Oculus Go: Failed Entitlement Check

[RobbyC57D]

As the title says. Recently I get this message, "Failed Entitlement Check" when I launch the app Virtual Desktop Streamer.  I have owned the app for years.  

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the App

Factory reset the The Oculus

Even Launched the app from the phone app 

All with the same results. 

I have also noticed that the app store will not load on the Oculus. It looks like it tries to start but then shuts down right away. 

I realize this is a very old device but any help is appreciated. 

Thanks

[Kyndig]

Actually, it is probably actionable in court. We can hire a lawyer to bring a class action suit and they would absolutely be found to be liable for the damages. They sold us the games. Then they broke them. Oculus wants to claim they stopped support but that has nothing to do with it Oculus  related a mechanism to stop the games from starting: This Entitlement check. Obviously this gives Oculus the legal requirement to either resolve the issue to make the games sold continue to function despite their mechanism, or to refund the money we spent on the games, especially the games that do not exist on any other platform. In the meantime I strongly recommend never spend another dollar on Oculus products of any kind eer again. Have you ever seen a game on Steam you purchased stop working? Me neither. Anyways, obviously Mets has some very bad  general counsel, some moron telling them this is all legal and they won't have to refund our purchases. The biggest idiot is the client of an idiot lawyer, as they say.

[Kyndig]

So what? Yes, everyone has a similar license. So, the only way to determine where to spend your money is based on past behavior of the company with regard to just how long that license lasts. Steam has NEVER made a game I purchased stop working. NEVER. Oculus apparently does it after about. 5 years. So, vote with your dollars going forward is my recommendation. Buy from Steam instead, unless you're on standalone Oculus in which case sell that pile of eventual trash. I was an Oculus fan boy but I'm completely done aster this. I'VE Bought every product they've made so far but never again, starting with selling my Quest 3. I've wasted so much money on software purchased from this company and so have you. Oculus/Meta is still legally liable for the damages associated with the purchase price of the games they broke (even accidentally) using their entitlement systen. 

[Kyndig]

Um, can you reference a single statute or court case so we can verify your ludicrous claim? 

[Kyndig]

Apparently you have no problem wasting money, good for you, shill. 

[Kyndig]

Well said, thank you for your response to this very serious legal issue. 

[Kyndig]

Well said, thank you for your response to this very serious issue. 

[Kyndig]

Has anyone else noticed that the Oculus Go store is still open and accepting money? This is obvious evidence of bad faith. 

[ALionlikeMane]

Yep, sure did. We (at least on GearVR) got an email on Jan 24 saying that purchasing and redownloading would cease to work while our installed apps/games remained usable... and it's been exactly the opposite. My GearVR and Oculus Go still populate re-download options and I just checked on my Oculus Go to confirm I can still get through all purchasing steps... but I still can't use a good ~95% of my apps and games without this PITA entitlement check getting in the way.

If they can switch us off in a day, how much effort would it really take to switch it back on so that we don't constantly have it looming over our heads that our Quest 2s and Pros and 3 may suffer the same fate.

[thrillhouse1980]

I feel very much the same. Meta has completely obliterated any goodwill and trust that their consumers may have had. Consumers such as myself that were previously very happy and loyal to purchase their digital products. I still think their hardware such as the Quest 2 and 3 are great, however I will never purchase anything from their app store going forward. Instead I will 100% purchase from PC outlets like Steam or Epic and then rely on airlink and virtual desktop to use my software. I will recommend similar to anyone asking about the best way to navigate VR use/purchasing.

This will be a huge loss for Meta that will cost them in the long run.

[desiv]

"If they can switch us off in a day, how much effort would it really take to switch it back on so that we don't constantly have it looming over our heads that our Quest 2s and Pros and 3 may suffer the same fate."

I think that depends on what they did to "switch us off."  I personally don't think the actively disabled the apps.

And what happened DID disable apps, so I'm not saying they didn't do anything.  Just that I don't think they reached out to our Gos and disabled apps.

What I think happened is that the apps get a "key" of some kind (certificate I think is likely) when they are installed.

Now, we know that they apps don't have to phone home every time they are run, or people wouldn't be able to use them offline.

So what I think was probably happening was when an app first gets installed, they get a key that has a lifetime on it.  2 years?  4 years?  Whatever...

As long as the Go is online at some time when the key is nearing expiration, it will check for a new key.

So I think at some point in time, Meta/Oculus shut down that backed key re-validation.  Now depending on the lifetime of the key, they might have done that a while ago.  Months?  Year or so?  Those keys could have been valid for a while before they finally failed.

So, could they just bring back that infrastructure?  Probably (if they still have backups).

But another thing to consider is that the infrastructure (if it exists, I am just thinking out loud here) ties into their backend for our accounts.

That means any changes that Meta might have made to their data structure/APIs for interfacing in the last year or so might mean that old Oculus Go validation infrastructure won't work without some code updates.

So it might not be as simple as turning it back on...

...

Or it could be as simple as turning it back on too... 😉

But Meta isn't going to want to keep it online forever.  It was always going to go away at some point in time.

Now, based on that, I think it would have been great for Meta/Oculus to have TOLD US THAT!

What they said was this:
People who own Oculus Go will still be able to use their headsets. We won't be shipping new features for Oculus Go, and we won't be adding new Go apps to the Oculus Store after Dec 18, 2020. We'll continue to maintain the system software with bug fixes and security patches through 2022.

What they should have added was something like:

"At some time after 2022, we will shut down our infrastructure for Go support, and that will mean most apps/games will stop working at that time."
Because otherwise, that first sentence "People who own Oculus Go will still be able to use their headsets.", while still technically true, is also really problematic. 
I also think had we known the apps would stop working and/or be unavailable to be DLd at some time, several of us would have done a better job archiving them.  
Yes, we can "patch" most of them to make them work, but there are some that are just lost, and that's sad...