You've heard by now that Facebook has purchased Oculus and you likely have an opinion on the matter. There are quite a few issues this sale raises for the technologically inclined. For the Kickstarter backers, the question of the propriety of Vulture Capitalists benefiting monetarily from a project which began in part because of their donation made on Kickstarter; which still did net them a device. For those hoping that Oculus was going to be a project designed and lead by Palmer Luckey and involving John Carmack with little oversight or pressure from a company that wants an immediate return on their investment. For some the simple involvment of Facebook is enough to sour the entire deal regardless of any other factors.
KitGuru offers some possible benefits that could come of this deal; Facebook cannot afford to slow development as competitors such as castAR will soon arrive, nor can they really push Carmack around without risking his involvement. Before you start screaming take a moment to think about everything this deal involves and then express your opinion … after all you don't get reality that is much more virtual than Facebook.
"I know guys. I know. I’m mad too. I’m sad, disappointed, even betrayed, but these are all things I’m feeling and I bet you are too. We’re having an emotional reaction to two companies worth multiple billions of dollars doing a business deal and though I can’t help but wish it hadn’t happened, I know that if I look at it logically, it makes sense for everyone."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Nvidia takes on Raspberry Pi with the Jetson TK1 mini supercomputer @ The Inquirer
- GNOME 3.12 Seeded by GNOME OS Projects @ Linux.com
- Meet Microsoft's latest Windows Server reseller – come on down, Google @ The Register
- SSD penetration rate bound to rise in 2014 @ DigiTimes
- Rosewill RGS-108P POE Gigabit Network Switch @ Modders-Inc
- Windows 8 BREAKS ITSELF after system restores @ The Register
Leaves a bad taste in my
Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
this is so sad….
this is so sad….
“…lead by John Carmack…”
“…lead by John Carmack…” should be “led by Palmer Luckey”. While the idea of a nerdy cologne sounds cool, John joined much later in the game and certainly isn’t in charge of all things Oculus.
Also, castAR is focused on augmented reality; as a VR device it’s pretty terrible. There are a few competitors, some serious and some not so much, but castAR is not one of them.
That ‘s a fair point and I
That 's a fair point and I will edit that to make it accurate. Still, I have more hopes for castAR than say Sony's toy.
Adculus Rip will be the new
Adculus Rip will be the new name for this device, as while you are killing zombies they will suddenly stop and launch into AD mode, and begin to speak Marketing babble rather than the usual zombie moans, “would you like to buy windows 8!” Oh the horror!
I can’t say if it will be a
I can’t say if it will be a good product or not as of now, but this change made me a lot more pessimistic than I was before, especially as a fairly large number of the people who may have wanted one(myself included), being tech focused, will probably reconsider based on the change.
It should also be noted that Notch, of Minecraft fame, has said that this kills the work they were doing on supporting the Rift, and I fear that other devs may follow his lead.
I don’t understand how people
I don’t understand how people can see upsides to this.
When kickstarter backers gave money to Oculus, they were promised not just the development kits, but that the final device was going to be worth developing for and that is now not going to be the case.
There is no way that Facebook Rift is going to be just a human interface device. It is going to be a data mining tool because that’s how Facebook makes money. Zuckerberg has already stated that sale of hardware is not going to be the main source of revenue.
I used to be indifferent to Facebook. I used to think – there’s billions of suckers in this world and somebody is going to take advantage of them, it might as well be Zuckerberg, but God damnit do I hate the guy now!
He has ruined what used to be the most promising VR developer out there and he has ruined my belief in enthusiast driven and funded companies being able to take on the behemoths of the industry.
My initial reaction was utter
My initial reaction was utter sadness.
There are a lot of IFS!
If I think about it rationally, this is what comes to mind. Let’s say they “stay independent” of Facebook.
If it draws the attention of Facebook execs, owners and shareholders, and they see great potential in ad revenue or something that veers from the initial vision and this becomes a great source of revenue, What do you believe will happen?
IMHO if Zuckerberg (an analogy) asks for something from Oculus, how would they be able to push back and say, “no we believe in our direction”? Facebook owns you, you must comply. They can make the claims all they want, but NO DOUBT Facebook will have a very large say in the direction Oculus takes now.
We will have to see the results, but my opinion of Facebook isn’t the highest, particularly if you look at all the controversy with the owner and his past business practices.
I wonder what people in
I wonder what people in general think about this. I’m sure that it was surprising to most, and that there are many Facebook haters, but I’m starting to get the feeling that it’s the same people going around tech websites posting anti-Facebook comments about this.
A lot of gamers, possibly most, have Facebook accounts. Most (all?) tech sites have Facebook pages, including PC Perspective. I can’t imagine that the general consensus reflects the posts being made on most tech sites.
is it to counter google
is it to counter google glass?
Should have gone for Avegant
Should have gone for Avegant Glyph. Much more easier to be adopted by tablets and smartphones and comes with premium sound too.