Oculus to sell to facebook for $2 billion
- Thread starter grossaffe
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Mister Nickels
Active Member
RIP in piece occultist riff. At least I still have my Victormaxx.
They never said they wouldn't keep working on games. Facebook is one of the best companies you can get bought by. From what I understand, they generally leave you alone and you now have a lot more money to play with. A lot of people still don't even know Facebook owns Instagram.
Congrats Palmer, and ignore the haters.
Congrats Palmer, and ignore the haters.
Antome
Forum Blooper
I see no problems for VR in the short term, but I see big consequences further down the line.
internal conference at facebook
This won't affect oculus short-term, but chances are they aren't going to continue the hardware focus once everything is fleshed out a few years down the line.
My predictions for the future are either an ad-supported platform(which oculus considered in the past), or an ARM-esque licensing of technology out to other manufacturers, to counter say, google.
In other words, I see this as net-positive for short-term VR development, but progressively bad in the long term. Facebook wants to be the flagship of VR so that they can collect information and put ads on it, not because they want to become a Sony. This is no different from Google's strategy of buying startups which seem promising as a data-collection/ad platform.
To take youtube as an analogy, Google gradually improved the service to a point where nothing was comparable, at which point they started integrating other Google products and services, to the point where youtube has only gotten worse since 2011. I see this as the path for the rift, specifically.
VR went from being a grass-roots movement into the next iteration of big business in the space of a week, which is kind of disheartening. Of all people, I'm actually rooting for Sony at this point, because at least they will want to make the best product possible, consistently, far into the future.
internal conference at facebook
tl;dl Facebook doesn't really know what they're going to do with oculus at this point (not unusual for facebook at this point), but they clearly want to own a piece of the VR pie when head-wearables become a thing.
This won't affect oculus short-term, but chances are they aren't going to continue the hardware focus once everything is fleshed out a few years down the line.
My predictions for the future are either an ad-supported platform(which oculus considered in the past), or an ARM-esque licensing of technology out to other manufacturers, to counter say, google.
In other words, I see this as net-positive for short-term VR development, but progressively bad in the long term. Facebook wants to be the flagship of VR so that they can collect information and put ads on it, not because they want to become a Sony. This is no different from Google's strategy of buying startups which seem promising as a data-collection/ad platform.
To take youtube as an analogy, Google gradually improved the service to a point where nothing was comparable, at which point they started integrating other Google products and services, to the point where youtube has only gotten worse since 2011. I see this as the path for the rift, specifically.
VR went from being a grass-roots movement into the next iteration of big business in the space of a week, which is kind of disheartening. Of all people, I'm actually rooting for Sony at this point, because at least they will want to make the best product possible, consistently, far into the future.
All these farmville jokes rather bother me. facebook != Zynga </killjoy>
From an idealogical standpoint, I'm upset. I thought Palmer was big on small business and whatnot.
Other than that, I'm excited. This is a great move for both facebook and Oculus from a business standpoint. Also, it probably makes the venture capitalist that put ~100m in it VERY happy as they likely just got something around a 5-10x REI within the year, assuming I'm good at assumptions.
I would like to know more about how much say Palmer himself actually had in the final decision, but I imagine that the amount of ownership he had prior to this and now has are not the kinda thing you want publicly known.
I'm interested to see how much facebook is going to invest into this company. It would be amazing to see them partner with screen makers to get panels specifically made for the rift that allow for an AR more in line with what the human eye sees. I would love to see a screen with something like a 5:2 or 3:1 AR in one of these headsets.
Obtaining this at a high quality is probably still beyond what facebook can reasonably fund, though...
From an idealogical standpoint, I'm upset. I thought Palmer was big on small business and whatnot.
Other than that, I'm excited. This is a great move for both facebook and Oculus from a business standpoint. Also, it probably makes the venture capitalist that put ~100m in it VERY happy as they likely just got something around a 5-10x REI within the year, assuming I'm good at assumptions.
I would like to know more about how much say Palmer himself actually had in the final decision, but I imagine that the amount of ownership he had prior to this and now has are not the kinda thing you want publicly known.
I'm interested to see how much facebook is going to invest into this company. It would be amazing to see them partner with screen makers to get panels specifically made for the rift that allow for an AR more in line with what the human eye sees. I would love to see a screen with something like a 5:2 or 3:1 AR in one of these headsets.
Obtaining this at a high quality is probably still beyond what facebook can reasonably fund, though...
I wouldn't say "*Can'tSayThisOnTV* off," but I would try to look into more of a partnership or an investment situation than a sell.
That said, I fully understand the sale, and again, I want to know how much sway Palmer actually had in it all and more about the nature of the acquisition.
That said, I fully understand the sale, and again, I want to know how much sway Palmer actually had in it all and more about the nature of the acquisition.
Antome
Forum Blooper
I doubt palmer would be obliged to say, but I think it's safe to say that once the new CEO came on board, palmer probably didn't have any forcible weight behind him relative to the investors.
Nevertheless, palmer probably still made a tidy sum for himself, so the real fanfare is slow-burning.
I think the biggest question here is whether the uptake on innovative developments is really going to happen, even with the increased budget.
Valve has been a major collaborator with Oculus this entire time, and Gabe is not a fan of public companies in the slightest. Where It counts, I don't believe passionate developers are going to jump ship any more than they had before. I don't think we will see any more of the likes of John Carmack joining the team at this point. So the biggest and most easily realisable concern is that the plug has been pulled on community involvement, and will lead to self-perpetuating stagnation after the first couple of release variants come around.
Nevertheless, palmer probably still made a tidy sum for himself, so the real fanfare is slow-burning.
I think the biggest question here is whether the uptake on innovative developments is really going to happen, even with the increased budget.
Valve has been a major collaborator with Oculus this entire time, and Gabe is not a fan of public companies in the slightest. Where It counts, I don't believe passionate developers are going to jump ship any more than they had before. I don't think we will see any more of the likes of John Carmack joining the team at this point. So the biggest and most easily realisable concern is that the plug has been pulled on community involvement, and will lead to self-perpetuating stagnation after the first couple of release variants come around.
Antome
Forum Blooper
But it's not kneejerk, if anything it's seeing well into the long-term of things.
Facebook is not a hardware company, and they know it. I guarantee they are going to gradually dial down the hardware-development component of the team after the first few revisions/years of the hardware, before being little more than a revision-crew and a team of software developers integrating the rift as closely into the facebook ecosystem as possible.
This is a great business decision between everyone involved now, but once the responsibility of all parties gets diffused over the years, oculus itself will likely also become diffuse.
Plus it doesn't matter if it was hypothetically kneejerk. XBone was still receiving hate from developers well after launch and well after correcting their PR mistakes, giving sony a natural advantage without even trying. I can't help but feel that this is going to be 2013 all over again.
Facebook is not a hardware company, and they know it. I guarantee they are going to gradually dial down the hardware-development component of the team after the first few revisions/years of the hardware, before being little more than a revision-crew and a team of software developers integrating the rift as closely into the facebook ecosystem as possible.
This is a great business decision between everyone involved now, but once the responsibility of all parties gets diffused over the years, oculus itself will likely also become diffuse.
Plus it doesn't matter if it was hypothetically kneejerk. XBone was still receiving hate from developers well after launch and well after correcting their PR mistakes, giving sony a natural advantage without even trying. I can't help but feel that this is going to be 2013 all over again.
