Facebook buys Oculus VR for $2 billion. The dream is over.

I dont trust Facebook to do this thing the right way. The focus will definitely shift from games to other pointless mainstream apps. Cant believe Carmack sold out, but tbh for $2 billion I would have too.

Mark Zuckerberg's announcement: (Gamespot wont let me copy paste)

https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101319050523971?stream_ref=1

What do you guys think? Good news? Bad news? Non news?

Sucks balls. So much for these guys wanting to innovate. I don't see how this deal is going to be beneficial to gaming. I would also like to add that this move is most likely greed on the Oculus Rift team more than anything else. They were not in need of money.

VR was a fad anyway. I'm more excited about what Facebook can do with it than gaming. Who would want to wear a idiotic looking box on their head to play a game? Gaming is becoming more social but people with VR's strapped on their head are being antisocial, sticking the computer ever closer to their eyes and avoiding the world around them.

Is there a worse company that could have possibly bought them? I'd have more faith in even MS or EA.

Bad news all around. It won't take long for data mining to be forced into the SDK. I'll be cancelling my DK2 preorder.

Talk about simulation sickness. Now the damn thing is going to be littered with ads. They just took our American dream and shit on it again.

*raises cartoon villain fists* DAMN YOOUUU FB!

I am so fricken sick of hearing about Facebook. Hey guys I invented myspace 2.0 and now I have more money that everyone but Buffet and Gates. Yeah me. Now I'm going to buy every other company and re-purpose it to my shitty online profile site. This dude is trolling the planet.

Welp, there goes any hope I had for the unit. Instead of headlining creative new ways to increase immersion, it will probably be used for more meager purposes.

They're still going to innovate... that is, innovate social networking. It looks like gaming probably won't be their main focus anymore.

Anyway, are you sure you wouldn't "sell out" for $2 billion? That's way too much cash to resist...

Facebook......The new Microsoft.

I'm not sure which Facebook news is worse. This, or that they're going to start limiting Pages. I keep up with a lot of musicians I like via their posts on Facebook, but now Facebook is going to limit their appearance on news pages and suggest that people start buying ad space, which is horrible for smaller artists trying to get a little recognition.

I wasn't entirely convinced by VR, but I was still curious to see what could happen. This, however, eh, back to apathy.

VR wasn't going to be a big hit this gen anyway. Eventually its time will come, but that time won't be anytime soon.

Meh. While it is surprising I really don't I care about it all that much. It would be great for some games but there's still plenty of other types of games that I enjoy where I don't think VR would work all that well with. Plus there's still Sony's Morpheus and what ever Microsoft is working on. Oculous isn't the only VR device around. Interested in seeing what things Facebook might do with it besides just gaming though.

I am very surprised by the price of this buy out. It seems like a huge risk on something that, as far as I know, is not a consumer product yet. I personally am not into the whole virtual reality thing (unless the developers can really make unique experiences and also make it like something out of science fiction programs where it really does feel like your in another world which I doubt we are at yet) so I guess this news does not concern me. However, is Oculus something people have been really excited for and are lining up to buy? I just don't see a $2 billion market for this thing, it feels like 3D Blu Ray where people get excited early on then it wears out and people move on?

Curious as others have said to see where this goes, but this just seems like it could be a waste of 2 billion dollars for a Kickstarter company which has yet to make a product consumers can buy.

it was good while it lasted guys, too bad for Carmack and the rest of the gang

So... VR Farmville?

Or maybe that episode of South Park where Stan gets sucked into Facebook (literally) was actually prophetic? YAHTZEE!

Over on Joystiq people are saying Sony's VR is in big trouble. Facebook has a much bigger market to sell to and they can put the Oculus on whatever platform they want, while Sony's VR is only for PlayStation consoles.

No one with any integrity will be selling any games built with the Facebook/Oculus SDK

Oculus are dead and that'll be bad news for Sony too, they need developers and content

Why? Doesn't Sony have Facebook share built in (you know from all those 'sharing is caring' commercials)? I guess they have no integrity...... All this anger toward Facebook must stem from playing RPG's in a basement and being afraid of the world or something. Outside of gamers (and conspiracy theorists) no one hates Facebook.

But Google also makes money from ads and "stealing" personal info, yet Android still gets plenty of developer support.

Sony gets plenty of support from developers. They have the biggest roster of first-party studios in the industry, and they actively reach out to third-party developers for content.

@darthgumballs: Maybe you're right. What would I know, I'm just a developer that has cancelled their DK2 preorder and is currently scrubbing the SDK from my main PCs

Oh man, you totally represent all of gaming, my bad bro.

@barrybarryk: So I'm guessing you never use the PS4's Share feature? It's actually really fun to brag about your gameplay accomplishments and falures by uploading footage directly to Twitch, Facebook, and Ustream.

@tendoboy1984: No I don't, but those features are optional and I have no real problem with them existing. With Facebook owning Oculus (and their SDK) I can't guarantee they aren't data mining anyone using my software whether they know it or not. I want **** all to do with Facebook, I won't be peddling their malware. Just wait until the scumbags at the likes of Zynga announce their VR projects.

The dream for Occlus Rift is over, Facebook has no experience or knowhow and once you get a owner like that, it becomes all about the cash.

