I am curious whether they'll just keep it as 'Oculus Rift' because of the mindshare that's already there, or whether they'll want to rename it to bring it under the Facebook banner.
I'm guessing the Simple name of it won't change, but the fully qualified name will contain Facebook in some way. Gotta get SOMETHING out of that $2 billion purchase.
I am curious whether they'll just keep it as 'Oculus Rift' because of the mindshare that's already there, or whether they'll want to rename it to bring it under the Facebook banner.
Redesign the casing so it looks like you've got an open book right up against your face.
Go for the visual pun rather than changing the name.
I am curious whether they'll just keep it as 'Oculus Rift' because of the mindshare that's already there, or whether they'll want to rename it to bring it under the Facebook banner.
Redesign the casing so it looks like you've got an open book right up against your face.
Go for the visual pun rather than changing the name.
Sorry, in what way does Facebook mine user data? The only data they have is what is submitted by users themselves. Aggregating data that users submit themselves is not data mining, it's marketing analysis and every company in the world does it with every bit of information you give them.
I really think you're blaming the wrong people here. Facebook can and certainly should be held accountable for who has access to the data they gather, but providing it to advertisers so that they can make money as a business doesn't seem so wrong, in and of itself.
Aggregation of data was also one of the core elements of the SCOTUS ruling in Jones, forcing GPS tracking to require a warrant. The data as a whole corpus is greater than the sum of its parts.
Of course, if you belive that gathering data for the purposes of targeting advertisements is inherently a bad thing, then we have reached an impasse on that, and will have to agree to disagree
The problem is that the data isn't just being gathered for marketing purposes. It's getting bundled and sold on the market, and the buyers aren't just advertisers.
Obviously we'll see in the long term if this works out, but I suspect the OR guys have firmly lost the core/enthusiast audience here or driven them to Sony/Microsofts offerings (or whoever else is working on this).
They haven't. The internet is just full of people who want to post a lot about it.
I mean seriously, people are saying "oh yeah, Sony/Microsoft is a trustworthy company". Seriously?
In the context of being serious about game development? Definitely.
Obviously we'll see in the long term if this works out, but I suspect the OR guys have firmly lost the core/enthusiast audience here or driven them to Sony/Microsofts offerings (or whoever else is working on this).
They haven't. The internet is just full of people who want to post a lot about it.
I mean seriously, people are saying "oh yeah, Sony/Microsoft is a trustworthy company". Seriously?
In the context of being serious about game development? Definitely.
But the Rift people were never in the business of making games, and neither is Facebook. They're making a piece of hardware that others develop games to utilize
Obviously we'll see in the long term if this works out, but I suspect the OR guys have firmly lost the core/enthusiast audience here or driven them to Sony/Microsofts offerings (or whoever else is working on this).
They haven't. The internet is just full of people who want to post a lot about it.
I mean seriously, people are saying "oh yeah, Sony/Microsoft is a trustworthy company". Seriously?
In the context of being serious about game development? Definitely.
But the Rift people were never in the business of making games, and neither is Facebook. They're making a piece of hardware that others develop games to utilize
They might be now, at least possibly in a publishing aspect.
"We have not gotten into all the details yet, but a lot of the news is coming. The key points:
1) We can make custom hardware, not rely on the scraps of the mobile phone industry. That is insanely expensive, think hundreds of millions of dollars. More news soon.
2) We can afford to hire everyone we need, the best people that fit into our culture of excellence in all aspects. 3) We can make huge investments in content. More news soon." http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgc026n
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Nova_CI have the needThe need for speedRegistered Userregular
Luckey has made it clear that he intends Oculus to be a first party developer of VR software, likely video games.
The whole FB thing has definitely shifted me from "buy a consumer-version Rift ASAP" to "maybe wait and see what the competition does".
I'm sure there are neat advantages beyond making people at Oculus rich, but I would prefer they not be beholden to Facebook's advertisement machine, even if it meant VR took off more slowly.
Honestly, I think the FB buyout could be vastly worse, since at least FB usually doesn't mess with the companies they buy.
Literally any company in the games industry (except Valve) would be a worse fit, since their track record is completely crap at that.
I think a Sony buyout of Oculus would have been well received, considering how Morpheus came out. And a Valve buyout, well - look at what happened the last time they were developing VR hardware.
