Facebook May Rebrand Oculus Rift, Import Interface - Update

[Lightknight]

My bad. $300. Not $250. (Although the average backing amount is $255 dollar)

Again, they didn't back the project, they bought a Dev Kit. It's literally the same price as the dev kit and they've been using it for well over a year now.

Tell me how you think they got taken advantage of. Does Facebook backing the project somehow take away the fact that they got exactly what they were promised or how much fun they've had with the Rift since then? Does it somehow take away from all the honest work already poured into the future dev kits. Does the product being released with a facebook logo on it somehow detract from the fact that they delivered on what they promised?

I've counted the responses on kickstarter so far: exactly 150 negative and 20 positive. That's 1.5% that's speaken up about this in the first 2 days since this news.

Backers are saying:
"You've betrayed our dreams, Palmer."
"You can now forget about innovative, challenging or even adult content."
"Facebook is not a hearts-and-minds company, it is a "relentlessly monetize the user base" company."
"Your non Kickstarter investors got spooked by the first credible competition and you sold your soul to a data mining company."
"Seeing our little donations and big hopes sold off for 2 billion definitely looks and feels like a betrayal, and I'm wishing I hadn't backed."

So, no, people aren't getting what they wanted.

Great, you have now officially demonstrated that people will overreact to situations they have absolutely no knowledge of. Especially on the internet.

Tell me, did facebook announce anything other than the fact that they bought it? They said they had some innovative ideas but is there anything that would lead you to believe that you couldn't still use the product for all of the original intended purposes?

It's naive to think that facebook purchases this and won't affect it's future beyond giving it money. They are not a charity. They are a corporation that answers to shareholders. Just like oculus is now a company that answers to facebook.

Looking at facebook's previous acquisitions, it sure looks like those sites are still functioning like they used to. Is it naive to base an opinion on facts? Don't get me wrong, facebook could absolutely ruin this, but we're talking a grade-a overreaction here for a firm that hasn't traditionally screwed up products it has purchased.

People purchased a vision of what oculus rift might be.

No, they purchased a dev kit. The kickstarter requested only developers purchase them. Something people seem to be forgetting. It wasn't for the money, it was to get the rift out there. They said that several times.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-into-the-game#project_faq_35368

They tell non-developers to hold off from backing. That this is to get the dev kit into developers hands.

Heck, watch the main video at the 3.50 mark. "The reason we're using kickstarter is to get these dev kits into the hands of developers as fast as possible."

This wasn't a kickstarter for financial support. This was a kickstarter for developer support. People absolutely seem incapable of understanding this. It's like talking to a wall when I try to explain that they already had financial backing and were already producing the product before kickstarter. Hence why the project finished in September and shipped in Nov./Dec. of the same year.

Facebook purchased the right to change anything about oculus' future that it wants.

Do you think they would buy the Oculus Rift and not still release it? Burn money much?

Zuckerberg's statement shows clearly that they have a very different vision.

What? No, they have an idea to use the hardware for even more. The original vision was to produce a viable VR environment. That hasn't changed at all but its uses have now been expanded. It only benefits us that this product will be more common and have more uses. Again, things like giving you a seat in a stadium of a live sporting event. Previously, this wasn't for social things. This was just being able to play games and watch movies in your house. This step could allow you to greatly expand the features and social options the Rift didn't have while not necessarily preventing the use for gaming and movies. If they do hinder those things, then I will consider Facebook to have ruined the Rift but that is NOT in facebook's best interest. Not with real competition looming. Who is going to buy a video/game display that doesn't let you play your movies and games?

The fact that developers (like notch) are now pulling out AFTER having paid $300 and AFTER having spent significant work hours into it, shows pretty clearly that they do not believe they are getting what they paid for.

No, all it shows is that they don't believe Facebook will continue to guide the Occulus Rift ship in the right direction. It does NOT mean that they did not get the development kit that they paid for. They've had those for well over a year now and as I've clearly illustrated were the purpose of the kickstarter. Frankly, I'm surprised Kickstarter let the product ride since it wasn't a request to financially back the product.

Look, Notch is a much beloved indie hero of gaming lore. But he can also be a bit quick to respond to things. He already had a preconcieved notion of Facebook and took this action without any real information about what the consumer rift would look like under Facebook's stewardship. He can do that if he wants, but it really was a kneejerk reaction. The truth is that we have no idea what they're going to do with it. It is uncertain. Notch's fears, whatever they are, could be warranted or entirely unwarranted and only time will tell that. He should have waited to ask questions. It honestly does Facebook no good to turn this product into something other than what has gotten so many people excited. If the product sucks then they just wasted BILLIONS of cash. If we could take a step back and finish hyperventillating into our bags long enough to realize that Facebook benefits from it being awesome then maybe we could handle waiting to see how things really turn out and what they say is going to change.

