Facebook will reportedly rebrand the Oculus Rift?

[Anonymous]

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/26/5549186/facebook-rebrand-oculus-rift-headset

Facebook is planning to eventually rebrand the Oculus Rift experience, redesigning the hardware and updating it with "a Facebook interface and logo."

[DeadlyJoe]

"Meh" wrote:

"DeadlyJoe" wrote:


Right. Because the actual product doesn't matter. It's the brand that matters. How can you be part of the in-crowd if you don't buy the right brands, right? God, people who buy off-brand stuff really piss me off!

:roll:

A brand represents a vision. If you change the brand, you change the vision for the product. It's simple.
A brand is much more than a logo...

No. A brand is a marketing device, pure and simple. When you buy a Coke, you don't buy it for the brand. You buy it because you like the product. The brand on the label transmits the message to other people that you are enjoying a Coke. Someone might see you enjoying the Coke and think about buying one, too. That is a successful advertisement. The notion that a brand means anything more than that is a personal decision, made by you, shaped by your own emotions and experiences, often subconsciously.

[snappahead]

I couldn't care less abut the brand or what they call it, but I'm not interested in a Facebook interface. CV1 might have one for all we know. Both positive and negative theories are just that right now...theories.

[Tripper]

I am extremely disappointed in the Oculus team for this decision. They make millions with kickstart only to "SELL-OUT" to FB for more money. i am disgusted. my support for Oculus has just went down the drain. i WILL NOT buy the new DK2 and have cancelled my order and anyone who agrees with me should follow suit. its not about FB making changes, its the fact i joined the Oculus community to support this team and their projects, i wanted to see a glimpse into the future. Now we have corporate jackasses with no concern of the community interest making decisions. the comunity will fall, 3rd party works will no longer be effective and the price for consumer release will be HIGH!.

So to the SELL-OUTS i say thanks for your hard work putting this greatness in the making, but this will be the biggest regret you as a company will have to carry with you, and for what money? Greed? and so early on. the oculus is the best VR head set but with FB buying them out ill be changing to a dif headset or finish the development of my own.

I am sickened by the act of this company they might have well sold out to the US government and advertisement companies. The FB group is nothing more than glorified con-men with all the info of your life at their disposal.

GL Oculus you will be missed. ill give it 5 years until it really bites you in the ass...

[flexy123]

"raidho36" wrote:
All the brand represents is a bunch of wild fanboys. Sane people value the product, not the brand.

Sry, this is pure nonsense! The OR had mainstream popularity, NOT only hardcore nerds. This is EXACTLY what made the OR different from any other, previous VR. MAINSTREAM HYPE AND POPULARITY, making VR something appealing to the masses and not only something for "wild fanboys".

[Tbone]

First, I can't imagine this actually happening. There's too many smart people in the room for them to think it's a good idea to get rid of the Oculus brand.

Secondly, those of you who think it doesn't matter what logo and brand are on the headset are being a little naive. If the Facebook brand and logo are used, the assumption is that the device will then be deeply intertwined with the Facebook infrastructure. If Instagram was renamed to Facebook Pictures, my first assumption would be that I need a Facebook account to use it and that my pictures would be stored on Facebook. If WhatsApp was renamed to Facebook Messenger, well, I would assume it was Facebook Messenger. If the Oculus Rift gets rebranded to Facebook VR, what are the assumptions there (even if it isn't the case)?

Branding is VERY important to the success of a product. For that reason, I highly doubt we'll see any change in the brand of the company or product. The most that will probably happen is an optional Facebook login for Oculus Share.

[Meh]

"Tbone" wrote:
Branding is VERY important to the success of a product. For that reason, I highly doubt we'll see any change in the brand of the company or product.

I agree. Branding is very important.

But the rebranding is part of the deal. It's going to happen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/technology/facebook-to-buy-oculus-vr-maker-of-virtual-reality-head...

[CaliberMengsk]

O-o What's so shocking about a company planning to eventually change the company name of a company they acquired to include their name? Really? You are going to complain about that of all things? Any did you expect the rift to have no standardized interface like steam has? It was going to happen eventually, it has to happen eventually, so you can configure the rift without taking it off. It's really no different then steam's, origin's, or microsoft's overlays in games. And it's better for it to be standardized across everything.

As toward the "sellout" comment. Grow up please. You are buying a product. Ignore the name stamped on the side and it's the same product. If all you see is the brand, then you obviously lack the will to make up your own mind about a product. Acquisitions like this happen all the time, sometimes you don't even hear about it happening. Did you know that including oculus, facebook has had at least 46 acquisitions. It's not likely they will take over complete control any time soon, and if they product is doing well, they are likely not going to interfere at all with the major product, and only require them to do things like put a facebook logo on the side, or have a facebook logo on device boot. Calm down a bit.

We already know that the rift is pretty much locked down on what will be the consumer version. They (oculus) have said this several times. What has facebook done to wrong you so much that you would rather not look to the future because they are invested in something you like. Facebook is likely looking to the future, cause they know that facebook, the website, may come to an end some day, and they want to break out into other avenues. So what if they aren't a hardware company at the moment. Why should they limit themselves from investing in hardware simply because they make websites primarily?

Personally, I'm not a very big fan of facebook the website, but if you calm yourself and think of the possible benefits, you can see why they would allow the sale. It could be reduced part cost due to buying more in bulk, or creating their own hardware instead of buying it. It could mean faster development cycles to buy slightly more expensive parts to test with instead waiting for a cheaper part to become available. It could mean developing 3-4 different rifts with completely different designs at the same time, lowering the time to market by 300-400%. There are possible problems with getting in the way of the company, but I would say it's very likely there were contractual agreements made that will allow most of the decision making to stay in the oculus part of the company.

If it goes down the hole, that sucks, but I doubt in the next 2 years there will be any significant difference between what oculus already had planned, except better improvements, and a faster development cycle. Trust in the people you've already been trusting to make the right decision to make the right decision. Why not see what happens before making a massive judgement call with no supporting evidence?

[Tbone]

"Meh" wrote:

"Tbone" wrote:
Branding is VERY important to the success of a product. For that reason, I highly doubt we'll see any change in the brand of the company or product.

I agree. Branding is very important.

But the rebranding is part of the deal. It's going to happen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/technology/facebook-to-buy-oculus-vr-maker-of-virtual-reality-head...

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/26/facebook-oculus/

"Facebook has officially denied a claim by a New York Times source saying the social network will plaster its logo and interface onto the hardware of its new $2 billion acquisition Oculus."

[drash]

"Tbone" wrote:
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/26/facebook-oculus/

"Facebook has officially denied a claim by a New York Times source saying the social network will plaster its logo and interface onto the hardware of its new $2 billion acquisition Oculus."

I KNEW IT!

After seeing numerous examples of articles getting their source from reddit or just plain regurgitating stuff in a game of telephone, there's little reason to take headlines / articles at face value these days.

[mrgreen72]

The thread title should be fixed accordingly.