Honest question about the weird press coverage

[Christiaan]

There's a slew of "reviews" out there that are flat-out uninformed, dismissive, and very suspect.

While most of the reputable guys have good, balanced reports, there's a ton of stuff that actually seems to be anti-Facebook propaganda or something.

It really is an honest curiosity, as I've been around tech for 3 decades (I'm 45 in a week) and I've never seen so much press that leaves me scratching my head on products I know enough about as to know what is being said is bogus.

What's going on? Honest question. Are competitors really behind them?

It's actually nice to see none of the ridiculous, outlandish "reviews" are pro-Oculus.

[DaveR]

Take the techradar review of the HTC Vive, for instance. It mentions the Oculus Rift 5 times. But their review of Oculus Rift never mentions the Vive. Their Vive review seems less of a review and more of an argument for the Vive. Articles like that are fine, but I think they should have clarified that the article is not a review.

[przecinek]

Combination of things said by other posters:

1. Clever marketing ie:

"Techradar" wrote:
Before trying out the HTC Vive at GDC 2016, I signed an agreement that said I couldn't give you a full review of the system. I was told to avoid using strong language and to keep in mind that the demos I saw weren't the final versions.

Agreement doesn't prohibit though saying that Vive is great 😉 But if someone feels the other way you might hear her/him say "I'll withhold judgment until the actual final version comes out" (quote from Verge YT video). At the same time Oculus has its own NDA agreements that prohibit people from saying anything at all. This creates a really unbalanced situation.

2.Conflict of Intrest

Nicked that from Zoomie. You get kit worth that's worth $1080 and then you shittalk it? Not gonna happen. Also every single YT person seems to have signed an agreement that makes it clear that they are not being sponsored lol This disclaimer is said by Jackseptic, Matt and others. Love the way it was handled by OMGitsfirefoxx lol

"OMGitsfirefoxx" wrote:
*NOT A SPONSORED VIDEO. THIS SHIT IS JUST REALLY COOL

Don't really see any connection between first and second sentence to be honest 😉 Jacksepticeye said he simply "got very very lucky" etc. But in the end, if you accept Vive you don't wanna feel like a douche and post anything negative especially if it also comes with a "no strong language agreement" clause.

"Kotaku" wrote:
Before Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor's release, a curious thing happened: critics on YouTube (and some in the traditional press) tried to obtain early PC copies for review, but couldn't. And yet, YouTube entertainers were able to—if they agreed to terms like "videos will promote positive sentiment about the game".

3.Outright buyout.

This one is always slippery and a bit of a taboo but it happens. Machinima was caught and lost in court. Paycheck can be as high as 30k if "reviewer" is really influencial.
http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/02/mach ... o-charges/

Now. Look at this Manichima review and try not to laugh (or cringe) when they say stuff like "Rift is PS1, Vive is like PS4"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sPsHaEBpiU

Manichima is glaringly obvious but others try to sound objective and generally are way better 😉 😉

4.Objective reasons.

Let's face it: HTC Vive is a very competitive headset. It's tracking is widely considered superior (at least as things stand right now Q1 2016). And it's not too shabby in most other aspects. People are more inclined to believe what they're saying is OK if a product is indeed very good. Room Tracking gives that wow factor that makes a lot of people comfortable with praising Vive.


----
Bottom Line: HTC PR practices are super shady. Giving free units to youtubers is one thing, but trying to silently take over /Vive reddit or offering questionable deals to journalists or reporters is not good, and I'm happy Oculus is not going that path. Going directly after your competition (like in Manichima vid) is also in a very bad taste. Still I'm not going to cancel my Vive pre-order simply because it will ship in April while my Rift is set for June 😉 But I did become a kind of a "Rift fanboy" as a result of all this misleading pro-vive propaganda :lol:

[Mr_Creepy]

"przecinek" wrote:


Now. Look at this Manichima review and try not to laugh (or cringe) when they say stuff like "Rift is PS1, Vive is like PS4"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sPsHaEBpiU

Manichima is glaringly obvious but others try to sound objective and generally are way better 😉 😉

Well that review seemed totally unbiased and factual :lol:

[Anonymous]

I saw an interesting News Report the other day where they talked about VR and then proceeded to show the OLD DK1 and said it was being released on March 28th?! I mean wth? lol Then after that they showed the new consumer HTC Vive and the PSVR. 😮

They never bothered showing the new Oculus Rift CV1

It looked like they wanted to make Oculus look bad...

[JakemanOculus]

"przecinek" wrote:
Let's face it: HTC Vive is a very competitive headset

Yes.

"przecinek" wrote:
It's tracking is widely considered superior

No. This is a perception created by the "weird press coverage" being discussed in this thread. Read the "reviews" closely. I have. Every assertion about the superiority of Vive's tracking is an expectation based on having had an amazing Vive experience. You will not find a single real comparison out there... you can't, because CV1 owners are still under NDA.

In reality both tracking systems are on point. Neither one is superior. They are different but equally functional.

You can find articles about how amazing the Oculus tracking is, but these are from floor demos as opposed to overzealous fans who received a free Vive. Vive is giving out free hardware like crazy and in doing so they are buying lots of positive reviews. It's a well known practice in the computer hardware industry. Palmer Luckey was recently asked on reddit about the lack of free CV1's being sent to prominent gamers and reviewers. He answered that he is more concerned with filling preorders than in delaying fulfillment in order to stir up publicity for a product that is already popular enough to have a 4 month backlog of preorders.

[Christiaan]

If the "free hardware" from Valve is true, at $800 it certainty does make for a nice gift worthy of a favor. That would explain why the heavy hitters and devs who would score the HW regardless have quite balanced views of the HW, most actually putting Oculus considerably ahead on the HMD design and quality. The small(er) time youtubers and the like, who likely scored their biggest perk ever, are going to go a bit overboard with the propaganda.

Who knows. But some of the stuff out there has a story behind it....some reviews are downright falsification and intentionally misleading in favor of Valve. Valve, if you are instigating this garbage, I hope you're happy with yourselves - we're on to ya. 😉

[christopherbarn]

It wouldn't surprise me if HTC is playing some dirty pool here. They are in dire straights financially, they lost over $100 million for three quarters in a row. 2015 was a bad year for them. Vive was supposed to launch last Dec., but obviously that got delayed and Oculus was able to start pre-orders before them and grab the first wave of enthusiasts. So 2016 is off to a bad start. They're desperate and really need Vive to succeed. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

[Anonymous]

Getting orders out there and having family and friends try it themselves might in the end be more effective than some youtube star showing how "amazing" VR is. And I'd guess there are going to be more RIfts out there than Vives.

[willste]

I think what we are seeing is just how crappy a lot of the tech "journalism" that pollutes the web really are. There are plenty of good accurate blogs and articles. However there are just as many confused, unresearched half-assed write ups floating around reminding us that many writers are masquerading as tech journalists and bloggers.