Rift to its core are knee-jerking fools.
And remember, if the Rift loses a few thousand sales from these knee-jerk nerds, it'll still have hundreds of thousands (if not more) of new sales because of the enormous Facebook mass market that spans the entire globe that this deal gives them access to.
Great, now the Oculus rift is owned by people who hold facebook. Really can't see this going well at all with the complete difference in demographics. Last time I checked, you don't hold a kickstarter for a project that you end up selling out.
Either way we'll see how it goes.
Ordered a DK2, hope it gets to me before September.
Oculus really only had the potential to turn the Rift into a gaming device, and perhaps some clever people could use it for different purposes.
Under Facebook, it can become a lot more. And all of that mainstream interest will only spur development of the technology, which will benefit gaming.
I don't really care what Facebook has planned long term for Oculus, as long as they can successfully establish a large market alternative headsets will pop up. After that they can fuck up their own as much as they want.
Holy shit, l love how some people can have such utter lack of critical thinking.
"Ugh, me think Facebook is, baaaaaaaaad. This is baaaaaaad."
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT5figLo8aI[/media]
im loving all of the VR coverage the guys at tested are doing
[editline]26th March 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE]Does this even matter now that oculus was sold to fb? I mean I hope it all goes well but why the hell did they sale it to Facebook and not someone else???•[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Can't believe that Oculus VR was sold to freaking Facebook for 2b... ffs•[/QUOTE]
as charming as the ultra-successful-indie-startup championing a new era of games is
facebook started similarly; they'll know not to mess with the core crew and their 'spark'
so now they can plow the way for VR to be popular ahead of schedule by who knows how many years
[QUOTE=bitches;44358337]as charming as the ultra-successful-indie-startup championing a new era of games is
[B]facebook started similarly; they'll know not to mess with the core crew and their 'spark'[/B]
so now they can plow the way for VR to be popular ahead of schedule by who knows how many years[/QUOTE]
They've already said they're not in it for the hardware though, they're in it for the ability to build a new form of social network and sell products on it.
[QUOTE=KorJax;44356631]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]
Excuse me if I get a bit poetic while writing this.
I think this is a big part of why so many people are so upset over it. The whole process over Kickstarter was what was essentially a series of love letters towards the crowd-sourcing community. It was a campaign of "Here we are. We can do this together, you and us. Through thick and thin, we can make it possible to play the games of our dreams."
But now, Oculus VR is being paid $2m for funding. This casts a very large shadow over the previous fundraising projects which makes them seem pointless. But what are the other costs? [B]No matter who is right or wrong, it is costing them the respect of the majority of their community.[/B] The very people that they had written their love letters to, are feeling cheated. All of this adventure that we had spent together, is now swallowed up by a social networking mega-corporation.
The problem is, this is still supposed to be a community effort. Palmer thinks the $400m (Seriously, the rest are stocks that you have to SELL to get value out of. They won't sell them while on Facebook's leash.) is going to allow them to produce their very own screens without having to deal with scraps from the mobile industry, and that nothing else will change. People will still develop for the rift and everything will be fine once more.
But it will change, it already has changed. Sure they can afford better screens, and the possibility to make it cheaper down the line. But it has caused a backlash, that if it continues, could stand the chance of being irrepairable. There is a reason Facebook has the notoriety it has. One can argue that Facebook has a decent track record of leaving bought companies alone to do their own thing, but they should also not forget about the captain of that flagship. Zuckerberg's advent into the corporate world was filled with betrayal and lawsuit.
People hate Zuckerberg because he is concentrated scumbag. He doesn't care about VR, morals or integrity. He cares about the dollar and advertisements and whatever means he can use to make more. We should not trust him with control over a pioneering company such as Oculus. Now with the crowd-sourcing, the one who profits is Zuckerberg. People are going to be investing their free time into making VR better, and Zuckerberg is going to be collecting the cheques. If the Cheques aren't big enough, he'll have every opportunity to shoehorn some social gaming bullshit in, because he will own the rift, he can do whatever he goddamn pleases.
