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jblackrupert

Facebook buys oculus for $2 Billion

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First thing I thought was Fry saying "My god... its full of ads!".

Aside from that, unsure how I feel.

It doesn't affect what I'm doing a with Unreal Engine 4 / Ground Branch... not yet anyway.

So, yeah... wait and see.

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The company said specifically that it would push Oculus’s brand of virtual reality beyond gaming, into “communications, media and entertainment, education, and other areas.â€

Well time to look at that Sony thing...

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How exactly does Oculus Rift benefit Facebook? I mean it's not like a mainstream company like Whatsapp :confused:

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It kind of pisses me off that everything and everyone needs total social media implementation nowadays. I can already imagine playing some 3d horror game when suddenly something like "Mike12 is online" pops up, and then something like "Mike12 wants to send you drunk texts, accept? Well, we'll act like you pressed accept anyway." - and then a 10 second ad based on the keywords Mike had in his drunken slur of insults (probably not the kind of ads I'd show my mother, as a result.)

No thanks, I say. I'm rather going with that R-grade Cybernetic Rig, if we do cyberpunk, then we should make it cool at least.

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I've followed OR with interest for a while (not to the point of preordering however), but my interest has suddenly waned. The howls of anguish on the Reddit thread are really something to behold: innovative young developers discover holy grail of VR; Kickstarter used to raise initial funds and engage with community; honest and useful two way dialog helps drive product development, foster community goodwill and secure additional tens of millions of investment dollars; founders sell out for billions to one of the least trusted and least admired companies on the planet and announce it with a post of breathtaking PR vapidity.

Best case scenario: Facebook takes a hands off approach and the OR team use the secure funding to bring a perfectly realised VR system to market. OR is platform independent and transforms gaming and other VR application, without being branded a Facebook product. Facebook investors are happy because the inevitable decline of their core social media product might be offset by the rise of OR (and other acquisitions).

Worst case scenario: Facebook meddles with future development of OR to release a dumbed down VR system which requires a facebook login to function, serves 3D ads, aggregates and sells user data, further violates user trust and privacy, intrudes on the gaming experience, and sells the whole vision (pun intended) short.

All I know is that my money is staying in my wallet until I see which scenario plays out. What a shame, I was really looking forward to the concept as it was originally sold pre Facebook.

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I wasn't all hyped up over the O rift before I was waiting for it to release before making judgement but now it is dead to me.

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I wonder if the Oculus Rift was really worth those money , anyway Facebook will do evil experiments with it - i cant even imagine meh :i:

Edited by RobertHammer

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I imagine something like interactive 3D ads might become the new big thing. Since I really don´t want to see any adds while I´m gaming... Well it´s dead for me. Sony seems to develop something that will have quite similiar specs, feature better sound, and be more comfortable to wear.

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Facebook is wasting money on this. It's a great idea to take them over like that but 2 Billion is a serious commitment. They probably could have designed their own style and developed them for less than that, a lot less.

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The backlash on Kickstarter and Reddit is huge. I can totally understand that. If I had invested money in the project and would have to witness how it was sold out to FB I'd be mighty angry.

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Facebook is wasting money on this. It's a great idea to take them over like that but 2 Billion is a serious commitment. They probably could have designed their own style and developed them for less than that, a lot less.

You must ask yourself how facebook plans to get that money back. Definately not through sold units alone.

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Others will come, that's for sure, I'm hoping Valve considers making a consumer version of their goggles.

What pisses me off is the way Oculus used crowdfunding to get on their feet, then selling to one of the meanest companies in the world and basically pissing on the original funders' face.

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I've followed OR with interest for a while (not to the point of preordering however), but my interest has suddenly waned. The howls of anguish on the Reddit thread are really something to behold: innovative young developers discover holy grail of VR; Kickstarter used to raise initial funds and engage with community; honest and useful two way dialog helps drive product development, foster community goodwill and secure additional tens of millions of investment dollars; founders sell out for billions to one of the least trusted and least admired companies on the planet and announce it with a post of breathtaking PR vapidity.

Best case scenario: Facebook takes a hands off approach and the OR team use the secure funding to bring a perfectly realised VR system to market. OR is platform independent and transforms gaming and other VR application, without being branded a Facebook product. Facebook investors are happy because the inevitable decline of their core social media product might be offset by the rise of OR (and other acquisitions).

Worst case scenario: Facebook meddles with future development of OR to release a dumbed down VR system which requires a facebook login to function, serves 3D ads, aggregates and sells user data, further violates user trust and privacy, intrudes on the gaming experience, and sells the whole vision (pun intended) short.

All I know is that my money is staying in my wallet until I see which scenario plays out. What a shame, I was really looking forward to the concept as it was originally sold pre Facebook.

Well, if I recall Mark Zuckeberg said that FB plans a hands off approach until the headset gets developed into a proper piece of gaming hardware and then develop it for other entertainment branches.

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Let's just replace human interaction with VR, that's going to solve all the problems social networking has. That doesn't strike me as the most philosophically sound solution to it, but hey. I guess I'll have to do with three monitors and a TrackIR instead.

Well, this was a fun fad. What's next? Implanted ads?

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I have a concept how they could make this. Basically when you start the thing you are in a room that serves as a hub. From there on you can access games, social media, the web, the obligatory appstore etc. In there could be subtle product placements, advertising posters etc. Of course Facebook will use all the data it can get through this (remember, since it serves as a hub and allows you to use the internet through it they get all the information telling them what you are doing) to create detailed personal profiles it can sell.

Well I imagine nobody is going to use that thing for porn now :p

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Well, this was a fun fad. What's next? Implanted ads?

You'll have a full VR renderings of people's bathrooms in selfies. Kinda like Google Street view.

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Well I imagine nobody is going to use that thing for porn now :p

There are already social media buttons on most porn sites. I doubt that people who share their porn via Facebook abstain from a full 3D BJ from Lexi Belle :P

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It's a shame it never properly got made before being bought up like this.

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