 

[XMark]

I'll remain cautiously optimistic. I don't think the people at Facebook are stupid enough to completely destroy Oculus by forcing any kind of Facebook integration into it.

I can definitely see Facebook trying out some kind of social VR experiment, but it would be a horrible business move on their part to make some kind of Facebook integration a required thing for using the Oculus. I know I wouldn't buy it if they did pull that kind of BS on us.

Facebook hasn't screwed with the Oculus Rift in an evil way yet. The possibility of them ruining it certainly exists, but let's not bring out the pitchforks until that actually happens.

 

[NLS]

Wow, yet another false rumour turned out to be false. Way to go about spreading false rumours and actively changing the attitude of the community.

 

[BrotherRool]

Yep, I thought it was all BS. If the whole internet is freaking out on something on the basis of no evidence and then an anonymous source says that all the things they're worried about are going to happen then that anonymous source is a troll.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Well, I'll be watching this closely.
The update gives me some hope.
Who knows? Maybe, just maybe I might start disliking facebook a little bit less.

 

[weirdee]

Words are cheap.

Every action has a price, and if Oculus Rift found the right price for their actions, will Facebook find theirs?

 

[Lightknight]

Read the update on the article. Facebook (supposedly, they need to confirm that) will continue to allow the OR team to operate autonomously just like it has done with previous acquisitions.

they didn't back the project, they bought a Dev Kit. It's literally the same price as the dev kit

Besides an overreaction, haven't you stopped to think why developers that bought a dev kit and worked with it, are now selling said dev kits because they've lost faith in it's future?

Right right, people overreact, are stupid and have no knowledge.

You've shown your contempt for the opinions of these developers pretty clearly. What good is a platform/gadget without developers, really?

Why did they need to get the dev kit's in developers hands?
Because developers are the lifeblood of a gaming device like this. And the blood is dripping out.

People bought the tech because it's good tech. Do you remember the shitty latency ridden VR we had before then? You look left and then the screen starts to look left? Or the screen was only a small low res square field of vision that in no way felt real? The Rift had already solved both of those problems. Even the 720p dev kit was awesome.

It ultimately doesn't matter what the people buying it thought. All they promised was that they were working on making VR a reality and they've sure as hell done that. They're already working on a real consumer release now and the new Dev Kit is a ton better. Everything they've promised they've done. Their mere existence has sprouted competition and forced the hands of companies like Sony and Microsoft to have something ready since VR is clearly a product we're interested in. It isn't just gimmicky like 3D and a motion control wand. It is real immersion and a way to trick your brain into presence.

So what has anyone lost? As of right now, the only thing that has changed is the logo. All the Rift developers are in their cubes today in the same town doing the same work right now. All the existing developers still have access to all the tools and the community is still there. Nothing has been lost, nothing has been changed, no promises have been broken. They just released a new Dev kit that is better in every way and are going on to make the consumer version.

But I will reiterate this point, those kickstarters who bought the rift were consumers when they bought it, not altruistic backers. You may have people who put money in it just to make it happen, like Notch, but I think they'd be mad that any uncertainty was cast on the project at all. Not that they've actually lost something yet. Carmack and Palmer were certainties, people that were trusted. Facebook is an unknown. But the Occulus Rift team CONSISTENTLY stated that the kickstarter was purely for developers to buy the product. I'd also say that where the Rift was originally an indie hardware company (if that word may be used), it's now part of a major corporation. That will irk the indie community.

If anything, I'd say this shouldn't have been allowed on kickstarter because it wasn't financially backing the product so much as buying their hardware and "kickstarting" it with development time.

Yes, yes, developers are idiots, you've made that pretty clear. The real information is that facebook is in charge now. For PR reasons they don't want to tip their hand yet and of course they had to butter up the oculus team to be able to buy them, so it's understandable that they're still excited (not to mention the $2 billion).

I'm actually a bit concerned that Facebook doesn't have a clear vision of what to do with the Rift.

Zuckerberg stated that their big plans are after games. [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/03/facebook-buys-oculus-virtual-reality.html] They plan to leave Oculus to the gaming hardware currently in production and that their goals are more strategically longterm. You know, like maybe they'll produce the Rift and then a much cheaper $100 option that's more for more basic (low latency) social interactions. We have no idea what they really plan to do and it's in their best interest to keep quite until it's closer to release but the one thing they have said is that they aren't getting in the way of the gaming hardware.

So I expect at least one true consumer Rift. But as I've said multiple times, it does not benefit Facebook to ruin the product. If no one buys it, they've just sunk $2b for no reason.

