Facebook acquires Oculus VR for $2 billion
Facebook has taken an unexpected step into the realm of virtual reality and has acquired Oculus VR, Inc, makers of the Oculus Rift VR headset, for $2 billion.
Facebook has taken an unexpected step into the realm of virtual reality and has acquired Oculus VR, Inc, makers of the Oculus Rift VR headset, for $2 billion. The sale will include $400M in cash, $1.6 billion in Facebook stock, and an additional $300M for incentives.
"Immersive gaming will be the first, and Oculus already has big plans here that won't be changing and we hope to accelerate," said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in an announcement post. "The Rift is highly anticipated by the gaming community, and there's a lot of interest from developers in building for this platform. We're going to focus on helping Oculus build out their product and develop partnerships to support more games. Oculus will continue operating independently within Facebook to achieve this."
Facebook will seek to use Oculus' technology into new realms of communications, media and entertainment, education, and other areas, in addition to gaming.
"After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences," Zuckerberg added. "Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home."
"We are excited to work with Mark and the Facebook team to deliver the very best virtual reality platform in the world," said Oculus VR co-founder and CEO Brendan Iribe. "We believe virtual reality will be heavily defined by social experiences that connect people in magical, new ways. It is a transformative and disruptive technology, that enables the world to experience the impossible, and it's only just the beginning."
Oculus Rift has been in the works for several years, with Oculus releasing the latest devkit prototype last week. The company had recently announced that it was running short on components for the devkits.
The deal is expected to close in Q2 2014, with Oculus maintaining its offices in Irvine, CA.
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Shacknews
replyOzzie Mejia posted a new article, Facebook acquires Oculus VR for $2 billion.
Facebook has taken an unexpected step into the realm of virtual reality and has acquired Oculus VR, Inc, makers of the Oculus Rift VR headset, for $2 billion.-
Holieeee shit. These guys were defintely ahead of their time. When it started, I never imagined the Rift leading the way for VR. I thought it was going to be a sort of niche device, used even less than stuff like Eyefinity.
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This sums up the news perfectly...
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Great. Farmville VR.
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Neither Facebook nor Oculus has anything to do with farmville. That is made by Zynga.
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john fucking carmack works for facebook now.
what has this world come to
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Same here.
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me also - then i threw up a little
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From selling id, to selling your ID to advertisers.
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selling id?
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er yeah bethesda. I totally forgot because id hasn't mattered in years.
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They didn't matter long before bethesda.
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I really don't know how to feel about this :(
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I canceled my DK2 pre-order actually
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I think I will hold onto mine but canceling is now a thought....
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You get news that the project now has a much better chance to succeed so you decide to jump ship? Not a business person are you?
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That's stupid.
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I was hoping for this, I really want all of my body metrics recorded and sold to advertisers so they can learn how to create a more extreme Mountain Dew.
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Zuckerberg's post at least states that gaming will be the initial focus.
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lol initial
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IMHO this increases the chance of Valve actually planning to make something. Their story has been "we don't want to compete with OR, we want to share research" but if Oculus gets derailed in any way by this acquisition and presumably the Sony set will only work with Sony hardware, I could imagine Valve stepping up with hardware given how much they have bought into VR.
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Facebook is all about games, https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2013/12/09/facebook-games-of-the-year-2013/
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Ads?
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vads?
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are you daggah renamed?
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This is how you monetize teens in a safe and legal way!
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No, let's be real here. Oculus is not a platform, it's a monitor and input device. Software is designed to allow a user's monitor to display the scene the developer wants. The developer has to account for the user's hardware, but that's it. Developer's aren't using dev kits to code for the Oculus, they are using it to ensure the code for their software works as they expect with it.
You won't get ad's in your games, you won't get ad's in anything not designed specifically by Facebook or by a developer that adds ads. Facebook will certainly design experiences for their userbase, and they will most likely add ads into those experiences, however they will not be in control of the device anymore so than that. Everyone jumping up and down is just overreacting. I'm not a Facebook user, nor do I care to be, but I do know they aren't going to be able to mess with your normal usage. Worse case though is profiles requiring always online connections, like Razor, and we all know they aren't hurting too much for doing so. -
This is the ONLY way the rift will be a consumer device for gamers. It went from 1% chance of success to 99% chance of success.
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And Sony Vr is in the lead!
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The rift is now firmly the most promising product. They were already slightly better than Sony's offering and now they can put their "dream" hardware to market as they stated after the news.
