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As the dust settles the cooler heads prevail...

EarlGrey
Expert Protege
I'll admit, I'm stunned, I'm positive, I'm negative, I have a rollercoster of feelings about FB buying OculusVR.

There are pros and cons with everything, absolutely everything.

Pros:
- Massive increase in budget, money a non-issue in getting the product to market in higher quality than otherwise.
- International reach, the devices will be distributed much wider than by a single lone small OculusVR with it's mere $100m which probably half is already spent.
- A much larger consumer base, which will drive many more to make experiences for the rift. VR will be a hit!
- Much easier to make deals with hardware manufacturers with Zuckerberg standing behind you at the negotiating table, manufacturer will line up for those deep pockets which are not afraid to order millions of devices.
- Future of OculusVR ensured, and future of VR as well.


Cons:
- Unknowns about the future plans of Facebook.
- Potential closed platform (Apple Store style)
- Porn or erotic content potentially banned if
- Facebook takes a cut for every purchase.
- Game studios will shy away from the Rift because of unknowns and general dislike towards FB.
- They may ban certain types of applications due to it being competitive to their own platform, e.g. alternative social VR experience other than FB's own.
- Trust issues with FB, tracking you, analyzing you, NSA, etc. Privacy.
- The HMD may become a stand-alone closed system, with a computer on board to run a platform, unable to connect to a PC.


When I analyze these objectively, most of the cons are simply conjecture. However, the pros are obvious. And it is unlikely FB will attempt to push any of it's "secret agenda" in 2-3 years, giving OculusVR plenty time to perfect the VR headset.


Now, I did not wish for FB to buy OculusVR, they did but that's not the end. If I had to choose a company that should have acquired it then I think it would have been Microsoft. They're invested in PC's, Windows, gaming, XBox... etc. This should have fitted right into their product line. I do not understand Microsoft, they're so far behind, surviving on selling legacy systems that continue to decline in popularity. They buy Nokia, a doomed company, but not OculusVR, a hot rocket company going for the stars.
7 REPLIES 7

Moofers
Honored Guest
The closed system just wouldn't workout, they know it won't.
If that ever happens, a big if, people will not buy oculus and it would die. But it's all up in the air right now.

DieKatzchen
Honored Guest
Bottom line, zuckerburg is an asshole, but not an idiot. It will be an open platform. Heck, they might intentionally design the system so that they don't vet all content. They can profit off all the people buying a Rift for porn with complete plausible deniability.

Br0ken
Honored Guest
"EarlGrey" wrote:
If I had to choose a company that should have acquired it then I think it would have been Microsoft. They're invested in PC's, Windows, gaming, XBox... etc.

palmerluckey:
"Why would we want to sell to someone like MS or Apple? So they can tear the company apart and use the pieces to build out their own vision of virtual reality, one that fits whatever current strategy they have? Not a chance."

MS could turn the Rift into proprietary HMD for Xbox One and Windows only. They are not friendly with open source, unlike the Facebook.

jasonatokc
Honored Guest
It will stay open because it is that big of a technical paradigm shift and all the developers here should be happy about the facebook deal. More opportunity. Its not just games.

ThreeEyes
Explorer
All of this makes no real difference to non-developers. They may or may not have to wait a while for a good VR system. VR is inevitable now. The DK2 ought to be wonderful and there are more and more games and sims hitting the net with Oculus support. I do think CV1 will be even better and probably way better and probably won't have much in the way of Facebook branding or tie ins though I think it may be a while before it really is available regardless of the new Oculus war chest. For a lot of us, buying both the DK2 and the CV1 isn't a big deal.

But it definitely makes a difference to developers. Maybe they have AAA groups already locked up and are sharing information about future plans but I can certainly see where those here are anxious. It's a big deal to gamble putting time and money into something only to see the company bite you in the ass.

I'm tending to think it's a safer gamble now but there are no guarantees and Palmer Luckey saying that it will remain open, that they aren't going to force Facebook tie ins, etc is not a binding contract. Something a bit more concrete would sure be nice. I would also bet that Palmer is getting a bit tired of trying to reassure everyone and it is also unnecessary as people are for the most part disregarding what he has to say since it's not his ballgame now.

It's up to Oculus and Facebook how they want to handle this but it is obvious a lot of people still are upset by this and don't like the new Facebook association. I think there could be some advantages to the arrangement as long as Zuckerberg stays out and only looks to try to decrease the CPU/GPU load so his mobile minions can use a Rift to do their online virtual meetups or whatever. As long as he doesn't get in the way of high res and high performance, things probably will be great with this cash influx into Oculus.

But only time and their actions will really tell the tale.

I do have to say the 72 hour dealmaking thing and it being Zuckerberg of all people are both disconcerting. So are all the comments out of Facebook about monetizing the VR market with ads and other gimmicks. Maybe we are all secondary to Zuckerberg's mission now and no amount of ranting will make any difference.

Those with less of the instinct to protect their investment may be the early birds in this and those that hold back the Johnny come latelys. It's all a developer choice and I'm guessing we won't get anything more concrete than we've already gotten.
But... but... but... I just NEED to know about the Baba! The Baba has me hypmotized! :shock:

Primopearl
Honored Guest
I think is more likely to have even more AAA titles now... if the market will be bigger, AAA studios will take part of it for sure.

kgelner
Honored Guest
I was tinkering with my Oculus project before now, the Facebook purchase has accelerated the development priority for me. As you say there will be a LOT more devices sold now to a lot more people, and I feel like non-game applications have a lot more of a shot now.

I also really liked Penny Arcade's thoughts on the matter:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2014/03/26/the-nexesse