"flyingwaffle" wrote: It's funny that last year Lucky was saying they wouldn't sell and want to stay in control. Ah well... He probably realized that the Rift has some horrible side-effects (turning brain into mush, early Alzheimer) and decided to sell out while he was still ahead... Of all, I would have expected Valve, or Amazon... but Facebook?! Well, at least Zuckerberg and I agree that VR has potential 🙂
I didn't know they sold out. Did you read the contract? Huh. Interesting.
Well, the news is that Facebook is "buying" Oculus. Not investing, buying. Just like Zenimax bought idSoftware if you will. Means facebook is in charge now, Lucky and Carmack, at best, are Facebook employees, very rich facebook employees, but they no longer own their product.
Oculus doesn't have "everyone", it has hobbyists and professionals. It needs average consumers, and it needs to sell many millions of units.
No matter what they needed some established partner to help introduce them to the market. Facebook does seem like an odd choice based on their background, but they can definitely reach people.
On the technical merits, I also believe that socialization will be the real killer app for VR. Facebook is still a long way from being able to build the metaverse, but its not entirely out of their purview. And in any case their engineering capabilities are not all that important, because they just bought all of the Oculus engineers, the best in the VR industry.
$1.6 billion in Facebook stock should also give Oculus a pretty good amount of control.
If this means we get that Super AMOLED with 1440p screen that much sooner, I am all for this. Also with the further requirement that there is no invasive ads and shit when I play my games.
"mscanfp" wrote: When I, mention Facebook in my high school classroom, my students laugh like, "No one uses Facebook anymore". I think that Oculus will save Facebook from the slow death that it would have incurred. As a non-tech guy, I think this is great news. Considering that most of the people on this forum fancy themselves to be developers, I understand the trepidation. I'm just a consumer, and if they force you to log into FB to use it, just create a fake account. Duh.
Mike
Tell me, how would they make 'log into facebook' work on a platform filled with hackers, developers, programmers and those that don't want that to happen? It makes no sense what so ever.
How would they make it work? Have it a requirement via the SDK. You could say that someone will come up with a hack or workaround, but do you really expect the average consumer to have to jail break their Rift to use your app/game/experience?
"mscanfp" wrote: When I, mention Facebook in my high school classroom, my students laugh like, "No one uses Facebook anymore". I think that Oculus will save Facebook from the slow death that it would have incurred. As a non-tech guy, I think this is great news. Considering that most of the people on this forum fancy themselves to be developers, I understand the trepidation. I'm just a consumer, and if they force you to log into FB to use it, just create a fake account. Duh.
Mike
Tell me, how would they make 'log into facebook' work on a platform filled with hackers, developers, programmers and those that don't want that to happen? It makes no sense what so ever.
How would they make it work? Have it a requirement via the SDK. You could say that someone will come up with a hack or workaround, but do you really expect the average consumer to have to jail break their Rift to use your app/game/experience?
No because its absured enough that we would have to go that far. Thats the frigging point. This is VR, not a mobile phone or an app. Things don't work like that in this industry.
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"mscanfp" wrote: When I, mention Facebook in my high school classroom, my students laugh like, "No one uses Facebook anymore". I think that Oculus will save Facebook from the slow death that it would have incurred. As a non-tech guy, I think this is great news. Considering that most of the people on this forum fancy themselves to be developers, I understand the trepidation. I'm just a consumer, and if they force you to log into FB to use it, just create a fake account. Duh.
Mike
Tell me, how would they make 'log into facebook' work on a platform filled with hackers, developers, programmers and those that don't want that to happen? It makes no sense what so ever.
I rooted my Android phone to get around limitations that I didn't like. It was easy and my phone is better for it.
However, now I can't use the software auto-update and my bank's mobile app won't run as it detects compromised security.
I'm sure the Rift will be quickly hacked if any restrictions are put in place too, but what will we lose?
What a sell-out by Lucky. Just shows lack of experience in the real world, I'm afraid. Sheesh, if you're going to sell out, at least do it to someone with experience in doing stuff like manufacturing.
Lots of utopia in this thread. Anyone who thought that the " little engine that could" would all by itself were deluding themselves.
After the initial yucky feeling on hearing this news, the pragmatic side in me realise that this is indeed a boon in disguise. Not only for Oculus, as they now will have the resources to bring their products to reality that much sooner, but also for the VR industry in general, as this is a push to also increase the social aspect of a naturally unsocial product.
Do I expect Facebook to mess with the OR VR experience? Not when one realise that the OR is, at it's simplest, just a display.
All in all, a win for both companies, and ultimately for the consumer as this can only accelerate the onset of VR in our society.
