Oculus Rift

FlyingIrishMan

TeddyTedson wrote: »

Well it's been stated that this iteration will remain as a gaming device. I think people will look back or rather quietly forget this initial knee jerk reaction.
Mark isn't going to post reassuring people and then go back on his word and piss off the fan base interested in the product.
Stay calm.

You're right. If they had bad intentions surely they'd just tell everyone and completely destroy their already tiny fan base.

Always thought VR would be a way to escape reality.

savemejebus

Did ye notice that Luckey said

I guarantee that you won't need to log into your Facebook account every time you wanna use the Oculus Rift

Could be just the way he responded or a sneaky way to gloss over the fact that a facebook account will be necessary at some point to use the rift.

AlmightyCushion

savemejebus wrote: »

Did ye notice that Luckey said



Could be just the way he responded or a sneaky way to gloss over the fact that a facebook account will be necessary at some point to use the rift.

You're reading way too much into what he said.

o1s1n

I know we weren't purchasing stock when backing this to get our Rifts, but bloomin' hell!

If it were considered a "Series A" investment, $300 in Oculus VR would have been worth $20,000 following the Facebook acquisition, according to an estimate from Seedrs, a European crowdfunding firm that offers equity to backers.

norrie rugger

It's one of the reasons that I don't do kickstarters. Your money is being used to fund a firm, without the owner having to give up the slightest hint of equity.
If the firm fails, he loses nothing (or less than he would if had taken out a personal loan to finance)
If the firm succeeds then he gets all the reward

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

norrie rugger wrote: »

If the firm succeeds then he gets all the reward

and you get the product/service/reward item you paid for

humanji

norrie rugger wrote:

It's one of the reasons that I don't do kickstarters. Your money is being used to fund a firm, without the owner having to give up the slightest hint of equity.
If the firm fails, he loses nothing (or less than he would if had taken out a personal loan to finance)
If the firm succeeds then he gets all the reward

But you're not funding a firm, you're buying things from them. That's what the rewards are.

norrie rugger

Except that you may have to wait years for that product/service.

The reason that companies do kickstarter are because
A. they are not viable investment options
B. They refuse to give equity to investors, for the risk.

humanji

norrie rugger wrote: »

Except that you may have to wait years for that product/service.

But so what? If that's a problem, then you don't invest.

The reason that companies do kickstarter are because
A. they are not viable investment options
B. They refuse to give equity to investors, for the risk.

Plenty of incredibly viable investment options go to crowd sourcing specifically because of your second point. Only a moron would happily give away profits and control to other people. Crowd sourcing is a way of helping people realise their dream project for little or no reward. Investing is a way of making money off of other peoples work.

Praetorian

I thought it was dreadful news too. I would have even preferred Microsoft or google over fb. It might put a lot of the dev's off working with oculus.

However, if Oculus are left to their own devices completely it might work out okay.

The original shareholders must be rolling around in money right about now!

grizzly

Deleted User wrote: »

What's crazy is companies cancelling their potential games because of it. I'm looking at you, Minecraft.

Cliff Bleszinski on Minecraft support getting pulled

Notch, your cancelling Minecraft makes you look like a pouty kid who is taking his ball and going home. It’s a bratty and petty move

humanji

Praetorian wrote: »

I thought it was dreadful news too. I would have even preferred Microsoft or google over fb. It might put a lot of the dev's off working with oculus.

However, if Oculus are left to their own devices completely it might work out okay.

The original shareholders must be rolling around in money right about now!

All that can be done is to wait and see, really. I'm sure there'll be plenty of other VR headsets in the works now, so developers will still benefit from working with this one. Refusing to work with it is only really going to hurt themselves in the short term.

savemejebus

Cliff Bleszinski wrote:

Notch, your cancelling Minecraft makes you look like a pouty kid who is taking his ball and going home. It’s a bratty and petty move

Hardly an impartial view though

Cliff Bleszinski wrote:

I stand to make a very sizable chunk of money from this acquisition.

macker33

I dream of virtual reality pop ups

o1s1n

savemejebus wrote: »

Hardly an impartial view though

Too true.

