Facebook just bought Oculus

[Clockworkkiller]

chadz plz

[Nessaj]

It would seem that more are working on some sort of VR though, from both VALVe (speculated) and RAZER (confirmed) so far. Hopefully more will rise to the occasion, if anything then competition is good at least, but a credible rival to FB's VR is sorely needed atm.
I would hugely support VALVe if they decided to announce something, bring on the crowd funding

I think that what people are afraid of with OR and FB is that 'money talks' -- which has been the reason all along for every single Facebook acquisition;
People have to remember that their income is through advertisement and selling user-information (especially targeted advertisement), e.g. your surf habits, what do you talk about most, which words do you use mostly, what do you tag, at which point of the day do you mostly visit X/Y so they can shove ads in your face regarding X/Y at the most "appropriate" time. Everything is about maximizing profit. Rightfully so, they're a huge corporation with profit as their end goal.

Acquisitions such as the ones chadz mentions, while they're still clearly in the red in terms of profits, their profits comes from either shoving ads in your face or selling your behavior in said apps, either for targeted advertising or otherwise.

In time, no doubt they'll be profitable, and overall the amount of more users it brings to facebook = more ads shown = profit.


But I don't see how anyone can think that Facebook is this benevolent IT giant, or developer, they're the furthest from it, yes, it might be an awesome place to work at etc, but this isn't a innovative tech studio, they're a corporate stock-traded giant. Just try and recall all the privacy issues they've had and still do, all the various lawsuits, the issues with groups and pages being shut down for weird reasons, the huge scam they got going with the official selling of Facebook likes/views:

I just hope that this purchase will drive innovation for VR and the technology for VR forward, for the benefit of everyone, not for the benefit of a small amount of stockholders.

[SixThumbs]

Facebook is the gateway drug to crack cocaine obviously.

And I gave you a "like" when you shared that your dog died.

I also can't find the image of the former FBI director just chillin' in the Facbook offices with a coffee cup.

[chadz]

A comment from Carmack (in the comments section of http://peterberkman.tumblr.com/post/80827337212/wrong-and-right-reasons-to-be-upset-about-oculus )

I share some of your misgivings about companies "existing and operating only to be acquired". I am a true believer in market economies, and the magic of trade being a positive sum game is most obvious with repeated transactions at a consumer level. Company acquisitions, while still (usually) being a trade between willing parties that in theory leaves both better off, have much more of an element of speculation rather than objective assessment of value, and it definitely feels different.

There is a case to be made for being like Valve, and trying to build a new VR ecosystem like Steam from the ground up. This is probably what most of the passionate fans wanted to see. The difference is that, for years, the industry thought Valve was nuts, and they had the field to themselves. Valve deserves all their success for having the vision and perseverance to see it through to the current state.

VR won't be like that. The experience is too obviously powerful, and it makes converts on contact. The fairly rapid involvement of the Titans is inevitable, and the real questions were how deeply to partner, and with who.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting Facebook (or this soon). I have zero personal background with them, and I could think of other companies that would have more obvious synergies. However, I do have reasons to believe that they get the Big Picture as I see it, and will be a powerful force towards making it happen. You don't make a commitment like they just did on a whim.

I wasn't personally involved in any of the negotiations -- I spent an afternoon talking technology with Mark Zuckerberg, and the next week I find out that he bought Oculus.

[Son Of Odin]

visitors can't see pics , please register or login


Pras Gaben!

[Vibe]

pras our lord and saviour gaben

[BlindGuy]

- No matter what FBs long term strategy is, it most likely overlaps with the gamers need a lot. .... Low Latency? Check. Immersiveness? Check. There is no reason why Facebook should try and make it worse.

You seem to have a pretty decent understanding of many things, but that sentence made me laugh

If immersive ads are your thing...

Then again, the latency point: I changed my name to a spastic collection of characters and removed everything I could before deactivating my facebook YEARS ago (obviously you cannot delete the account, it is ovvned by FB not the user), because of hovv their 'chat' system and ads are constantly refreshing the page, sucking your bandvvidth

[Nessaj]

Second Life [Rebooted] — Facebook edition

Next Generation VR Socialization. No more websites.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/5/5/5684236/oculus-wants-to-build-a-billion-person-mmo-with-facebook

 

While Iribe admits that a billion-person MMO is "going to take a bigger network than exists in the world today," he says Facebook's network makes a great place to start, and suggested it could be a Metaverse that joins disparate virtual worlds.

Oculus hopes to convince players that they're having a "real conversation" with another person.

The coolest part though:

here's another potential application for all those people. Last year, NASA dreamt how a billion-person VR holodeck could help search the cosmos for signs of extraterrestrial life. That sounds like a game worth playing.