The insane part is they only paid $2billion for something that's making a tangible product that could very well be revolutionary but $19billion for Whatsapp
Honestly, I think the FB buyout could be vastly worse, since at least FB usually doesn't mess with the companies they buy.
Literally any company in the games industry (except Valve) would be a worse fit, since their track record is completely crap at that.
I think a Sony buyout of Oculus would have been well received, considering how Morpheus came out. And a Valve buyout, well - look at what happened the last time they were developing VR hardware.
I wouldn't trust a Sony buyout, just because it's entirely possible they'd kill the PC version to promote their PS4 version.
Honestly, I think the FB buyout could be vastly worse, since at least FB usually doesn't mess with the companies they buy.
Literally any company in the games industry (except Valve) would be a worse fit, since their track record is completely crap at that.
I think a Sony buyout of Oculus would have been well received, considering how Morpheus came out. And a Valve buyout, well - look at what happened the last time they were developing VR hardware.
I wouldn't trust a Sony buyout, just because it's entirely possible they'd kill the PC version to promote their PS4 version.
Indeed, a Sony or Microsoft buyout would have been one of the worst possible outcomes just short of Apple...Sony would have pretty much buried it as they already have their own tech and both would most likely have locked it down to their respective platforms in a bid to out-edge the other. The whole thing about this deal is they want to bring it out of just the gaming sphere and into the mainstream, they want it to be the new electrical item everyone has in their home and not just for games. Even Valve is too game-centric to push it outwith what is still ultimately a niche area and that's why gamers feel so "robbed", it's no longer looking like their exclusive toy any more. This narrow minded idealism of the vocal fanbase would have resulted in a niche item that probably would have just ended up gathering dust on peoples shelves...
Either one would have only bought it at significantly lower price with an aim of gutting it for patents and research to incorporate into their own products.
Has anything facebook has invested in ever turned around and became a huge sensation afterward? I mean fortune described the buyout like this.
it marks the third time Facebook has paid a billion dollars or more for a company with little to no revenue, with plans for it to operate independently. (Oculus has sold 75,000 pre-orders for development kits, which cost $350, giving it approximately $26 million in income.)
I have to say it does seem weird to drop 2 billion dollars on the Occulus rift, and I have to wonder if Facebook itself even makes any money, last I remember reading they don't. Even the purported ads they sell for businesses have no appreciable ROI and they are talking about restricting those if companies don't pay them for the privilege.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
They need greater market saturation, and you're gonna have to go beyond gaming for that. If I could facebook in a metaverse, meanwhile challenging random people to sword duels.. that would be kinda cool. If anything I think this will spark more competition and innovation and hopefully the consumers come out on top.
"Be who you are, and say what you feel because those who mind dont matter, and those who matter dont mind." - Dr. Seuss
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
Has anything facebook has invested in ever turned around and became a huge sensation afterward? I mean fortune described the buyout like this.
it marks the third time Facebook has paid a billion dollars or more for a company with little to no revenue, with plans for it to operate independently. (Oculus has sold 75,000 pre-orders for development kits, which cost $350, giving it approximately $26 million in income.)
I have to say it does seem weird to drop 2 billion dollars on the Occulus rift, and I have to wonder if Facebook itself even makes any money, last I remember reading they don't. Even the purported ads they sell for businesses have no appreciable ROI and they are talking about restricting those if companies don't pay them for the privilege.
hundreds of millions in cash, and 1.3-1.4 bn in stock.
Like I said earlier, they will see a return on the cash investment in future hardware sales alone.
the stock investment is only justified if they can find some way to capitalize on this new market they helped fund to create.
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Has anything facebook has invested in ever turned around and became a huge sensation afterward? I mean fortune described the buyout like this.
Um, Facebook?
Which hasn't turned a profit yet either. This came up last year or the year before with the big "ZOMG BUY FACEBOOK STOCK!!!" They are a company that produces nothing. Their ads don't generate revenue for the companies that buy them and now they want to restrict those further.
If they are throwing billions of their stock money around (and thats where the majority of this purchase came from facebook stock which means if facebook goes down its worth considerably less than the 2 bil quoted) and not getting a huge return than they'll crash and burn pretty hard soon enough.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Has anything facebook has invested in ever turned around and became a huge sensation afterward? I mean fortune described the buyout like this.
Um, Facebook?
Which hasn't turned a profit yet either. This came up last year or the year before with the big "ZOMG BUY FACEBOOK STOCK!!!" They are a company that produces nothing. Their ads don't generate revenue for the companies that buy them and now they want to restrict those further.
