John Carmack Speaks On Oculus/Facebook Deal

[Steven Bogos]

John Carmack Speaks On Oculus/Facebook Deal

John Carmack says that the deal was "unexpected", but he has faith that Facebook can see "the big picture."

When blog [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/133231-Facebook-is-Buying-Oculus-VR-for-2-Billion-Update-4]. Carmack says he wasn't expecting the deal, but still has faith that Facebook can see "the big picture."

"Honestly, I wasn't expecting Facebook (or this soon)," said Carmack. "I have zero personal background with them, and I could think of other companies that would have more obvious synergies."

"However," he added, "I do have reasons to believe that they get the Big Picture as I see it, and will be a powerful force towards making it happen. You don't make a commitment like they just did on a whim."

Carmack said that he personally wasn't involved at all in the negotiations. "I spent an afternoon talking technology with Mark Zuckerberg, and the next week I find out that he bought Oculus."

He also mulled over going the "Valve" route, as in, "trying to build a new VR ecosystem like Steam from the ground up," admitting that while this is what the most passionate fans wanted to see, it never would have worked. "VR won't be like that," he explained. "The experience is too obviously powerful, and it makes converts on contact. The fairly rapid involvement of the Titans is inevitable, and the real questions were how deeply to partner, and with who."

Source: Peter Perkman's Tumblr [http://peterberkman.tumblr.com/post/80827337212/wrong-and-right-reasons-to-be-upset-about-oculus#disqus_thread]

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[Somebloke]

..and right now Oculus VR's developer pages are down for routine maintenance -- If on April 1st they put up a mock version of them, that are a taste of everything we fear from out of Facebook, I may never be able to forgive them for toying with us.

 

[mrverbal]

Cheif technology officer for company which just made a deal which probably made him personally a shitton of cash says deal is a great idea.

News at 11.

 

[Ishigami]

You really think Carmack is out for the money? - Little do you know.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Cheif technology officer for company which just made a deal which probably made him personally a shitton of cash says deal is a great idea.

News at 11.

I'm not a big fan of his games, personally, but when John Carmack starts talking about anything related to game tech in general and graphics tech in particular, it's usually a good idea to listen. If the man has spoken to Zuckerberg personally about the technology and is now saying that he has cause to believe that the two are seeing eye to eye on the matter, I'd at least put that down as a mark in the "pros" column.

 

[Sanunes]

I don't think the problem really lies with the fact that Facebook bought the Oculus Rift, but how people feel Facebook has either treated them or their past acquisitions. So now people are looking at this buyout as Facebook going to do the behavior that people expect of them and use that on the Oculus Rift. To me its a lot like how people react to anything EA does as well, past experiences influence the reaction they give on anything EA might do now.

 

[Adultratedhydra]

Cheif technology officer for company which just made a deal which probably made him personally a shitton of cash says deal is a great idea.

News at 11.

Because John Carmack, one of the Co-Founders of Id software, is concerned with making money. I suppose if he feels like topping off his scrooge mcduck style vault then yes i guess he could use the money.

 

[Alterego-X]

I don't think the problem really lies with the fact that Facebook bought the Oculus Rift, but how people feel Facebook has either treated them or their past acquisitions. So now people are looking at this buyout as Facebook going to do the behavior that people expect of them and use that on the Oculus Rift. To me its a lot like how people react to anything EA does as well, past experiences influence the reaction they give on anything EA might do now.

The difference is, that EAs aquisitions were treated with scepticism based on an elaborate knowledge of what they did to Bullfrog, Origin, Maxis, Westwood, and BioWare, and not with the vague stereotypes of a community that knows very little about Facebook's business behavior so just assumes the shallowest possible expectations about it's philosophy, and about how it's hardware branch would be treated the exact same way as it's main website.

This is less like EA aquiring a small developer and worrying that their talent will be driven away, and more like Coca Cola buying Kellog's and worrying that your cereal will start to come in coke flavor only, or Disney buying Lucasfilm so expecting the next Star Wars movie to be an animated musical.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Even with J.C weighing in, I am still not convinced Facebook is the ideal partner here. I mean you just know they are going to try to cram as much of their social tools in to the applications and games as they can. It's too big an opportunity not to.

I still think this is an elaborate April Fool's prank btw.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Oh, I have little worry that Facebook doesn't have a big picture in mind for the Oculus tech. In fact, I'm certain they have plans for it. The problem is I'm not sure it's the same big picture that gamers have in mind for the tech, particularly those who donated their own money out based on what Oculus was selling itself as at the time of the donations.

 

[Vivi22]

Cheif technology officer for company which just made a deal which probably made him personally a shitton of cash says deal is a great idea.

News at 11.

The man is already rich, and I really doubt he gives a shit about making more money rather than making good tech. The guy just has zero interest in the business side of things and is one of the only people in the industry that I'd feel comfortable saying wouldn't sell out an idea he believed in just to make some more money.

And I'd say it's even less likely that he supports it just because of money when he comes right out and says that he had no idea it was going to happen and that he can think of a lot of companies they'd have better synergy with. Again, he only cares about the tech, and if he's saying that he and facebook are seeing eye to eye on it, I'm going to take him at his word. I still question whether the acquisition was a good idea overall, but I don't question his thoughts on how things are going internally.