I read today that Notch donated 10k to the kickstarter to help get it off the ground. Could see how he'd be pissed.

gizmo

humanji wrote: »

All that can be done is to wait and see, really. I'm sure there'll be plenty of other VR headsets in the works now, so developers will still benefit from working with this one. Refusing to work with it is only really going to hurt themselves in the short term.

Precisely this.

Absolute worst case scenario, Facebook's acquisition stunts the growth of OR or events play out in the exact opposite manner that Luckey and Carmack have stated and it becomes a closed social tool. If that were to happen then all it would do is leave a rather large open VR headset sized gap in the market for a competitor to fill.

Pushtrak

My PC was fecked, so haven't really been around a few days. I haven't even caught up on other threads yet, just been reading about the OR in a few places and caught up on this thread from where I'd last seen it. Over on Eurogamer, I saw a cryptic title that alluded to 2 billion dollars, scrolled down more and saw the facebook news. Honestly, when I first read that, my heart sank. I don't think it is precisely the same reason as other people though.

Some people seem to think the OR was only ever going to have gaming applications. This was an unrealistic expectation to maintain. Technology nowadays and social are intertwined completely. Kinect is the same, for instance, and I expect the playstation VR solution to equally tip its hat to some type of social functionality. Some people say 'expect a playstation room type facebook thing'. Seems a pretty realistic thing to expect. But consider the existence of playstation room in the first place. Surely playstation is only about games? No, technology and social. So, I'd posit it isn't technology getting social that is at issue. It's facebook pure and simple.

Ok, yes, I can get behind that in ways. I can't bring myself to trust that the means by which they'll pursue social/general business direction will be palatable. I'm not as vociferously anti facebook as some people here who seemed deeply saddened by the prospect of maybe they'd have to create a facebook account. Much as I hate the concept of first world problems, the shoe most certainly fits. We can hope that the stated plans for the OR team to have some measure of independence is true, but I'd say being apprehensive on this point would be appropriate.

Another common thing that came up a good bit on this thread was a general kickstarter/investment discussion. I find it a bit odd if there are people who saw the buyout and presumed they should be entitled to some part in that share. That isn't how Kickstarter works, though it would be pretty cool if it did work that way. I tried getting a discussion on just this type of point nearly a week ago over on the kickstarter thread the specific post being this one.

Duggy747

On a slightly different note, all this hubbub with Notch and Oculus made me try out Minecraft VR.

Was actually pleasantly surprised how well it works with the Rift. I don't play Minecraft so downloading a few worlds and going for walkies in them, looking around the place, was nice and relaxing :pac:

Benzino

To be honest, I agree with Cliff Bleszinski regarding Notch, seems a petty move to make so soon after the announcement. I don't get why this has upset/angered people so much. Facebook is now more than just a social website, they are looking to become as influential to tech and software as Google, MS and Apple have been over the years.

They will likely never make the money back but that doesn't matter to Facebook. It's more about branching out into different areas of technology and getting their name associated with more than just a social website. Google have been doing it for years, they are no longer just a search engine company, they develop a wide range of software and technology (from a car that drives itself to Google Glasses). Facebook was always going to go the same route, they simply have too much money and user base to just sit there until their site becomes unpopular.

As for Oculus Rift, it's not like Facebook are going to cancel it, nor are they going to change it so it works with Facebook only. In fact I'm pretty sure the developers have said that Facebook will let them continue with their plan, but just have more resources available to them. Excellent news! So far there has been nothing to suggest that this will negatively impact the Rift's development or it's application to games. And FB's acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram should at least prove they are not an EA who shut down newly acquired companues within a couple of years.

In saying all that, I personally don't get why people hate Facebook the company so much. People talk about how they would prefer if it was Google, MS or Apple (lol!), but each of these are no better than Facebook in my opinion.

