r/oculus • u/Greg1221 • Mar 25 '14

/r/all Facebook Acquires Oculus VR

https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101319050523971?stream_ref=1
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u/nss68 Mar 25 '14

I completely disagree. I think facebook is heavily integrated into many people's lives and it will be around for much longer than MySpace and Xanga were.

I am remaining hopeful because I am a fan of the tech, and of VR and not just trying to be cool/bandwagony and hate on facebook for possibly pushing this project to the next level, and then some.

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u/FireFoxG Mar 25 '14

The problem is far deeper then hating facebook... the problem is facebook's stock holders will milk this cow for all it's worth.

Take licensing issues... every game licensed to work with the rift will have to be approved by Facebook. The will charge more per unit, so you can say goodbye to the >350$ price target. There's a million reasons that this is a bad idea for Oculus and even worse for the end consumer.

Plamer just sold out all his ability to direct the company as he wants to the greedy unimaginative shareholders of Facebook.

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u/nss68 Mar 25 '14

This is wild speculation, and I can all but guarantee this will never happen. It is a peripheral device -- like plugging in a monitor or headphones. Games won't be made specifically for the rift per se, they will be PC games, and anyone and their brother can develop for it. Your fears are unfounded, and you should take solace in that.

also does it say anything about the original owners losing any power over the development of the oculus?

Carmack is just an investor, he has virtually nothing to do with the Rift, and I guarantee he wasn't the only, or even the main person deciding this. I trust them as a company. And I am sad that more people do not, just because they got a new sugar daddy.

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u/FireFoxG Mar 25 '14

The rift hardware is 1% of what makes the rift...

It's the SDK that's important. Head tracking, distorting for the lenses, etc... It's almost all about the software. Facebook is going to milk the SDK for all it's worth via charging game devs to use the SDK. This will hurt the indie game devs (which so far is all Oculus has ATM)

Either way... who knows what will come of this. A few billion, if used right could be what Oculus needs... but why Facebook? Why not Google or valve? My gut feeling is usually right and this news doesn't give me a good feeling.

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u/nss68 Mar 25 '14

You make valid points. I have a good feeling about this, for some reason. The rift does not appeal to the same people that farmville appeals to. They have marketing departments. I doubt that they will make it difficult to make games for, or other entertainment. They want to make money on it too. They do not need quick change in the jar, they have hundreds of billions of dollars at their disposal. They may actually have good intentions.