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A whole four hundred bucks in cash? And three hundred bucks in incentives (plane tickets back home?) :D
Unexpected. But grats to the Oculus team I guess.-
We can't edit comments, why can you edit news posts? :(
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Because I have the POWER!
http://i.imgur.com/FDPfDch.gif
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thanks for the refreshing level headedness. Rift already has a proven market, so that won't go away. FB intends to make more money, Rift intends to develop their product more quickly. That is literally the extent of it. And it's not like rift has a patent on VR, so even if it does have pop up ads and constantly requests that you share your progress on your wall, there will quickly be competitors who won't require that.
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Facebook is decreasing in popularity among certain demographics, so their success isn't guaranteed forever. This at least gives them something physical to sell, and it's something that will definitely be huge in the future. Even if it's only used for porn.
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Plus 1
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silicon valley can you die already? plz? pretty plz?
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Achievement Unlocked: Overreaction of the Day
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also weren't they Kickstarted? Sorry people who paid 2.5 million for them to just flip the company. You don't get a penny of that. :)
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No, there was no promise but it shows what happens without one. People really shouldn't invest for nothing it's pretty ridiculous.
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They didn't invest. If they had invested in Oculus they would have made money today but instead they gave oculus money under the assumption they would get a devkit one and help fund the company so they could make a consumer version some day. I would say the kickstarter was wildly successful for Oculus and people who gave them money during the kickstarter.
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Kickstarting is not investing.
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Can somone give me the ability to lol this like 10 times?
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WTF! Oculus needed cash to make a competitive consumer product. now they have the money to do the better and cheaper version of the hardware that they could not have done without this cash. Why complain? Facebook just did a great service to gamers everywhere.
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They are expanding their facial recognition tech into recognizing the whole scalp.
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Son of a fucking god damned bitch
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Although I'm not sure it's necessary. MinecRIFT worked very well and was super impressive.
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Why does anyone care about what this guy thinks?
The fact that he made such a definitive statement so soon after the news shows you that he is totally unprofessional.
And the chatty is just blowing my mind right now with all the overblown negativity. Occulus just went from a company with a a couple hundred million dollars to one with near unlimited funds. This probably means we're going to get a consumer model sooner, and it's going to have better technology because they don't even have to make a profit on it right away.-
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sure, but Occulus' success does not hinge on Minecraft at all. Yeah, it would be nice Occulus to have, but fuck, Notch's tweet just sounds like the reaction of a 14 year old NeoGAF poster.
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Oh... yeah. I think I may be overreacting to the overreacting.
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But I am shareholder of facebook and if Oculus doesn't do well I want them to shut it down. I am really a share holder of facebook and I want it to make me money.
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I think Sony's taking a small loss on every PS4, and you don't see their investors jumping ship at the moment.
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The playstation devision as a whole isn't losing money though.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/PlayStation-Division-Will-Be-Profitable-for-Sony-Despite-Project-Morpheus-Analyst-Predicts-433984.shtml?utm_source=ForumSoftpedia&utm_medium=ForumSoftpedia&utm_campaign=ForumSoftpedia-
Because they sacrificed profits on the hardware to gain marketshare. And they will be able be in the black on the console itself before long.
Given that Zuckerberg is clearly think in the long term with Occulus, I don't think we have anything to worry about. Especially not in the next few years. Keep in mind that facebook was ad-free in the early days.-
I dunno. If three years from now facebook is losing a lot of value and their share price is crashing and they are in panic mode who knows what changes they might make.
I do think oculus rift will get 3-5 years of doing their own thing before facebook might step in and influence them.
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Now Oculus has a sizeable chunk of shares in facebook as well. Oculus now owns like 8% of Facebook. Now Oculus is in a good position for sure. They almost had a consumer version ready and now they will have the money and clout to do a better and cheaper consumer version while developers can feel more secure that they are not investing in a technology that will go nowhere.
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Maybe. No one knows what the future holds. We just know oculus rift and VRs future is now tied to the publicly traded social network company facebook.
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Well we know that both facebook and the oculus guys have said that oculus will remain its own independent company. We know that The main two guys at oculus have stated that now they can do the "dream" version of their roadmap which will mean a better and cheaper consumer version of the hardware.
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Notch makes lots of ridiculous statements. He mad a cool game and all but he's not really a font of wisdom.