If they are throwing billions of their stock money around (and thats where the majority of this purchase came from facebook stock which means if facebook goes down its worth considerably less than the 2 bil quoted) and not getting a huge return than they'll crash and burn pretty hard soon enough.
You didn't ask about a profit, you asked about a sensation. Things don't get much bigger than Facebook.
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
Facebook obviously has a long term plan for being first to market with some kind of VR social network. Whether that's a realistic plan, only time will tell. It may turn out to be a very poor choice for Facebook, but no other company could have created this much word of mouth with the purchase.
Has anything facebook has invested in ever turned around and became a huge sensation afterward? I mean fortune described the buyout like this.
Um, Facebook?
Which hasn't turned a profit yet either. This came up last year or the year before with the big "ZOMG BUY FACEBOOK STOCK!!!" They are a company that produces nothing. Their ads don't generate revenue for the companies that buy them and now they want to restrict those further.
If they are throwing billions of their stock money around (and thats where the majority of this purchase came from facebook stock which means if facebook goes down its worth considerably less than the 2 bil quoted) and not getting a huge return than they'll crash and burn pretty hard soon enough.
You didn't ask about a profit, you asked about a sensation. Things don't get much bigger than Facebook.
Google, amazon, microsoft, sony, apple? Plenty of things are bigger than facebook, and unlike facebook all of those companies turn a profit...
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
Has anything facebook has invested in ever turned around and became a huge sensation afterward? I mean fortune described the buyout like this.
Um, Facebook?
Which hasn't turned a profit yet either. This came up last year or the year before with the big "ZOMG BUY FACEBOOK STOCK!!!" They are a company that produces nothing. Their ads don't generate revenue for the companies that buy them and now they want to restrict those further.
If they are throwing billions of their stock money around (and thats where the majority of this purchase came from facebook stock which means if facebook goes down its worth considerably less than the 2 bil quoted) and not getting a huge return than they'll crash and burn pretty hard soon enough.
You didn't ask about a profit, you asked about a sensation. Things don't get much bigger than Facebook.
Google, amazon, microsoft, sony, apple? Plenty of things are bigger than facebook, and unlike facebook all of those companies turn a profit...
You're right, Apple or Amazon buying Oculus would definitely have provided a big groundswell of mainstream interest for the Rift. I'm not sure the same would have happened with Microsoft, Google, or Sony, however. An acquisition by them would give the Rift more legitimacy as a new technology, but it would still see it firmly in the technology realm. News about what Microsoft is up to doesn't leave the Business/Technology section of newspapers, if it even makes it to printed media.
Once a company like Amazon or Facebook buys them, however, suddenly it's not a geek technology any more, it's something new and exciting that all kinds of people are going to hear about.
I think there's every chance that Facebook fucks this up completely, but the exposure it gives to the budding VR industry will be huge no matter what Facebook does.
Dhalphir on
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
Sony also has a market cap of 19 billion across everything they do.
People think Sony is much bigger than they actually are; they are on the verge of collapse (outside of a thriving SCE division), and couldn't drop what would have been more than 10% of their entire value on a single acquisition.
Facebook, on the other hand, has a market cap of nearly 160 billion dollars.
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
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syndalisGetting ClassyOn the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Productsregular
And Tycho saying more eloquently what many of us have been saying in here.
Oculus selling to Facebook wasn’t a thing until after we wrote the comic, and if it hadn’t been halfway drawn maybe we could have switched gears. There’s still room for a comic on the topic, though I find it more interesting than hilarious. Give me an hour to think about it, I guess.
There is nothing more mainstream than Facebook. A piece of technology is not truly mainstream until Brenna uses it daily - understand that a chromed ant trail of technofetish gear is constantly paraded before her, she always sees it under optimal usage scenarios, and it wasn’t until Facebook as an app that her usage pattern mirrored that of the early adopter. There used to be very serious strictures about the usage of smartphones during meals, or while out, and none of those apply anymore. To her, anyway. And I’m not going to fuck with her about it, because now she knows what I know. What we all know. It’s what I’ve wanted for years: it means something to her.