Grumpypants

What I like is all the Anti Facebook posts people are posting on Facebook about this............

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Grumpypants wrote: »

What I like is all the Anti Facebook posts people are posting on Facebook about this............

it's important that all their friends on facebook know just how counter culture they are

FlyingIrishMan

Grumpypants wrote: »

What I like is all the Anti Facebook posts people are posting on Facebook about this............

I get what you're trying to say, but Facebook does serve a purpose, but that purpose probably isn't VR for gaming. So, they can hate the fact that Facebook bought Oculus without hating the actual site, if that makes sense.

ScumLord

Benzino wrote: »

Google have been doing it for years, they are no longer just a search engine company, they develop a wide range of software and technology (from a car that drives itself to Google Glasses).

Google have pretty much stuck with their companies core business though, everything they do is focused on being experts in information, finding it, storing it and putting it in front of the people who'll pay for it. android and google glass are just technology to get at googles information.

As for Oculus Rift, it's not like Facebook are going to cancel it, nor are they going to change it so it works with Facebook only.

We don't fully know what facebook wants, as owners they can decide to continue down the road set out by oculus, go in a different direction or cancel it altogether if it's not working out the way they want. Oculus rift had a set path, we knew what it wanted to be, it was a VR company. Facebook isn't a VR company.


The cash injection could be a great thing, if oculus can continue the path set out from the beginning we'll get our VR headset and I'll be happy. It's just so uncertain at the moment.

grizzly

I wonder where Facebook might take this? Maybe turn it into a platform for a social space with their own custom interface. They could rent you movies and then you could watch them with your Facebook friends. Turn your feed into a virtual environment, likes Sonys Home.

ScumLord

grizzly wrote: »

I wonder where Facebook might take this? Maybe turn it into a platform for a social space

It's only social if your friends aren't in the room with you. It's a bit like 3D teles, many people might have them but if everyone hasn't a pair of glasses you have to stick with standard 2D.

There isn't much of an advantage to having a 3D headset online, all you'll end up seeing is a avatar of your friend because their face is covered which isn't much better. Do you really want a VR system giving away what you're doing in front of your PC while you're chatting to other people?

Shiminay

ScumLord wrote: »

Google have pretty much stuck with their companies core business though...

Talk to anyone in SEO and online advertising and they'll laugh in your face at this statement.

Google started off with "Don't be evil" as their motto. They are worlds away from that now. They just have WAY better PR than Facebook and almost everyone else, that's the difference.

ScumLord

Shiminay wrote: »

Talk to anyone in SEO and online advertising and they'll laugh in your face at this statement.

Google started off with "Don't be evil" as their motto. They are worlds away from that now. They just have WAY better PR than Facebook and almost everyone else, that's the difference.

Ya, back when they started as university students and didn't quite realise what they were getting into. "Don't be evil" isn't exactly a business model that's ever worked.

Their core business is data and their main goal as far as I know has been to get every piece of information they can online and accessible by anyone and they're good at it, what happens with the data is another story that goes beyond google.

jenjenten

lol....they paid 2 billion for a company that has no product on the market, has no idea what retail kits will cost, has no idea how much software will be available, has no idea if VR will even take off, have no idea if everyone will puke their ring up and file lawsuits for motion suckness.........

This entire OR malarky seems like one huge pie in the sky deal, a concept that nobody has any idea if it will make money, Atari Jaguar....yet FB pipe in and throw down 2 billion for a product that dosent exist, a concept np one knows will stick around....like HD DVD or Mini Disc.

The only winners here are the guys who started Occulos....they at least have real cash in the bank and share. They've played a great con, on the kickstarter crowd and now zuckerberg.....this could be the greatest con game in the last 200 years, Houdini....stand aside!

johnny_ultimate

jenjenten wrote: »

have no idea if everyone will puke their ring up and file lawsuits for motion suckness.........

I....
No...
But...


Wow.