Facebook to Buy Oculus... Is this real?

Post by **ften** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:49 pm

http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/25/facebo ... and-stock/
http://kotaku.com/facebook-buys-oculus- ... 1551487939

It's really close to April 1st.

Post by **zella** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:53 pm

Unfortunately it seems to be, WSJ have also reported it, I mean unless they are reporting on a joke story, which has happened in the past.

This looks to be a terrible day.

http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-201 ... 12577.html

Post by **zella** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:55 pm

I'm sorry, but Palmer, you sold out. I know this is going to massive step for Oculus, and of course it is not guaranteed to be in the wrong direction. But I think we can all agree facebook do not have the best interests of hardcore gamers in mind.
Anyone but fb; sony, ms. Why facebook?

Post by **GeraldT** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:07 pm

It is - this news really made my day. All the "Facebook is evil" crap aside, this means the technology will go mainstream much faster than we all expected. It means they have the resources to build up that market on a whole different scale.
I am very happy for Palmer and the guys at Oculus - and actually for those that invested early (their investment clearly paid off ^^). And I am very happy for me - when I quit my job a little over a year ago to work on VR games I was not sure what to expect, now I feel like I am at a huge advantage having build up experience and being already deep into development on a VR title.

This is great news and I can't wait to hear what is coming next

Post by **yann** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:15 pm

Never mind hardcore gamers; users are not even customers to them. It doesn't completely rule out me getting a device, like the Sony brand does (four years and counting, they didn't quite get the April fool's day part), but I'm not as hopeful one will ever be available, let alone soon.

Post by **zella** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:20 pm

@Gerald, no doubt, i mean oculus is going from fringe game media to front page of the real news faster than u can say mark zuckerberg. But that's a sliver lining to a story that has removed much of my excitement, and riddled me with skepticism. DK1 owner speaking

Post by **Hannibalj2** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:20 pm

GeraldT wrote:It is - this news really made my day. All the "Facebook is evil" crap aside, this means the technology will go mainstream much faster than we all expected. It means they have the resources to build up that market on a whole different scale.
I am very happy for Palmer and the guys at Oculus - and actually for those that invested early (their investment clearly paid off ^^). And I am very happy for me - when I quit my job a little over a year ago to work on VR games I was not sure what to expect, now I feel like I am at a huge advantage having build up experience and being already deep into development on a VR title.

This is great news and I can't wait to hear what is coming next

I wish i could feel the same. Facebook interest on the technology is rather weird and questionable (for me at least). I believed that Oculus had a legitimate chance to make an impact without the need of a Mega Corporation.

Post by **zella** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:21 pm

^ yup

Post by **ften** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:25 pm

My First reaction was definitely "Nooooo!!!", but Facebook is mainstream and with their money and influence they could make VR, specifically the Rift mainstream. 2 billion dollars buys you a lot of R&D and access to cutting edge technology.
Congratulations Palmer and the Oculus team, now where is my DK2, lol.

Post by **squibbfire** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:27 pm

well I just burned my homemade chex mix and pooped my pants

Post by **yann** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:32 pm

ften wrote:2 billion dollars buys you a lot of R&D and access to cutting edge technology.

But Oculus VR is that cutting edge R&D. The only thing I see this bringing to the table is an explanation for the insistence of avoiding the Immersive Technology Alliance. It feels more like why we can't buy Sun computers today than any sort of opportunity.

Post by **Mystify** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:49 pm

This may be a huge boost for VR, but I am deeply worried that it will take it in a direction that will make it not worth having.

Post by **Drewbdoo** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:50 pm

I don't know how I feel about this yet. Mostly bad. And getting worse - Notch just said he was planning a Minecraft deal but pulled out because of this news:

https://twitter.com/notch/status/448586381565390848

Post by **ften** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:04 pm

Drewbdoo wrote:I don't know how I feel about this yet. Mostly bad. And getting worse - Notch just said he was planning a Minecraft deal but pulled out because of this news:

https://twitter.com/notch/status/448586381565390848

Notch has been talking about planning a Minecraft version for the Oculus for 2ish years now..., so long live Minecrift.

