Goodbye Oculus VR.

I had such high hopes. I can't believe this... just ruined my day.

https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101319050523971?stream_ref=1

Travis Admin wrote on 03/25/2014 at 10:14pm

I was on my way over here to post this.

Sigh.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/25/2014 at 10:14pm

Hmmmm, I guess I'm glad it's still moving forward? I'm not crazy about FB owning it, but glad it's not completely dying.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/25/2014 at 10:18pm

Yeah I mean I know I'm being a pessimist about this, we don't know what will happen yet. But it just makes me uneasy.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/25/2014 at 10:36pm

http://nooooooooooooooo.com/

Ok, ok, calm down... don't be so pessimistic. I mean this could be a good thing right? Now Oculus has a huge stack of cash behind them to advance the technology right? And all the parody Facebook VR videos and meme's we're about to get are going to make for some solid comedy.

How long until the Oculus starts tracking your eye movements to see which ads you look at and for how long, so to better target you with future advertisements? >.<

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/25/2014 at 11:07pm

Already some interesting news on this:

Apparently there was a version of Minecraft being developed for Oculus. Not anymore according to Notch: https://twitter.com/notch/status/448586381565390848

Engadget has an article about the deal with this disheartening quote. This is from the "update" while on a conference call with Mark Zuckerberg: "Specifically, he talked about the potential of a virtual communication network, buying virtual goods, and down the line, advertising."
Article: http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/25/facebook-oculus-vr-2-billion/

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/25/2014 at 11:11pm

What the.... I mean I guess Oculus would have been purchased and... I just never thought it would be Facebook.

Wow, need a bit to process this. I mean Zuck is right, it is the future but...

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 03/25/2014 at 11:12pm

Watching the Dev Days videos, it seems like a lot of people don't like FB (it seemed to be a running theme that you shouldn't be on FB. Never really for any specific reason, just "If you're still on FB, you've made some poor life choices"), so I am interested in seeing how Valve and Steam react to this.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/25/2014 at 11:19pm

Interesting.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/26/2014 at 09:09am

Life is such a damn cartoon sometimes. I want Microsoft and Facebook to release a platform that has nothing but advertisements on it. Static ads, and 30-60 second spots of pure consumer targeted drama. They could call it something classy like "Ads, MF" or "PinkEye 360."

In truth, I haven't been keenly interested in VR. I'll holster any real opinions until I've actually tried it. However, I'm not a fan of Facebook. I think Facebook actually did give me pinkeye once.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/26/2014 at 03:29pm

Most startups (Oculus, etc) are created to get acquired. They take investment and either want to grow huge to IPO or sell. In this case Oculus raised a huge amount of cash from the community, which give it a shot in the arm popularity wise but didn't seem to change the companies strategy.

So basically, when you fund a Kickstarter yo are basically pre-ordering something. So if you think your dollars mean "oh hey, stay independent guys" well, apparently that's not what it means at all. Cause Facebook be all like, 2 BILLION and Oculus be all THANKS FOR THE MONEY!

That said, yay for them and all that but like you guys, this just doesn't seem awesome. That said, I bet in the end the Oculus will still be great and they are still focused on games.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/26/2014 at 03:30pm

On the other hand, I am very happy that Valve and other companies are still in the VR business.

Travis Admin wrote on 03/26/2014 at 04:40pm

This comment sums up my feelings on it. "I don't want to live in a future where a handful of giant companies are dividing up every piece of creative enterprise that stands a chance of reaching mass market"

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/26/facebook-and-oculus-rift-game-developers-react

It's insane to see the developer support falling off. Notch pulled the plans for a version of Minecraft for the Oculus, tons of others are dropping.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/26/2014 at 07:07pm

Kickstarter funding may not be implicit with staying independent, but I'll bet it makes people think twice about funding tech projects in the future, if they see that their $2M contribution could just be funding a $2B buyout. If I had Kickstarted OR, I would be pissed right now, because instead of supporting the vision of Oculus VR, now I've successfully funded the vision of Facebook. A scarier thought might be that their visions were aligned in the first place, in which case I doubt as many would have cared about OR in the first place. If this were LOST, Oculus VR would be J.J. Abrams, Facebook would be Damon Lindelof, and it might sound all well and good for a while, but in the end it's just a steaming pile of horseshit.

The magic is gone.

(I don't really think Damon Lindelof is as frustrating as Facebook, but, as a writer, he does frustrate the shit out of me sometimes. :D)

Travis Admin wrote on 03/26/2014 at 08:16pm

I love Lindelof but yeah, frustrating is a fine word to describe him.

scrypt Supporter wrote on 03/26/2014 at 09:15pm

Here's another recent example of Goliath controlling David, what consumers are agreeing to, and how it can go very wrong:

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/26/xbox-one-griefers-may-have-twitch-privileges-dessert-taken-away/

Timogorgon Member wrote on 03/30/2014 at 06:04pm

John Carmack has weighed in about the Facebook buyout over on Peter Berkman's (a member of chip-tunes band Anamanaguchi) Tumbler page. Kind of a weird place to make his first comments, but whatever.

Joystiq has a summary of Carmack's comments: http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/30/john-carmack-on-facebook-buy-of-oculus-they-get-the-big-pictur/
Carmack's original comments: http://peterberkman.tumblr.com/post/80827337212/wrong-and-right-reasons-to-be-upset-about-oculus#comment-1310233365

Apparently the Facebook buyout was a surprise to him, although he seems fairly OK with the decision.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/31/2014 at 06:59pm

Whereas I agree with him, the buyout still feels odd. Then again, he says outright there could have been a better pairing other places.

That said, who would have offered the 2 billion buyout?

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