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Despite being a cynical bastard in general, this was my first thought as well. Facebook is definitely kind of gross, but Zuckerberg seems smarter than to try to fuck with OR for a while.
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kind of a weird thing to say
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Spoken like a true autistic sperg lord developer.
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lol wtf do you guys all play now, Farmville? Hilarious.
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Heh.
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More Notch:
http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-change-the-world/
"Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts. Facebook is not a game tech company. Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers, and nothing but building user numbers"
[...]
I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook. Their motives are too unclear and shifting, and they haven’t historically been a stable platform. There’s nothing about their history that makes me trust them, and that makes them seem creepy to me.
And I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition."
He has a good point with that last part. I would be pissed as well. -
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I'm pretty sure he'll keep working on VR in general, what with Sony's recent announcement, so Oculus support for Minecraft will be there.
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Lololololol
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Neither facebook nor oculus has anything to do with those games.
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I guess john carmack got his armadillo money back.
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Yeah he said in fairness that id's problem was their pace or rather their "it's finished when it's finished" approach.
I'd also argue that the tech lead design that worked for them so well in the first half of the companies life time was kind of their undoing in the second half.
The doom 3 engine really limited what kind of game they could produce, and with Rage they were still leading with tech in an age where they're competitors were just as impressive if not more.
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I am sure now that oculus has more money for development he would love to keep working on that VR headset.
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It means they can pay off their VC investors and have several hundred million for conducting research and publishing games. Also Facebook has no current way to monetize this nor will they in the next several years. I don't see how this could be at all similar to various apps getting bought by facebook.
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^^^^^^
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OR would've won before. Gamers, the people who matter, who will spend $350 a pop on these things, were already in the OR camp. Now that they're part of FB the brand is tainted.
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Games have. And thats who would buy the thing. Thats my point. The people who play free to play mobile games or browser games will NOT and will never buy the OR.
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No, I just deal with non-tech people all day every day.
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Time to break out my old dusty VRML books.
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Hahaha
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iawtp!
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The brand is tainted for the next week or two when everyone cares about this, and then only a small minority of people will care outside of people really invested in the internet.
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I pretty regularly see people recoil when something is associated with facebook. There are a lot of people who just don't care either way, sure, but I think overlap of people who will buy the rift and those who dont mind facebook is pretty small.
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Not trying to be a dick, btw, but I think the people like us here in the Shack sometimes overestimate how much most people care about stuff like this. If anything, OR is going to have a much more massive advertising presence and more development support behind it than it would have had had it stayed independent. We'll definitely get a (technically) better end product at this point, the question that remains is if it will be a gaming product or something else entirely. I hope it is still the former, not the latter :-/
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My best guess is that it will be both. I never saw OR's real potential as some game accessory, like some dumb specialised razer keyboard.
This thing could, and should be like the television, or the radio. Something pretty massive with all kinds of applications, and just because it has that wide spectrum of applications doesn't mean its turning it's back on gaming.
As far as my limited understanding goes, the technical specifications required for gaming would be similar to any VR activity, low latency, hi-res, lack of blur, etc.
Y'know the only thing i'm really disappointed about is I feel we've kind of had the rug pulled from under us. I was expecting a good couple of years having the OR as this dorky geek thing, that would eventually break in to the mainstream. Instead this thing will be all over the news like google glass.-
I honestly hadn't even considered the app aspect; that is honestly going to be what sells it to a mass market. Put it out for $200 and let people play their games, watch their movies, chat with friends, preview their hotel, etc., and it will be huge.
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I've always felt that the most amazing applications with the 'Rift would be in non-gaming applications. Being able to watch a movie in a virtual theater would just blow my goddamned mind.
Instead of being in a home theater, you'd be in a theater. Godzilla wouldn't appear as a a large object on a television but at the commanding scale equivalent to a movie theater.
I could watch Brazil all day, every day... like that.
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so you like it less because its gonna be mainstream earlier. lol.
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That's not what I said at all.
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I don't like it any less, in fact i think it was pretty clear from my whole post that i think this is good news.
All I was suggesting was that the whole process of following the rift, their general openness has been a fun ride. I had a sense that experience was going to continue for couple of years, but (i'm assuming) this means it's going to explode much quicker than any of us anticipated. That doesn't mean it will change how i feel about the end results at all.