Palmer is showing great naivety by assuming they are going to be left alone to continue what they are doing. I can only hope the backlash they are receiving is enough to make him feel buyer's remorse, and to consider alternatives aside from acquisition, as there is nothing but words keeping Zuckerberg from going out and just doing this:
[img]http://weknowgifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/i-lied-gif.gif[/img]
No matter how right or wrong the community is, they are feeling being betrayed, and no amount of money Facebook can pay Oculus will change this. And really, what good is a HMD that they can't sell, or that people won't develop for?
People are acting like children with the Facebook purchase of Oculus VR because we don't know what good or bad will come out of this. It could be bad. Of course it could, that could have happened with any company buying them. But it could also be just as good or better than if they wouldn't have been bought just because of the extra funding. I support Oculus and I will get a CV1 no matter what unless it has been seriously ruined, but that would seem really unlikely since Facebook probably also wants a return in the investment and that isn't to screw up the community that has formed around Rift and VR.
Just think of it like this otherwise: If it fails, there will be others to take the place that the Rift has right now. The huge interest in VR gaming is there and it will not go away in the near future.
[QUOTE=dije;44358751]People are acting like children with the Facebook purchase of Oculus VR because we don't know what good or bad will come out of this. It could be bad. Of course it could, that could have happened with any company buying them. But it could also be just as good or better than if they wouldn't have been bought just because of the extra funding. I support Oculus and I will get a CV1 no matter what unless it has been seriously ruined, but that would seem really unlikely since Facebook probably also wants a return in the investment and that isn't to screw up the community that has formed around Rift and VR.
Just think of it like this otherwise: If it fails, there will be others to take the place that the Rift has right now. The huge interest in VR gaming is there and it will not go away in the near future.[/QUOTE]
If that were to happen, I can assume the community just won't be the same. There will be some lingering fear that these guys would go the same route as Oculus and cash in the first chance they get.
It just seems to me like the PR damage is far greater than what Facebook is paying them, and that the loss will be greater in the long run. I really doubt it is possible to get a pissed off community to work for you. Even cautious optimism can only take them so far, not to mention if Facebook were to go crazy and pull the trigger, the entire community would likely scatter like jittery woodland animals they are, and then the only thing within a 50 mile radius will be Oculus' fresh corpse.
[QUOTE=Leintharien;44358776]If that were to happen, I can assume the community just won't be the same. There will be some lingering fear that these guys would go the same route as Oculus and cash in the first chance they get.
It just seems to me like the PR damage is far greater than what Facebook is paying them, and that the loss will be greater in the long run. I really doubt it is possible to get a pissed off community to work for you. Even cautious optimism can only take them so far, not to mention if Facebook were to go crazy and pull the trigger, the entire community would likely scatter like jittery woodland animals they are, and then the only thing within a 50 mile radius will be Oculus' fresh corpse.[/QUOTE]
"A pissed off community"? Only the irrational vocal minority is pissed off really. There are few people, like Notch, that are ideologically opposed to it but at least voice their opinion like an adult. If you read the arguments being presented here, FB acquiring Oculus is one of the best things that could've happened to them. It's one thing to be cautious about FB's involvement, it's another to dismiss it entirely from the get-go.
Mark my words, I bet that with the FB backing they'll be able to make CV1 something beyond expectations with a price lower than DK2.
[editline]26th March 2014[/editline]
This same shit happened when WhatsApp was acquired. A lot of panic about FB selling your chats. People claiming to move to other services. I don't hear anything about that now, and WhatsApp seems to be doing just fine.
Why are the defenders of this move so convinced FB won't fuck things up? Their strive for profit doesn't equal strive for a good product.
It's purely optimistic to assume this isn't a huge risk.