Before yesterday, The Oculus Rift was technofetish gear. It ceased to be so in an instant. If you want to know how you get to the future described in books, any of the futures, it happens when technology has broad social meaning. I’m not going to tell you it’s not fucking weird. I’m as surprised as anybody. I don’t like the idea of a fully three dimensional banner ad anymore than you do. But do you want to live in a society where telepresence and virtual reality are… normalized? This is how that happens. I used the shitty, old Rift, and I thought I was underwater. Think of every corner they had to cut because they were trying to make this thing in the finite realm of men. Now imagine the corners restored, and the corner cutting machine in ruins.
I’ve turned down twelve million. But I couldn’t turn down two billion, because that’s not a number. Two years ago, when they Kickstarted this thing, this kind of momentum didn’t exist. It’s happening, really happening, like in the Ron Paul gif. It didn’t stop happening. I would argue that it is happening more than ever, on every axis that we determine happening…-ening.
SW-4158-3990-6116
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Has anything facebook has invested in ever turned around and became a huge sensation afterward? I mean fortune described the buyout like this.
Um, Facebook?
Which hasn't turned a profit yet either. This came up last year or the year before with the big "ZOMG BUY FACEBOOK STOCK!!!" They are a company that produces nothing. Their ads don't generate revenue for the companies that buy them and now they want to restrict those further.
If they are throwing billions of their stock money around (and thats where the majority of this purchase came from facebook stock which means if facebook goes down its worth considerably less than the 2 bil quoted) and not getting a huge return than they'll crash and burn pretty hard soon enough.
You didn't ask about a profit, you asked about a sensation. Things don't get much bigger than Facebook.
Google, amazon, microsoft, sony, apple? Plenty of things are bigger than facebook, and unlike facebook all of those companies turn a profit...
Facebook posted a net income of $523 million in its last quarter of 2013. Amazon posted its first profit in January after I have no clue how many quarters of outright losses. I don't know where you get your business acumen but it is pretty terrible.
Part of the acquisition includes $400 million in cash up front. Facebook has 11.5 billion of that sitting around. That $400 million is a lot more than Oculus could get from multiple VCs which they already rely on. That is money they need if this is going to happen. That $400 million is going to get us an actual product.
Honestly, I think the FB buyout could be vastly worse, since at least FB usually doesn't mess with the companies they buy.
Literally any company in the games industry (except Valve) would be a worse fit, since their track record is completely crap at that.
I think a Sony buyout of Oculus would have been well received, considering how Morpheus came out. And a Valve buyout, well - look at what happened the last time they were developing VR hardware.
They created the best VR experience on planet earth so far and shared it with developers?
Another competitor steps into the VR ring: True Player Gear. 1080p OLED, 90 degree FOV, 3 axis. More information is steadily being released on their Twitter.
Another competitor steps into the VR ring: True Player Gear. 1080p OLED, 90 degree FOV, 3 axis. More information is steadily being released on their Twitter.
It has a face! In my simple mind that makes me already love it.
I'm really happy that this is happening - even if the product turns out to be poor. When people kept saying OR style devices will pop up all over the places I didn't believe it - I thought we were still a good few years away from that happening. Never been more happy to be wrong.
Also it has two cameras on the front and a button/control to switch to 'real world' view which could basically be alt-tabbing with a standard PC. That's a really clever feature.
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Redesign the casing so it looks like you've got an open book right up against your face.
Go for the visual pun rather than changing the name.
That would be absolutely amazing
Aggregation of data was also one of the core elements of the SCOTUS ruling in Jones, forcing GPS tracking to require a warrant. The data as a whole corpus is greater than the sum of its parts.
The problem is that the data isn't just being gathered for marketing purposes. It's getting bundled and sold on the market, and the buyers aren't just advertisers.
In the context of being serious about game development? Definitely.
But the Rift people were never in the business of making games, and neither is Facebook. They're making a piece of hardware that others develop games to utilize
They might be now, at least possibly in a publishing aspect.
"We have not gotten into all the details yet, but a lot of the news is coming. The key points:
1) We can make custom hardware, not rely on the scraps of the mobile phone industry. That is insanely expensive, think hundreds of millions of dollars. More news soon.
2) We can afford to hire everyone we need, the best people that fit into our culture of excellence in all aspects.
3) We can make huge investments in content. More news soon."
http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgc026n
I'm sure there are neat advantages beyond making people at Oculus rich, but I would prefer they not be beholden to Facebook's advertisement machine, even if it meant VR took off more slowly.