 

[Orange12345]

It's weird that I can really understand why people are mad in this shit storm, I backed mighty no. 9 and I would be livid if tomorrow Inafune came out and said that he sold the game to a Sega (or some other company). Wasn't the WHOLE FREAKING POINT of kickstarter to allow devs to create something they were truly passionate about with the added freedom of not being at the mercy of a bigger company whose only concern was money? These people kickstarted the "Occulus Rift" not "Facebook presents the Occulus Rift", I am certain if people knew that this was going to happen they would have never backed it.

And before anyone brings it up no Occulus is not legally obligated to do anything for the backers, but I still think pissing off your only consumer base is a bad idea, the backers are the one's who were going to get the damn thing and tell everyone how awesome it is. As for the apparent social media aspect that was mentioned in the followup response? never gonna happen the problem with hardware that has a social purpose is it only really works if EVERYONE has one and the occulus is niche product for a small demographic of gamers who for the most part are not huge into social media

 

[Kameburger]

This deal really could be cool for technology in my honest opinion, it just may not be as important for gaming anymore. I mean certainly in my case, I live 8000 miles away from my home town, but I would be really pumped if I could put on the Oculus and feel like I'm back home for a bit. It might certainly have a good effect on this kind of communication. That being said, now for gaming, it's a part of a big corporate entity, and for the purposes of gaming I really don't know what the difference, if there is any, between this head set and Sony's headset.

That being said Cliffy B should go F*** himself for being an arrogant prick about the whole fiasco, because really every thing he said just came out sounding like: "Notch wouldn't be so pissed if he was an actually investor like me, not that its about the money, even though I should mention that this deal is gonna make a lot of it; oh and gamers are self-entitled babies who still need to understand that I am their god and I am a bit miffed that they are still only paying me 60 dollars a disc to kiss my shoes."

But yeah John Carmack probably wants this deal to work, because after all he is more of a designer, but at the same time, in business you don't have the luxury to be publicly skeptical about your own products even if that is how you feel. I really hope they do good things with the rift.

 

[josemlopes]

Cheif technology officer for company which just made a deal which probably made him personally a shitton of cash says deal is a great idea.

News at 11.

Like many said, yeah no.

He was already rich and he even joined (and presented) the Occulus Rift when they were small because he believed in the technology and wanted to help. His oppinion, even if it ends up being wrong, is the one he trully has on the subject and you cant blame him for that.

 

[Gary Thompson]

This is less like EA aquiring a small developer and worrying that their talent will be driven away, and more like Coca Cola buying Kellog's and worrying that your cereal will start to only come in coke flavor, or Disney buying Lucasfilm so expecting the next Star Wars movie to be an animated musical.

I don't know about you but I'd watch that.

 

[Alterego-X]

It's weird that I can really understand why people are mad in this shit storm, I backed mighty no. 9 and I would be livid if tomorrow Inafune came out and said that he sold the game to a Sega (or some other company).

If he would sell it a year AFTER releasing it and providing the copies to backers, then your anger at him would be rather irrational.

The purpose of Kickstarter is to materialize specific creative products, not to give you eternal control over their creator's business choices.

 

[Somebloke]

Cheif technology officer for company which just made a deal which probably made him personally a shitton of cash says deal is a great idea.

News at 11.

While I have no idea of what John's personal stakes in the company are, other than as an enthusiastic employee, I expect the largest chunk of those $0.4b + 1.6 in monopoly money went to buying out the venture capitalists, that entered the picture back in December.

 

[RA92]

Cheif technology officer for company which just made a deal which probably made him personally a shitton of cash says deal is a great idea.

News at 11.

You do understand that he gave up a cushy job at Bethesda to work in a young upstart company like Occulus just out of pure enthusiasm?

 

[NLS]

I don't think the problem really lies with the fact that Facebook bought the Oculus Rift, but how people feel Facebook has either treated them or their past acquisitions. So now people are looking at this buyout as Facebook going to do the behavior that people expect of them and use that on the Oculus Rift. To me its a lot like how people react to anything EA does as well, past experiences influence the reaction they give on anything EA might do now.

The difference is, that EAs aquisitions were treated with scepticism based on an elaborate knowledge of what they did to Bullfrog, Origin, Maxis, Westwood, and BioWare, and not with the vague stereotypes of a community that knows very little about Facebook's business behavior so just assumes the shallowest possible expectations about it's philosophy, and about how it's hardware branch would be treated the exact same way as it's main website.

This is less like EA aquiring a small developer and worrying that their talent will be driven away, and more like Coca Cola buying Kellog's and worrying that your cereal will start to come in coke flavor only, or Disney buying Lucasfilm so expecting the next Star Wars movie to be an animated musical.

It's weird that I can really understand why people are mad in this shit storm, I backed mighty no. 9 and I would be livid if tomorrow Inafune came out and said that he sold the game to a Sega (or some other company).

If he would sell it a year AFTER releasing it and providing the copies to backers, then your anger at him would be rather irrational.

The purpose of Kickstarter is to materialize specific creative products, not to give you eternal control over their creator's business choices.

Your hammer is hitting nail after nail on the head.
People need to just chill the fuck down and watch how it goes. For all we know, the consumer version of OR will be amazingly good, without a single trace of Facebook in the user experience.