So goodbye Rift.

But its not bad news for VR, Sony and MS and google are all working on their idea´s so lets see at E3 what they will bring to the table.

I speak for the people.

I am not entirely sure what to think about this. It is an odd combination, social media giant and VR company. Does this mean we"ll see a VR version of say, Farmville??? Only time will tell how this pans out.

@dvader654: What you just described sounds like it was pulled out of a science fiction novel. Trips to Mars?

Do you work for Facebook?

And this post ROFL if that happen in the next few generations our grandkids are lucky, but nothing you mention will ever be around in yours or my lifetime.

You know you sound like those old Sci-fi writers from the 60´s right? :=)

But ya i do not believe from watching how the technology have advanced since i was a kid , will advance to anything close to what you are suggesting, its just to far away from any tech that is even remotely viable today, also have you tried the Rift? only thing that has advanced from that and the glasses in the late 80´s early 90´s is the graphics of the games it can run and the size, the core is still the same.

Also you are probably together with Solid the only people i have heard who can see anything positive about Facebook and its purchase, and the first "cancellation" of games has already come out from Notch. And you might not think much of minecraft but it did sell close to 50mill and would have helped the Rift insanely.

i think you are downplaying the main reason for this negative reaction. This is facebook we are talking about. A company that makes its money by shoving advertising down our throats. If it was any other hardware electronics company like Apple or Samsung or even Microsoft, people would not be this averse to it.

Facebook is almost a dirty word at this point. They have again and again shown they have no concern for the privacy of their users. They have redesigned their entire layout dozens of times just to incorporate ads. They are a very anti-consumer company. Or at least that's what their perception is anyway. They live off of ad money. The entire company is built around ad revenue.

I agree with you that this will force people to take VR seriously and at the very least help it go mainstream. However, Facebook has shown absolutely no reason why it can lead in the hardware space. I dont blame people for being skeptical.

Yeah not sure about this... I wasn't sold on the whole VR thing anyway.

Ok, i have tried the Rift and i do agree its pretty spectacular but its also quite tiresome to use it for more than a hour or 2 at the most, and anyone who says they don't get tired/sick/have problems is a lying piece of toast. So at least until that problem is sorted i don't see VR Rift to be anything than a fad.

And in terms of tech i must admit i don't have your confidence, if you look at how tech have advanced in computers the last 20years we just in the last 8years went away from CRT to flat monitors and graphics cards might have gotten more powerful but its not that huge a jump from Voodoo to the cards now.

So from that and until Star Trek VR is way to huge a leap for me to believe will happen, if does in my lifetime then i wont be sad it did but i dont believe it.

The worse thing they can do to gaming is release a market version of the Oculus, and that was the plan anyway so we are not worse off.

Maybe sony will release PC drivers for their headset they are working on.

Yep, that fatigue is not good, i never usually get "carsick" but darn after a hour or so it was really ....

And yep dev kit 1 not the one they released on the expo in Vegas. which is said to be a lot better but i'm still hearing that its not good. but its for sure the future and once it hits the stage like in heavy rain its going to be insane :D

Bet mom can't wait to play Bubble Witch with the Oculus Rift.

At least you can admit that. Wouldn't you want to do the same thing for that money? I know I would!

Great, can't wait to be forced to sign up for FB to log-in so I can access "Face Rift", a socially Steamlike focused VR client in order to use it. Looking forward to seeing ads broadcasted to me while I'm dogfighting in Star Citizen.

Sony, here I come.

Ye it is kinda creepy they just randomly bought now, now my hype has gone down, props going have spyware built into the device now, and forced FB useage.

@dvader654:

Again, you are missing the point. The problem isn't that we have to put up with ads, it's that ads are Facebook's only source of income. Not sales. Facebook doesn't produce content. So when this thing does come out, they will need to make it profitable. THat means integrating it with facebook, and just like that the product has changed. When you buy an electronics device, you dont pay to watch ads.

And you cant tell me you dont get the backlash against Facebook of all companies. It's pretty well known that they've changed their privacy settings without properly informing their users many times. Facebook started off as an exclusive club, and back then they never said anything about sharing your info with ad agencies or secretly making your profile public. One day only my friends could see my photos, the next day the entire world can. Facebook gets shat on because they have repeatedly lost their users trust. You also give the government ALL of your private info, but you know that it wont be shared with other companies trying to make a buck. Facebook wasn't just some website you uploaded your entire life to, it succeeded because of the privacy features. Excluding people you didn;t want as friends was THE main attraction.

This is Facebook's first hardware acquisition. What history are you referring to? I can promise you that there will be ads on WhatsApp. I can promise you that instagram will change too. Just like Skype did. IT's just the nature of the business. Whether or not Facebook's intentions are geniune, we simply do not know. All we know is that this guy has put the privacy of his website's users below the interests of the corporations that pay for the ad space. Dont underestimate the internet. They knew straight away that X1's DRM was a bad deal and they know that Facebook's ENTIRE model is designed around USING its userbase. That's common sense.

P.S You need content to make this thing successful. Facebook produces absolutely no content. Nothing except for their website's features. I really dont see why the OR guys would pick Facebook of all other comapnies out there for any reason other than them being the highest bidder.