...and SONY.
I just made a post on a brazilian forum that I'd like to share here:
This aquisition will eventually lead Oculus to take undesirable routes. Just as it's hapenning to Whatsapp, initially the impact won't be felt, but in time, Facebook will have to find ways to monetize it and integrate it to it's services.
To me, Oculus turned into a time bomb. It will come up as a pioneer on the VR space (deservedly so). But it has planted a seed that will sow sour fruits in the future. It has just opened up a huge gap on the VR space, which is simply VR for gamers who don't fancy Facebook. As much as Facebook brings along billions of users, it also attracts lots of non-conformists (in lack of a better word). And that space already has it's biggest player revealed:
If Sony plays it's cards right, it's in for a huge bite on the market for gamers who feel excluded from Oculus priorities. Sony already had a big win in the same game, welcoming the gamer public who felt abandoned by Microsoft, when it let the message spread that it was prioritizing the home TV and sports crowd over the gamers who were promoting all the hype over it's XBOX-One console. The result was that Microsoft wanted to appeal to a broader audience, and lost sight of the very people who brought them to the spotlight of home entertainment.
Gamers are the main drivers of the recent wave of enthusiasm for VR. Palmer started Oculus as a gamer enthusiast himself. Now he allowed Oculus to sell itself to a company that strikes bad particularly with the gaming community.
If Oculus displeases the gamers, they will migrate to whatever similar thing there is, with a GAMER approach. And Sony will be there with arms wide open. This is a fine line for Oculus to walk, because if it looses gamers, all it will have left are the BILLION facebook users that are now getting to know Oculus, right? Yeah, kind of. The thing is, this public is very likely to have a "meh" attitude about VR. Gamers are the real target to turn VR into a commercial success. VR may have LOTS of potential in many different fronts. But it won't hit all of them at once. It needs the gamers to buy it while it is still bluky, expensive, limited, impractical. It needs the people who impulse buy it to enhance their games. It needs them to drive itself forward. Facebook buying Oculus is an instant turn-off for gamers. It is a headline that doesn't sound good for that audience. Oculus will have a lot of work to do if it wants to convince the gamers that this is still abou them. If they don't do it, Sony probably will.
I just made a post on a brazilian forum that I'd like to share here:
This aquisition will eventually lead Oculus to take undesirable routes. Just as it's hapenning to Whatsapp, initially the impact won't be felt, but in time, Facebook will have to find ways to monetize it and integrate it to it's services.
To me, Oculus turned into a time bomb. It will come up as a pioneer on the VR space (deservedly so). But it has planted a seed that will sow sour fruits in the future. It has just opened up a huge gap on the VR space, which is simply VR for gamers who don't fancy Facebook. As much as Facebook brings along billions of users, it also attracts lots of non-conformists (in lack of a better word). And that space already has it's biggest player revealed:
If Sony plays it's cards right, it's in for a huge bite on the market for gamers who feel excluded from Oculus priorities. Sony already had a big win in the same game, welcoming the gamer public who felt abandoned by Microsoft, when it let the message spread that it was prioritizing the home TV and sports crowd over the gamers who were promoting all the hype over it's XBOX-One console. The result was that Microsoft wanted to appeal to a broader audience, and lost sight of the very people who brought them to the spotlight of home entertainment.
Gamers are the main drivers of the recent wave of enthusiasm for VR. Palmer started Oculus as a gamer enthusiast himself. Now he allowed Oculus to sell itself to a company that strikes bad particularly with the gaming community.
If Oculus displeases the gamers, they will migrate to whatever similar thing there is, with a GAMER approach. And Sony will be there with arms wide open. This is a fine line for Oculus to walk, because if it looses gamers, all it will have left are the BILLION facebook users that are now getting to know Oculus, right? Yeah, kind of. The thing is, this public is very likely to have a "meh" attitude about VR. Gamers are the real target to turn VR into a commercial success. VR may have LOTS of potential in many different fronts. But it won't hit all of them at once. It needs the gamers to buy it while it is still bluky, expensive, limited, impractical. It needs the people who impulse buy it to enhance their games. It needs them to drive itself forward. Facebook buying Oculus is an instant turn-off for gamers. It is a headline that doesn't sound good for that audience. Oculus will have a lot of work to do if it wants to convince the gamers that this is still abou them. If they don't do it, Sony probably will.
