Facebook buying Oculus
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AlistairDoulin/20140326/213923/Why_Facebook_Buying_Oculus_Is_Positive.php
every fibre of my being dislikes this... although I have to concede on a mental level to some of the "positive" points :(
what to you guys think about this move?
every fibre of my being dislikes this... although I have to concede on a mental level to some of the "positive" points :(
what to you guys think about this move?
Comments
Does this mean they will all be able to see each other now and be able to discuss me in VR - like some mad tea party? ;P
Personally I think it's cool that an indie bred VR platform can now give console level funded stuff (Morpheus by ps4) a run for their money - and competition is always good.
That said, I'm not entirely happy that it's Facebook, they've not had a great track record of supporting "good games".
Theoretically, Facebook doesn't control the software getting made for it, so there shouldn't be problems about software quality.
And as I say that, Notch cancels mine raft oculus dev due to fb name :(
Yeah I also dont like facebook messing around in the gaming scene. On a side note does anybody notice that they have a TON of money to throw around all willy nilly.
I've noticed the news clog too. I see a lot of angry posts.
It looks like FB has little interest in the gaming scene and most likely has their eyes set on virtual shopping malls and virtual one-upping with 'friends'. Guess we'll see how long they'll entertain developing it for games.
Another interesting thought is that maybe FB's lack of a pre-existing project means it's more likely to continue as is rather than someone like MS or Sony who would just carve up the developer for spare parts on their own project.
I do wonder what impact this will have on things like Kickstarter and the general attitude towards crowd funding. I can't help but expect this will taint that image, just a case of how much.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/26/oculus-rift-developers-unphased-by-facebook-buyout
I remain quite bullish and optimistic, at least to see my commitment through to the end :)
I need to meet with the rest of my team and decide if we are going to pull Occulus Rift support from Re-Spawn and move to another platform or stick it out.
I am just concerned on what Facebook is going to do with the device ... guess time will tell. :(
At the very deep end - people will need a facebook login to use the platform, like a PSN account or Xbox Live account to login and use a Playstation or Xbox. Or a steam account to use steam.
But that's the really deep end, and even then I'm sure they'll consider the integration fears before implementing heavy interference into games and apps.
I still don't see how FB's ecosystem fits into oculus - it's as if they expect people to be on the Rift all the time at home, so they can use the data to market to and take from oculus users - and I doubt anyone would have a Rift on for more than a few hours at a time for intensive apps like games. I don't see it as a lifestyle fit, like wearable tech or anything like that.
Unless FB is wanting to go into a console-like direction and is doing this as a foray other than FB.
What a mystery :)
On oculus's side, AFAIK their long term plans were never to just focus on games, and this will certainly help them branch out. If nothing else, this could help the Rift get a much bigger audience, which is great. Yeah, that's a dumbass move-and apparently he hadn't even started any kind of development on it, so what exactly is he cancelling?
Oh and I remember seeing that there *EXISTS* an occulus mod for minecraft. So... publicity stunt much?
here: http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-change-the-world/
this is a good read too: http://valleywag.gawker.com/oculus-grift-kickstarter-as-charity-for-venture-capita-1551921517
Personally I'm very hopeful of this exchange of money. I was hoping to buy myself an Oculus when I got the newsletter that their chip supplier is out of stock and not producing more. I hope they can use the money to either change the chip or get another supplier to commit to a 5/10 year contract producing the previous chip for them.
I'm also very hopeful that the Oculus will revolutionize the hardware like Apple did for touch screens. We've had touch screens before but it was just an input to a mouse driver. Apple brought a "truer" touch interface to the world and I hope Oculus and bring a great VR experience that others can emulate and propagate.
Personally I prefer it to have been Facebook rather than Sony or Microsoft(Microsoft especially have a board that actively doesn't care about gaming technology), who may have simply assimilated their technology and fired whoever was leftover at the end. They bought instagram and not only did they leave it alone but it got stronger as a service, they haven't done anything to WhatsApp yet either.
That said like anyone else I do have my fears about what will transpire going forward with this deal, there are just better ways of handling that emotion than alot of the Oculus community members have :)
He wouldn't alone in disliking and distrusting Facebook, and he has every right to decide against something he created ending up on a platform because of ethical differences. I just don't buy that's the reason either-if it really was, he'd be politely asking the Minecrift devs to take their mod down. This really does feel more like a convenient excuse to get out and not give his real reasons. If the real reason he's doing this is he doesn't think he'll make enough out of it to justify the development expense, then that's fine, but he should say as much.
Of course this is all total speculation, who knows. Maybe he really doesn't trust FB, and is too nice a guy to knock down the Minecrift guys' hard work, and I'm the dumbass :)
Not trusting FB is a thing. But not feeling that Minecraft can reliably output the FPS needed for an Occulus port is totally valid. Remember that if it were a product, they'd have to support it, even for the people that don't meet minimum specs - a poor experience in an official Mojang version is going to be a PR hit, which it doesn't make sense to risk. Having a mod add Occulus support saves on that potential PR problem, so why would anyone want to take that particular mod down?
Also, Notch is far too nice to demand people take their mods down.