I really don't think Facebook is buying Oculus to run Oculus, I'd imagine they are buying Oculus to make money when no one is using Facebook in a few years.

Post by **blazespinnaker** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:13 pm

I'll willing to bet $500 this goes nowhere fast, and is only mildly good for VR. Just because FB has blessed it is, doesn't mean anything. Google acquired and did this sort of thing, and that stuff just went into the dust bin.

Zuck is just trying to spend his over valued stock.

Hopefully Virtuix will get a bounce from this. Starting to worry about them.

I really don't think Facebook is buying Oculus to run Oculus, I'd imagine they are buying Oculus to make money when no one is using Facebook in a few years.

Yep. Unfortunately, this marriage just will not work.

Post by **Hannibalj2** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:31 pm

Well, I'm sure the real corporate benefit will not be disclosed to the public for sure. Anything written on the matter will not be the whole picture.

Post by **blazespinnaker** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:37 pm

Hannibalj2 wrote:Well, I'm sure the real corporate benefit will not be disclosed to the public for sure. Anything written on the matter will not be the whole picture.

You can pretty much say that about anything that isn't first hand.

THough it's interesting that Marc Andreesen is on the board of directors and he recently invested 75M. Marc has a habit of getting involved in these type of situations.

Post by **android78** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:56 pm

It's hard to know what this will mean. They have said the oculus will continue to operate independently so it may just mean that there is a bigger budget to go into R&D and the profits will go back to the Zuck (and other FB investors). It could be a problem if there is a lot of pressure from above to release a product before it's truly ready since oculus have been pretty insistent that they will only release something when it's a fantastic experience, but there will be a lot of expectation to deliver given the amount of money they were acquired for.

Post by **blazespinnaker** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:58 pm

What I particularly love is the outrage of the fanboys. A certain southpark cartoon comes to mind:

Post by **Omarzuqo** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:24 pm

Post by **blazespinnaker** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:28 pm

I'm sure palmer is pretty upset about all this, as well:

Post by **Omarzuqo** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:33 pm

blazespinnaker wrote:I'm sure palmer is pretty upset about all this, as well:

This one is better:

Post by **Hannibalj2** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:38 pm

I would not think Palmer been upset. Anyway let's see how everything pans out

Post by **Alejux** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:47 pm

yann wrote:
ften wrote:2 billion dollars buys you a lot of R&D and access to cutting edge technology.
But Oculus VR is that cutting edge R&D. The only thing I see this bringing to the table is an explanation for the insistence of avoiding the Immersive Technology Alliance. It feels more like why we can't buy Sun computers today than any sort of opportunity.

Sorry, but Oculus VR, with less than 50 engineers, doesn't begin to compute as a major R&D force, even if it does have some great minds in it's roster. With the support from a major company like FB, we can start seeing a lot more research being done in areas that Oculus is probably not even thinking about now, since they have all their focus now is in releasing CV1. Things like eye tracking, hand tracking, face tracking, haptics, binaural audio, stand/walking devices, 3D wide-fov live video streaming/broadcasting, etc...

Hell, I wasn't even confident they would have resources to produce a decent input device for CV1. Now I'm way more confident they'll have one.

Post by **Falan** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:55 pm

The mock outrage is amusing but I feel sorry for poor Cybereality getting buried under all the 'Oh noes faceaids!!?!' posts lol

Post by **OzOnE2k10** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:01 pm

Not sure what to think about all of this atm.

I just saw this news on a Facebook group, and I honestly thought it was an April Fool's joke.

I'd hoped that the Oculus guys were the type of people not to sell-out to a large Corporation like this, especially this early in the life of Oculus.

I guess (as others have said) that it might be a good thing in that it will push Oculus VR to the forefront and hopefully give Sony and Apple a run for their money.

Am I right in saying that Palmer specifically said in the past that he didn't want to sell to a large company for the foreseeable future?

On the other hand, I can't say that I would turn down an offer of $2 Billion. lol

These guys will in theory now be set for life, and it all started on forums like this and with DIY headsets.
Maybe Facebook should invest in a Duct Tape company too? It has a lot to answer for.