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Literally any company in the games industry (except Valve) would be a worse fit, since their track record is completely crap at that.
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I think a Sony buyout of Oculus would have been well received, considering how Morpheus came out. And a Valve buyout, well - look at what happened the last time they were developing VR hardware.
I wouldn't trust a Sony buyout, just because it's entirely possible they'd kill the PC version to promote their PS4 version.
Indeed, a Sony or Microsoft buyout would have been one of the worst possible outcomes just short of Apple...Sony would have pretty much buried it as they already have their own tech and both would most likely have locked it down to their respective platforms in a bid to out-edge the other. The whole thing about this deal is they want to bring it out of just the gaming sphere and into the mainstream, they want it to be the new electrical item everyone has in their home and not just for games. Even Valve is too game-centric to push it outwith what is still ultimately a niche area and that's why gamers feel so "robbed", it's no longer looking like their exclusive toy any more. This narrow minded idealism of the vocal fanbase would have resulted in a niche item that probably would have just ended up gathering dust on peoples shelves...
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03/25/facebook-buys-oculus-vr-a-virtual-reality-gaming-company-for-2-billion/
I have to say it does seem weird to drop 2 billion dollars on the Occulus rift, and I have to wonder if Facebook itself even makes any money, last I remember reading they don't. Even the purported ads they sell for businesses have no appreciable ROI and they are talking about restricting those if companies don't pay them for the privilege.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Um, Facebook?
hundreds of millions in cash, and 1.3-1.4 bn in stock.
Like I said earlier, they will see a return on the cash investment in future hardware sales alone.
the stock investment is only justified if they can find some way to capitalize on this new market they helped fund to create.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Which hasn't turned a profit yet either. This came up last year or the year before with the big "ZOMG BUY FACEBOOK STOCK!!!" They are a company that produces nothing. Their ads don't generate revenue for the companies that buy them and now they want to restrict those further.
If they are throwing billions of their stock money around (and thats where the majority of this purchase came from facebook stock which means if facebook goes down its worth considerably less than the 2 bil quoted) and not getting a huge return than they'll crash and burn pretty hard soon enough.
pleasepaypreacher.net
You didn't ask about a profit, you asked about a sensation. Things don't get much bigger than Facebook.
pleasepaypreacher.net
pleasepaypreacher.net
Don't be a goose.
Google, amazon, microsoft, sony, apple? Plenty of things are bigger than facebook, and unlike facebook all of those companies turn a profit...
pleasepaypreacher.net
Yeah! It's pretty obvious he works for Facebook, not Oculus!
You're right, Apple or Amazon buying Oculus would definitely have provided a big groundswell of mainstream interest for the Rift. I'm not sure the same would have happened with Microsoft, Google, or Sony, however. An acquisition by them would give the Rift more legitimacy as a new technology, but it would still see it firmly in the technology realm. News about what Microsoft is up to doesn't leave the Business/Technology section of newspapers, if it even makes it to printed media.
Once a company like Amazon or Facebook buys them, however, suddenly it's not a geek technology any more, it's something new and exciting that all kinds of people are going to hear about.
I think there's every chance that Facebook fucks this up completely, but the exposure it gives to the budding VR industry will be huge no matter what Facebook does.
People think Sony is much bigger than they actually are; they are on the verge of collapse (outside of a thriving SCE division), and couldn't drop what would have been more than 10% of their entire value on a single acquisition.
Facebook, on the other hand, has a market cap of nearly 160 billion dollars.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
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Facebook posted a net income of $523 million in its last quarter of 2013. Amazon posted its first profit in January after I have no clue how many quarters of outright losses. I don't know where you get your business acumen but it is pretty terrible.
Part of the acquisition includes $400 million in cash up front. Facebook has 11.5 billion of that sitting around. That $400 million is a lot more than Oculus could get from multiple VCs which they already rely on. That is money they need if this is going to happen. That $400 million is going to get us an actual product.
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They created the best VR experience on planet earth so far and shared it with developers?
They did shut down the AR stuff, but AR != VR.
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It has a face! In my simple mind that makes me already love it.
I'm really happy that this is happening - even if the product turns out to be poor. When people kept saying OR style devices will pop up all over the places I didn't believe it - I thought we were still a good few years away from that happening. Never been more happy to be wrong.
Also it has two cameras on the front and a button/control to switch to 'real world' view which could basically be alt-tabbing with a standard PC. That's a really clever feature.