EDIT: this article was updated. Facebook is claiming that the OR will still operate autonomously just like their other acquisitions have. In the shortterm this will be like nothing has changed except for more money in OR's pocket. In the longterm it means Facebook will be a major player in the VR landscape's future.

Do you think facebook, which has a worse track record in dealing with user privacy and consumer respect than google (and that isn't easy!) will use none of their complete influence?

I don't consider Google to be all that bad with how they use information. Facebook seems to change privacy statements in weird ways that get a lot of our personal information to people we don't want to have it while Google plays as a go-between where companies aren't given our personal information but are able to market to an "internet" persona we build up from our searches. This should eventually result in ads actually being relevant to the user without being more invasive. I've already noticed that I get a lot more tech and gaming ads when I browse and I've actually found that useful at times. Compare with car and drink ads that I couldn't care less about. Or tampon and viagra ads.

Frankly, I look forward to a day where spam is actually relevant. Spam is already a fact of life and it would be a less shitty fact of life if it was about products that we would ever actually consider buying.

Do you think Facebook would buy it simply for the increase in value they expect and not use their complete influence at all?

I think Facebook could ruin the product. I just don't think it's in their best interest. Turning a display into a console with proprietary online checkins and other shenanigans would largely harm developers and make the product unsupportable. It would be a bad decision that would kill their investment. I think we're going to get at least one true consumer Occulus Rift even if you don't count the DK2 which is itself pretty darn close and still lightyears beyond anything the market has ever seen.

If facebook plays a heavy hand then all this concern and worry will be right. But we're looking at throwing the baby out with what we're not even sure is bathwater yet. Knee->jerk.

The prime reason facebook wanted to buy oculus is that they've almost completely lost their young userbase.

I'm not sure how this is a point. Every product has a life cycle. It is in a Company's best interest to use revenues of their successful product to stave off the end of its own life cycle and to expand into other successful products. Business 101. It's like you're complaining that Facebook is doing what it's supposed to be doing. Anything else would be a gross injustice to shareholders. Like a captain failing to right a listing ship.

They've migrated to twitter, instagram, snapchat and whatsapp.

So they purchase whatsapp. They tried to purchase snapchat (But the Co-founder Evan Spiegel declined and said ?deleting should be the default?).

They also purchased instagram. Note that these products continue to function, largely unchanged. Why do you think Facebook will suddenly change the way that they act

Look if you're working for facebook, get another job.

If they offered me a job, I'd happily take the job. It looks like they're trying to be the next Google by expanding into all these application and tech markets. If they succeed in expansion then there may be no stopping them.

 

[thewatergamer]

Honestly branding I'd be ok with since it is facebooks product, BUT a facebook based interface would kill what little interest I have left for the OR, also this kind of goes against the promises of the OR developers that they wouldn't let Facebook interfere with development, nothing major but still

I don't necessarily hate facebook, especially compared to alot of other major corporations, but they aren't exactly in my good books either...

I refused to preorder when I heard facebook was buying it and figured i'd wait and see what happens, but this kind of news isn't exactly helping change my mind about not pre-ordering...

 

[Jingle Fett]

snip

I have to agree with your position. Right now there just isn't enough information to tell if Facebook really will screw up OR. They may end up doing that, or they might not, but it's just way too early to tell (and while CliffyB may have crossed the line by calling Notch a baby, Notch's reaction is definitely what I would call knee-jerk). This could end up being really good for OR and there is precedent for this sort of thing turning out really well.

Here's a quote from a random internet comment on a 2009 article that I think is very relevant.

This is a disaster for Marvel; and Stan Lee's endorsement of the deal is a horror.
Disney is the home of wholesome, family entertainment.
Marvel simply doesn't fit.
Nobody has commented on how disney has let the Muppets die of neglect.
Marvel, you're next!

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/media/01disney.html


And then we got Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, Iron Man 3...And soon Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant Man, Avengers 2...(and a couple of Muppets movies to boot)
It's true that Facebook buying Oculus could be Microsoft buying Rareware again...but it could also just as easily be Disney buying Marvel.


Also, like that article you linked to said, Facebook wanted to acquire OR not for anything short term, but for the long term. After finishing the main gaming version of the OR, what should Oculus do next? Well they can use that same technology and put it to use in other places. They can use it to create a superior alternative to the google glasses...
Go on a camping trip and record the experience in 3d. Share that experience on youtube for other people to see. Put that technology in mobile devices and record 3d videos from your phone that you can view later with oculus. View a 3d recorded concert or baseball game with the ability to change seats at will...Forget using GoPro to record footage of yourself surfing or skating or something, now you could share the actual experience! Hell, more advanced cameras could record all directions at the same time, allowing you to physically look around your recorded 3d footage as if you were actually there.

If that is what Facebook is planning...I'm going to be honest, I'm completely on board and I think it's a genius move.