Oculus Rift Purchased by Facebook for $2 Billion

[Terminus]

So, a few hours ago, news broke that Facebook was buying the Oculus Rift for $2 Billion.

This is hardly a large purchase for the Social Media Monopoly giant, but one has to wonder what their motivation is on this purchase (as opposed to the $19 Billion buyout of WhatsApp, which at least was related to Social Media).

So, what do you think of this? IS it a good thing? A bad thing? Will this help the Rift or make it into a joke?


EXTRA: Notch will not bring Minecraft to the Rift as a result of the acquisition.

 

[Ayn Marx]

DOES THIS MEAN WE CAN SEE FARMVILLE IN 3D THIS IS THE FUTURE

 

[Libk]

Well I'm done. Damn Facebook

 

[Fraxinus]

DOES THIS MEAN WE CAN SEE FARMVILLE IN 3D THIS IS THE FUTURE

Nah, probably not. Farmville and like games are developed by Zynga, which is basically a company that makes their own version of every single flash game that gets popular on Facebook so they can get the monies. Maybe they'll make a rip off of the oculus rift, too. Because they know how to get under the radar on copyright infringement and such so well.

 

[Salem]

I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's kind of worrying.

 

[Mercedes]

My God, comment sections on every gaming news website about this... it doesn't take much to set gamers off, eh? Oculus is still it's own company. It is still operating as it always was and always has. Nothing has immediately changed. This acquisition is giving the Oculus guys more resources to work with and a bigger audience. If you love the Rift and you believe in it, and Oculus, then this is not an inherently bad thing like people are ignorantly whining about.

Because I like Oculus. I think they're passionate guys and are doing a great job, I wasn't too big on VR but they convinced me that their goal was a good one and I backed it because of that. Facebook has not bought Oculus and then kicked out all of the executives and replaced them with their own, or changed what everyone is doing and working on. Oculus is still Oculus. Carmack, who was probably bombarded with tweets since he's said he's refusing to answer questions till stuff has "died down" dismissed this by tweeting "For the record, I am coding right now, just like I was last week." If you believed in Oculus, the Oculus you believe in is still there, except they now have more resources! So I'll just wait and see how this plays out, who knows how it'll go, it could change, but I still have every intention of buying an Oculus and I think people changing their mind about it purely based on this acquisition are being quite silly.

 

[Ocarina_Player]

Well you know they'll have the funds to do whatever they want with it. I just hope they're really serious about developing it into a competent gaming platform.

EDIT: Just saw Mercedes post. So they're still just as serious, but now they have the funds to make this really work. I'm cool with this.

 

[Fig]

I think this video sums up the general audience in the video game world. I'm not trying to say that I'm seeing you in this light, but you have to admit the news that Facebook bought the Oculus Rift is quite astonishing across the gaming world. Personally I am rather conflicted by this turn of events. I really didn't care who bought the Oculus Rift, as long as it continues to be marketed as the game console it was developed to originally be. But from what I heard, it seems that Facebook is going to market the Oculus Rift as a social platformer. That is what concerns me the most in all of this. Next thing you know, I'm going to be gaming, and then suddenly my screen is going to be filled with "LIKE FOR LOOKS!" and all that crap.
[video=youtube;VFx0p_8fXXQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFx0p_8fXXQ&list=UU4_bwov47DseacR1-ttTdOg[/video]

 

[JuicieJ]

Geez, and I thought people knee-jerk reacting about Ground Zeroes was pathetic.

 

[Justac00lguy]

Facebook won't take full control the product and I'm sure the main people begin the Oculus Rift will be in charge of the normal operations as it is their product after all.

This is known in business terms as an "acquisition", which is basically where a larger company takes over a smaller company. Usually this is done by purchasing the shares, or it can be done by buying the assets of the company - in this situation it's probably the former. Anyway, think of it like any majority shareholder, they don't really control the day-to-day operations, but they serve mainly as the head figures. Of course they will make the big decisions, but these will be business based.

So basically, Facebook will make the larger business decisions like finance, marketing, expanding etc. You don't necessarily have to be involved in the market to make these decisions and thus it will only help further launch the company. Think about it, Facebook is a huge company with smart higher ups and the big thing: money. Buy buying the company behind the Oculus Rift they will be able to inject some good business knowledge and more capital [money basically] into a lesser experienced company.

 

[Emma]

All you have to do is look to Microsoft and the Xbox One. They wanted to have people use the Kinect for.... EVERYTHING. Gaming, music, movies, internet. Everything. Same thing with this. The idea is that they're going to try to use it with everything, not just gaming. Even if gaming is where it starts. It won't work. most of the 30+ population despises these gimmicks when forced to use them long term. And so does a fair amount of the < 30 year population. It'll only ever be a novelty used once and a while.

But it does have legitimate non-gaming purposes. But those systems need to be way better. For things like medical training, pilot training. I can see it going far in that. but it would need to be specialized systems. I do not think it'll ever catch on with the mainstream public.