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Regardless, we get the first consumer release rolling out exactly as planned but with more money behind it - Luckey et al arent going anywhere until at least that is done (and Im sure given the jump from xxxm valuation to 2b in 6 months there are contractual obligations for longer than usual). If there is any cause for concern is for the second/third generation, which is so far off right now its ridiculous given the product category is utterly unproven and all the competitors aren't in yet.
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Ya, and just those people probably wont be enough to make it profitable.
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Welp, there goes that. Goodbye Palmer Luckey, hello Mark Zuckerberg.
I would not be surprised at all if they run this shit into the ground and it's dead and buried within a couple years. I hope Palmer enjoys his moneyhats because his VR dream could turn into a nightmare real fast.
I cannot think of a worse company to sell to. EA, Activision, Microsoft, fucking Kim Jong-un would all be better alternatives to Facebook.-
Okay I'm just going to leave for the record that this was an overreaction and I'm now taking a guardedly optimistic "wait and see" approach.
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WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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yeah, it's just your average day 1 nerdrage though, give it a few weeks and the cheeto dust will have settled and all fedoras will have been swept up by shack maintenance
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Lol @ Cheeto dust
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You people overreacting are nuts. Let's look at the reality of the situation: Facebook just spent $2 Billion. Two billion dollars, to buy a company. Facebook wants to get a return on that and they're going to do everything they can to get a return on that. That means companies will be courted, development deals will be made, product placement in media, incentives to game developers, etc etc. They want this thing to succeed. They believe it will. They believe in that so much they spent TWO BILLION dollars to get a foot in that door. Could they close it to outside developers? Sure, they could. Do they think that would make them more money? I don't know. I don't see how it would, but it's a possibility I guess.
Facebook is planning for long term use, beyond Facebook itself, which is really smart. Otherwise they could end up another MySpace, or ICQ, or Winamp, which wouldn't be very smart. Occulus now has virtually unlimited funds, so the product itself should be released even faster, with presumably even better technology behind it. Baring an prohibition for 3rd part developers, I don't see how this could be a bad thing.
ColoradoCNC made a great point above about this being typical Internet dork overreaction and he's right. Hell, look at Notch. He's "cancelled" the Occulus Minecraft because he doesn't like Facebook. But clearly he doesn't have much of a business sense, not only because this is about the best corporate buyout that could have been hoped for, but because he also thinks that his $10k Kickstarter preorder was anything more than a donation and down payment on a test kit.
I don't see how anyone could think this is bad for the Rift or for gaming in general. Yeah, not having Facebook's deep products would mean we get a better product, for cheaper, quicker. Somehow.-
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I think it's admiral that he cancelled it despite making good business sense to continue to build. It shows he's got ideals that go beyond just trying to make as much money as possible. If more people behaved like Notch did, the world would be a better place.
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Notch just pulled an Alan Moore (see: cutting material in-development / done due to a disliking of a new business relationship).
I mean that in a derogatory sense, by the way. When Alan Moore ripped out previously announced material from the Absolute edition of 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier,' it did more harm to his reputation with his fanbase than any collateral damage to DC (who had just bought Wildstorm). If you ask any comic shop owner, the fans who were clamoring to own the latest entry in the long-running 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' series and just shelled out a rather large sum for the Absolute edition were gutted when announced material was nowhere to be found.
Thus, the Absolute edition is usually available for a significant discount second-hand and everyone I know who owns it laments about the gutted material. That move tainted my opinion of Moore - he willingly threw his readers into the fray in order to attempt to harm DC's sales of his work. From seeing a few of the videos of people playing Minecraft on the Occulus Rift, I was excited to do so myself and what better version of Minecraft could there be than an official one?
Thankfully the community'll probably pipe-in and make a decent Occulus Rift edition of Minecraft and Notch can keep his 'morals' (all while porting Minecraft to every device known to man) and I can still enjoy Minecraft in glorious three-dee.
TL:DR - Notch is Alan Moore, with less facial hair.-
I don't really know the details between Alan Moore and DC and why he wold do something like that. If DC were a company known for shady deals with the NSA then I wouldn't blame him.
It sucks for the fans, I don't disagree with that, but putting your principles ahead of making money should be commended. Those principles might not always be sound but in this case they are.
Notch or Alan Moore don't owe you anything.-
When you come out and claim "I've got material that I'm making available to you when this hits the shelves" and then pull it out, unannounced... yeah, that's a dick move.
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If he made it publicly known that the material was going to be removed - fine. But to rip it out under the radar?