I'm off to have a rant about this via Facebook, just to add to the irony.

btw, does this news affect anyone's decision on buying a DK2?

OzOnE.
P.S. Still hoping this is a joke tbh.

Post by **Mystify** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:02 pm

I am more worried than outrage. Facebook doesn't exactly have a great track record, either for ethicalness, consumer fairness, openess, or really anything that is going to make VR good. oh, sure, they might be able to make it popular, but that is an entirely different thing.

Post by **realyst2k** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:04 pm

I'm not cancelling my DK2. If one looks past the emotional gut punch of additional Facebook intrusion, there are advantages to this decision. I'm not ready to cry doom yet. Neither Carmack nor Palmer are dumb people.

Post by **OzOnE2k10** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:32 pm

True.

I guess it's just that many people are far more wary of these purchases, especially after Google's efforts in completely screwing up YouTube.
But, YouTube has survived the storm for the most part (so far), and I'm sure Google's giant money pot will keep YouTube alive for many years to come.

(That is unless Google's whole intention is drive YouTube into the ground so it can promote it's own G+ products of course.)

I don't doubt the intelligence of the Oculus guys either, so let's hope they've signed all the right contracts to allow them to have a say on what happens with Oculus products no matter what else happens.

Yes - Carmack, Palmer, and the rest of the guys are some of the most intelligent and creative minds around atm, but I wonder how much input they really had into the Facebook acquisition?

As long as Oculus sticks to it's core beliefs and won't relinquish every last bit of control to Facebook, it could be a very good deal for everyone.

The biggest shock to me is that this happened so early on - you'd think that potential investors would at least wait until the consumer version was released, and was selling a few tens of thousands of units?

I still wish Oculus all the best for the future, and I'll be keeping a very close eye (or both eyes) on their latest products.

I'm tempted to invest in a DK2 in the coming months, so this news hasn't put me off too much.

Maybe true high-res low-latency portable VR / AR and social networking really is getting closer than we thought?...

OzOnE

Post by **Hooves** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:51 pm

Quick summary from Zuckerberg's statements:
"their efforts with Oculus will continue to focus on gaming initially"
"after gaming [...] they’re going to expand into a variety of other arenas"
"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"

I fear that that first comment is just a token "buy off" to all those that thought Oculus was going to be for games. It looks like rather quickly they will depart from this venture. Pretty sure even in Palmers post about the deal that games were the future. These two may want to have a meeting to get their stories straight.

"This is a special moment for the gaming industry — Oculus’ somewhat unpredictable future just became crystal clear: virtual reality is coming, and it’s going to change the way we play games forever. " Palmer Luckey

at the end of the day Porn made VHS. Maybe facebook makes VR.

Post by **mindless** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:53 pm

John carmack = Facebook employee

That's just so wrong it hurts.

Post by **3trip** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:00 pm

This could give occulus the money for custom ordered high DPI OLED panels...

...or it could be the equivalent of EA scoping up Origin or westwood studios.

Post by **hughJ** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 9:02 pm

I can accept the fact that Facebook can somehow, someway represent a positive impact on Oculus or VR in general, but I am still a bit annoyed by the fact that this news came out so soon after the dk2's went on sale. That strikes me as likely intentional and a tad bit dishonest. If they were looking at a potential acquisition, then they could very easily have promoted the dk2 at GDC as they did, but delay the pre-orders of it for a couple weeks until this news dropped. I'd also be curious to know how this impacts the longer term relationship with folks like Valve, as I have a hard time seeing Valve freely handing over research to Facebook as they may have done in the past with Oculus. Hopefully Oculus anticipated the backlash from the development community, it's one thing to create a hurricane of fan rage on reddit, it's another to have people actually cancel projects. Guess we'll have to wait and see what the trusted, straight-shooter types (Newell, Carmack, Abrash, etc) have to say about this and how it can be seen as a net positive from either a hardware engineering or software development standpoint.

Post by **Okta** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 9:12 pm

Comments on Oculus VR.

"Lower than the snakes belly!!" non fanboi.

