Facebook buys Oculus for $2 billion

The Simpsons called it first

 

I wish that facebook did not exist. Infact, I personally wish all social networking sites did not exist. They are stupid and I find them very creepy.
Whatever happened to classic email and texting?

 

Here's the funny part: the professional investors that jumped into oculus after the kickstarter backers pretty much build the company itself and helped palmer launch made 20 times return on investment

To give you an idea if you were one of those backers who put $300 on the project you should be entitled to $250,000 in return from facebook

Of course there is no law saying oculus or facebook should give you the money, backers are not legally considered investors, ergo every crowdfunding project is essentially charity.

..........except charities have legal limitations regarding profits, so what exactly happened here?

As for the future of the company, when it comes to M&A if its not on paper then its not true, if fb didn't say they wont interfere on paper then there is no guarantee. And considering fb has tried to get into traditional gaming I wouldnt be surprised if from now own oculus developers must integrate fb's APIs into their games to get access to the platform.

Think fb is going to make their own steam? think again! that company is not about selling you shit, its about getting your data which is why it wants to be the center of all social interaction, and games are a big chunk of it nowadays.

And thats nothing compared to the possibilities! think curated virtual worlds, a SL that is not full of weirdos, does anyone have any idea how much personal data you can get from something like that?

 

Here we go... facebook is rebranding the rift and going to have the Facebook interface built in: http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/26/facebook-may-rebrand-and-redesign-oculus-rift

Oh lord.

 

FWIW, Facebook does have a good recent history of leaving alone its acquired companies that it says it's going to leave alone, for example Instagram & What's App.

Instead of jumping to conclusions so quickly, why not see where this goes? Facebook wants to make money (just as much as Oculus VR did) and VR Farmville isn't going to make any more money than regular Farmville.

It's not (a) charity (watch the equivocation). The Kickstarter backers knew they weren't getting equity (and they were compensated with perks if they were so inclined). Don't spread FUD like this. You even seem to know what you're saying here isn't true.

Seriously. Do this.

 

Very much this.

Most people seem to be confusing Facebook with Microsoft or Google.

Zuck already stated that his intention is to release the product that Rift was always going to be.

Once you get past "BAWWWW I HAET FACEBERK", it makes a lot of sense.

 

err you missed the "NO plans" bit.

 

I get that Facebook would love to take the helm of VR. It's the supposed $2 Billion price tag I don't get. It's a bit much for something that will inevitable meet a dead end if history is anything to go by.

 

Erm, No I didn't. I posted this before they updated the article. IGN's fault, not mine. lol

 

Instagram? How can you make an app that shares low resolution, blurry, grainy pictures worse?

 

You know you need to add anti tracking extensions to your browser to keep fb out of your history right? The zuck don't give two shits about your do not track request. Apps like insta are closed source, we have no fucking clue what fb might have added, and that app alone is great for face metadata.

The problem with oculus sale is an ethical one: is it ok to receive funding on the guise of independent niche development if you are going to sell out? They went to the fans because investors couldn't care less about vr but what that did was take the risk out for the venture capitalists who now made a killing. I didn't back it, those comments are from backers who are pissed off about it.

Let alone that a lot of people liked oculus because it was independent.

 

From Reddit:

Oculus Rift will be no more about Facebook, than Sanitarium (the company that makes Weet-bix) is about being a Seventh Day Adventist.

 

A heavy investment like that will just accelerate the use of VR by the general society instead of focused in gaming.

I'm not sure if this is a good thing. Looks like it is.

BTW, this thing was a total flop for me. I wasn't even caring about it at all. But now comes a giant and invest that amount.

That amout should be invested in CRT, not VR... =P

 

Cannot believe they sold out like that. It was such a silly move.

But just wait guys, angry birds and farmville in THREEEE DEEEE

 

I would never do that. Facebook is many orders of magnitude more evil than either Microsoft or Google could ever hope to be.

 

I get that their website and advertising business leave much to be desired, nobody is debating that.

As a technology company, however, I think they've got a lot to offer. Have a look at their Github page, loads of interesting projects, all open source.


Any statement about what Facebook plans to do with the Rift team or the product at this stage is pure conjecture. Conjecture and righteous indignation, with an inappropriate amount of telling Palmer how to run his business. Storm in a teacup.

 

FWIW, it's like 80% stock... It might sound like a lot, but this is something where you have to take the risk-reward ratio into account. If this thing does take off, then it will make the money back and then some (and Oculus should be motivated to do well because the better they do, the higher their stock is worth). If it fails, well, it really wasn't all that much, considering Facebook made $1.6B only on Facebook games last year, a figure that is up 18% from the year before. They'll make this money back by next year.

Their Kickstarter campaign, which ended a year and a half ago, doesn't imply any of that at all, and Oculus stopped being independent well before Facebook bought them out. Like you mentioned, the VC's owned them. Refer to Luckey's comments on reddit about this.

 

I can see why people are mad. If you contributed to that Kickstarter then this wouldn't exist. So it was sort of a nice grass-roots type project that pulled in way more money than was originally asked for, and then at the end of the day the guy is like, "Eh, it's not enough. I'm going corporate."

Personally I don't care one way or the other. All this VR shit is just gimmicks. I doubt Oculus Rift is/was going to usher us in to the Lawnmower Man world.

 

I really don't care much about the oculus, I didn't back it because I had my doubts about it and since its been like 2 years and still no games or a consumer version I was not quite wrong.

Is funny you guys quote reddit since there's a shitstorm over there regarding this situation, lots of backers calling bs on the promises of support and many more canceling their orders for the new devkit.

I'm really surprised there's anyone stupid enough to still believe the shit internet companies say after all the leaks pointing at close collaboration with the nsa.

That's without considering that Facebook has bought plenty of startups just to take what it wanted or hire its employees and then closing down the original product.

 

"quote reddit" lol. Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR, is the person being quoted. The fact he's having the discussion on reddit is irrelevant.

What's funny is how nerds feel like they're owed something. There are some real genuine 4-year-old-in-a-supermarket tantrums being thrown over this, and it's maximum hilarious.

Hey you, don't drag facts into this!