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I agree with this; this is a strategic move for Facebook, and they really do not want to misstep. They have to seriously contend with changing patterns of social communication, and possibly fall to a disruptive competitor. This acquisition has the possibility of ensuring a "life after Facebook" for Facebook.
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Or they could have just found a way to produce something of value at some point in time, instead of looking for the next way to put ads somewhere.
Eventually with that game you run out of places to play it, because the hype is expired.
Now if they actually treat the Rift right as a product to be admired and respected, then they could have something to sell long term.
But their old habits suggest they're going to see it differently, muck it up, and look for the next target.-
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like RevRaven says, they are venturing into it looking to make their investment back. Facebook's way of making money from things has been a bit odious
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Maybe VR is the tech that could make something like second life mainstream, which is kinda of a social media experience. I don't think it far fetched to imagine VR augmenting their current business.
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Banner ads.
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Why? Because some people don't like Facebook?
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I just read this, WTF.....? You guys that have one(and backed) I hope things pan out in a positive way, I am out, the motion sickness thing regardless of this announcement did not really make it an option for me.
At this point my bet is on Sony and Valve in VR, personally I rather have more screen arrays like my multi screen setup, I am not into the VR thing, maybe I am just old school.
If you had to choose VR or a Holodeck I pick the Holodeck no question.
Huh crazy news, did not see that one coming that is for sure.-
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For sure -> "low res and higher latency" but I also have a issue with FPS on only one screen and especially one screen. If Id id not have my three screen setup and big screens I probably could not play FPS :( I admit I want to try a new one with all that stuff fixed but I am pretty sure it will jack me up sadly.
And the motion sickness btw is hard core like I go into fetus position on the floor and feel obber sick and dizzy it is real bad last for like 6 hours ish.
Another thing that worries me I don't think long term use of any VR device is good for your eyes. You will probably go blind real fast it can't be good for you I wonder if anyone has looked into that and gotten data and results. Heck on the PC and console has anyone read the 3D Stereo warnings it is pretty brutal what the side effects and warnings are. Staring into two screens very close to your eyes for hours can not be good for them, can it?
Well I am sure down the road I will try the mega version but truthfully it is not on my radar what so ever I want new TV tech and want to be playing video games for a very long time, I need good vision(call me paranoid).-
damn man that sounds pretty brutal. If it had that bad of an effect on me I would be the same. I did try the original dev kit, and it did make me nauseous after a few minutes, and it lasted about 20, but it was no where near as bad as you describe. I'm hoping the newer version will be okay with me. We'll see...
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Why do you have an issue with FPS on one screen? Also the rifts FOV and proximity to your face means it would be superior to a 3 screen setup, minus the actual resolution. Also FPS is such a small subset of what the Rift will be good for, its not even the most interesting genre for VR.
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hahaha
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hahaha
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Fuckin' lol
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While I find this very worrying news about my most anticipated gaming device. I think its best to hold judgment. Facebook is a huge company with deep pockets and pull in the electronics world. That could help push this thing into mass sooner.
Now if Carmack jumps ship then its time to get worried but Im sure he is still there going about his daily work making more awesome. -
I don't think I see Carmack staying on board if Facebook starts meddling too much (unless he's legally obligated for some reason I guess), he seems like the type of person that tackles projects for the sake of the vision of the project and nothing else. As such, his continued involvement is a good barometer of whether or not this means anything. As long as he's still on board, I think that's a good indication that they're still doing interesting and cool shit.
As of now he's still on board, so no worries.-
He apparently has more freedom there under Facebook's ownership than he would at Id under Zenimax's ownership.
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yah I'd rather have Facebook over MS or Google honestly... MS would make it exclusive to the Xbox One. I'm not really sure what Google's angle would be with the Rift... but for some reason I bet they'd fuck it up worse than Facebook.
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This is the icing on an already crappy day :(
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its close association with facebook probably
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BREAKING: Yahoo buys ViewMaster
https://twitter.com/evankirstel/status/448595817931493377-
Is that that program that keeps somehow installing itself when I used to have AOL Instant Messenger? Fuck that program!
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"Imagine enjoying a court-side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world, consulting a doctor face-to-face, or even shopping in a virtual store where you can explore the products you're interested in... just by putting on goggles in your own home." - Mark
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl3euCXhpaQ
Is exactly my reaction.
It was promising tech, now it's going to be managed out of existence.
If I were a Kickstarter backer, I'd be pissed that I basically funded Facebook's R&D.