"So low I need to stand in a hole to pee on them!!" kickstarter backers.

Lets see what the future holds. If I am at any point forced to sign in to friendface to use main content of the Rift or see friendface involved in any other way than a disgusting logo on the box I will be pissed.

Oh and yes, Carmack a facebook employee.... One of the greatest software minds bowing and scraping to a glorified web page site host.... this makes the baby Jesus cry.

Post by **GeraldT** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:07 pm

Okta there are even nicer ones on Reddit - these two I got after Palmer gave a post of mine visibility by agreeing with it (that son of a ...

)

"screw off you greedy cunt, your half assed games are of zero interest to me"

"your kiss-ass attempt to ingratiate your shitty games with the facebook people is pathetic and you deserve your eventual suicide from being unable to deal with the catastrophic failure of your business."

that post is my new negative record on Reddit

(

hughJ wrote:... but I am still a bit annoyed by the fact that this news came out so soon after the dk2's went on sale. That strikes me as likely intentional and a tad bit dishonest.

I see it just the other way around - if they had first announced the Facebook thing, then there likely would have been tons of devs suddenly in line because they want one. I am very happy that they gave the enthusiast crowd a fair chance to get in before the less enthusiastic devs decided to join.

"Some of the big reasons why I've blown off Oculus was market penetration - a company their size just wasn't going to cut it. It needed to generate a whole lot of awareness, etc. Then Sony and MS both announced their VR efforts were coming, and I raised an eyebrow - that changed things. Now, with $2 Billion to play with, Oculus suddenly became a viable thing. I'll be ordering a DevKit the next chance I get "

this is what a friend of mine, also game dev, just wrote to me on Facebook and he is not the first to do so today. I am happy that I have mine ordered and won't have to wait very long. The next days a ton of smaller and bigger game companies will lineup to get their hands on development kits I guess. We might even see a rise for the price of the DK1 even after the DK2 is being delivered just because suddenly they will all want to start to make VR games and be among the first in that market.

Post by **blazespinnaker** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:08 pm

Notch:

http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-realit ... the-world/

And I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition.

No, sorry Notch, that's exactly what you did.

Post by **blazespinnaker** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:11 pm

Lol, Gerald, shill for OVR much?

Let's all be open and honest here. Brendan found a sucker and he played him for 1.6 in FB stock + 400M in cash.

The only role FB (yes, this is no longer Oculus folks ... it's FACEBOOK ... lol) has in all this now is to push the console wars to go VR big time. Which isn't a terrible thing, but that's all they're good for now.

Post by **hughJ** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:28 pm

blazespinnaker wrote:Lol, Gerald, shill for OVR much?

Eh - there's likely to be a pretty broad range of opinions on the developers' side about this acquisition, and Notch is in an extremely unique position to make choices on the whim of his personal feelings rather than the simple ability to turn a profit (where as most developers conceivably have to make business-oriented decisions based on their bottom line.) In that sense it's reasonable that Facebook could be seen as a positive thing as Gerald suggested.

Post by **GeraldT** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:38 pm

if developers see a market a financially viable, then this is a good thing for everyone. because VR is much more fun if we have VR games that go along with it!

this deal means that we will soon see a lot of announcements. for example

petermolydeux @PeterMolydeux
"We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Curiosity to Oculus. I just agreed to that deal. Facebook excites me."

And a lot of other devs will react the same. We all profit from this and instead of having a handful of cool full game experiences we are now likely to have dozens.
On top of it the Rift will likely be much cheaper since they can use the money to push the device to market. I really don't get the negativity. But everyone is just Facebook, evil, the world will come to an end - nobody is actually reasoning WHY.

Post by **blazespinnaker** » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:43 pm

Notch is astute. I've written apps for Facebook. They were great money makers ... (I was making like 5K plus per day) until FB changed the rules, and suddenly they weren't.

This is the story of FB time and time and time and time and time again.

Anyone who tries to build a business plan / invest on the basis of this acquisition is INSANE.

Notch:

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.

The only upside I see to all this is that it brings attention to VR. Which, yes, is definitely a plus for all of us who care about VR and want to see it advance.