I guess it isn't really possible to quantify who is the majority to who is the minority. All I know is Luckey spent 3-4 hours on reddit trying to calm down and dissuade people from overreacting. He will have to spend a lot more to convince them that this was a good decision. This will require a lot of progress which has to be made at a faster pace in comparison to if they hadn't been acquired at all. This has to be without any hitches, either.
It didn't even look to me like they were even having financial problems. They had posted a while back that they had run out of supplies for the factory, just because of the sheer amount of pre-orders. But if Luckey claims that they need more to really go places, I'll just let him do his thing.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not dropping the rift. My purchase decision is formed entirely on the quality of the product. I've tried my cousin's DK1, and it just wasn't to the level of quality I was willing to buy. The DK2 looks improved, but I'm not interested in buying it as it needs a camera to do translational movement, and I already have a TrackIR that does that anyways.
The only thing I come to lose out of it is personal investment. My cousin has personal and actual financial investment. I wish nothing but success for Oculus, but I can't find it in me to shake my pessimism.
I hope it does good. I really do.
[QUOTE=Talishmar;44358857]Why are the defenders of this move so convinced FB won't fuck things up? Their strive for profit doesn't equal strive for a good product.
It's purely optimistic to assume this isn't a huge risk.[/QUOTE]
Why are you so sure they will? I have faith in the guys at Oculus.
IF they ever force us to use FB for anything important, I'll be the first one to feel betrayed and grab a pitchfork. Until then, have some faith in these guys.
I'm maintaining cautious optimism until actual changes are confirmed, there's no reason to completely lose my shit right now. If shit goes as planned and we get a consumer Oculus Rift of a good quality for a good price I'll still be buying one.
I'll proceed to freak out if it ends up being the Facebook Rift and having an advertising-laden hub screen or something but as of yet that hasn't happened. Anybody sensible will just sit back and wait for things to turn out however they're gonna turn out. No point going crazy just yet by my reckoning. Cheap words may be all we have to trust right now but that's something at least.
[QUOTE=Clavus;44356471]Acquisition. But Oculus got guarantees that they can remain independent, which makes it more of an partnership with a single investor. From a business perspective, it's basically heaven.
[/QUOTE]
We don't know the terms which were outlined in the acquisition agreement, so we don't have any real guarantees of Oculus remaining independent. From our perspective, Oculus VR [B]is[/B] Facebook.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/31Cb1Jc.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=Clavus;44359047][img]http://i.imgur.com/31Cb1Jc.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Is this legit? I have a hard time believing Gabe doesn't have a team of writers.
[QUOTE=Sniping Robot;44359013]We don't know the terms which were outlined in the acquisition agreement, so we don't have any real guarantees of Oculus remaining independent. From our perspective, Oculus VR [B]is[/B] Facebook.[/QUOTE]
Again, have some faith that Palmer only agreed because he got those guarantees. We've been following this guy for a few years now, and I don't believe he'd sell his vision for any amount of money. There are reasons to be cautious, but there are more reasons to be excited.
As with most negative stuff by the way, the ones expressing extreme opinions are often the ones with negative ones and those are what is seen. You usually do not see "I have no opinion" or "I approve" when this sort of stuff comes around so I do not believe the community has been very affected, although maybe perhaps a bit hopeful or wondering about the future instead?
[QUOTE=Leintharien;44358676]Excuse me if I get a bit poetic while writing this.
I think this is a big part of why so many people are so upset over it. The whole process over Kickstarter was what was essentially a series of love letters towards the crowd-sourcing community. It was a campaign of "Here we are. We can do this together, you and us. Through thick and thin, we can make it possible to play the games of our dreams."
But now, Oculus VR is being paid $2m for funding. This casts a very large shadow over the previous fundraising projects which makes them seem pointless. But what are the other costs? [B]No matter who is right or wrong, it is costing them the respect of the majority of their community.[/B] The very people that they had written their love letters to, are feeling cheated. All of this adventure that we had spent together, is now swallowed up by a social networking mega-corporation.[/QUOTE]
The problem is people assume kickstarter is like some private investment outlet for gamers when really its just another way to donate money. It's just a way to GASP KICK-START a product or company toward success.
Right now I'm really crossing my fingers and hoping that facebook will not mess this up, but because of it's history it probably will.
Just look at what they've done with WhatsApp, they killed it. Also, what does facebook know about virtual reality gaming? They are a social platform, why would they be interested in a VR headset? I was really looking forward to the Oculus Rift, but now it just seems like a failiure waiting to happen.
But there's also the small chance that facebook will fund it and not really touch it and it just might become one of the greatest peripherals of all time.
Anyways, [URL="http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-change-the-world/"]"notch" said this better than me[/URL].
[QUOTE=Drakmaar;44359425]Right now I'm really crossing my fingers and hoping that facebook will not mess this up, but because of it's history it probably will.
Just look at what they've done with WhatsApp, they killed it. Also, what does facebook know about virtual reality gaming? They are a social platform, why would they be interested in a VR headset? I was really looking forward to the Oculus Rift, but now it just seems like a failiure waiting to happen.
But there's also the small chance that facebook will fund it and not really touch it and it just might become one of the greatest peripherals of all time.
Anyways, [URL="http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-change-the-world/"]"notch" said this better than me[/URL].[/QUOTE]
How did they kill WhatsApp?
[editline]26th March 2014[/editline]
Nothing changed since I last looked at it.
Well, the Facebook-purchase certainly ruined something. This thread.
Though this thread was silent most of the time, it was nice because ALL the posts were about Oculus and its development. Now it's bitching and more bitching.
[QUOTE=SgtTupelo;44359509]Well, the Facebook-purchase certainly ruined something. This thread.
Though this thread was silent most of the time, it was nice because ALL the posts were about Oculus and its development. Now it's bitching and more bitching.[/QUOTE]
It'll calm down. It's a major event that will take some time to digest.
I realized yesterday that, no matter how the Facebook deal goes, Sony is now in a really good position.
Think about it. The entire PS4 advertising campaign was based on checking Microsoft's every move. They hit the gaming market hard, and they hit their advertising even harder.
All Sony needs to do to succeed here is run the exact same advertising for the Morpheus. Say something like, "we heard you don't like social... Morpheus is for games, and it's coming to the PC." Just run the same gamer-centric PR, and they can rival their PS4 sales with the Morpheus.
So, no matter how much money Oculus has made here, Sony's got potentially more than that if they play their cards right.
[QUOTE=woolio1;44359642]I realized yesterday that, no matter how the Facebook deal goes, Sony is now in a really good position.
Think about it. The entire PS4 advertising campaign was based on checking Microsoft's every move. They hit the gaming market hard, and they hit their advertising even harder.
All Sony needs to do to succeed here is run the exact same advertising for the Morpheus. Say something like, "we heard you don't like social... Morpheus is for games, and it's coming to the PC." Just run the same gamer-centric PR, and they can rival their PS4 sales with the Morpheus.
So, no matter how much money Oculus has made here, Sony's got potentially more than that if they play their cards right.[/QUOTE]
I believe it's the exact opposite. Oculus was growing like crazy, but had nowhere near the size and resources as Sony. Now they do.
Remember the discussion and concern that some big company would swoop in, sideline Oculus, and ruin VR forever with an inferior product but better marketing? There's no way this is happening now that Oculus joined the big leagues.
Palmer also said that they have had acquisition offers before, but they wanted to "chop up" the whole thing and not leave Oculus be as is. Facebook lets them continue on as before, combined with immense financial support and ability to go mainstream so they really had no reason to decline other than "but muh kickstarter"
[editline]26th March 2014[/editline]
There's no way Oculus hasn't got the "we'll let you do your thing" on official documents though. No sane business trusts mere face to face promises. So don't be afraid of Zuckenberg going back on his word, if he decides to fuck up the Rift from a gaming device into 100% social bullshit, Oculus is going to shove the signed papers in his face.
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