Facebook to buy Oculus Rift

Obscene Jester

Obscene Jester

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Sep 12, 2013
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Imagine, the joy of crappy facebook games in virtual reality. Oh and other social interactions of course like actually writing on someones wall!

Facebook today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Oculus VR, Inc., the leader in immersive virtual reality technology, for a total of approximately $2 billion. This includes$400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock (valued at $1.6 billion based on the average closing price of the 20 trading days preceding March 21, 2014 of $69.35 per share). The agreement also provides for an additional$300 million earn-out in cash and stock based on the achievement of certain milestones.
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http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/facebook-to-acquire-oculus-252328061.html

I'm excited to announce that we've agreed to acquire Oculus VR, the leader in virtual reality technology.

Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. For the past few years, this has mostly meant building mobile apps that help you share with the people you care about. We have a lot more to do on mobile, but at this point we feel we're in a position where we can start focusing on what platforms will come next to enable even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences.
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This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.
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https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10101319050523971?stream_ref=1

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This could make Sony's offering all the more important when it comes to game focused content, depending on where the Rift drifts.
 
Wow. Who saw this coming. Had to do a Yahoo Finance check to make sure!

One thing's for sure, talk about selling out..... to a social media company. Not even to a game maker. lol $2B for Oculus Rift? lol. The thing is still in development. Don't be surprised if this thing is a half hearted sham at the end of the day with mediocre games.

Looking forward to Candy Crush and Farmville in VR.
 
Welp. Interest in that is dead. Hopefully Sony lets theirs work with PC as well.
 
While its fun to write it off cause its owned by facebook now....you should pay close attention to who still works for the company. If you see John Carmack run off now...yes be concerned.

On the other end...look at the cash infusion this company just got. Could end up well for those interested. Like what do you think Facebook could do to mess it up? They own a social website. They don't make the facebook games.
 
So.. John Carmack is now a facebook game-developer... :p

They say Oculus VR will operate independently inside Facebook, but I have my doubts how long that will remain true. :-/
In any case, facebook has alot of financial muscle, so maybe they can make something wich dosn't look like a diving-mask, and maybe they might be able to push down pricing aswell, by producing greater bulk.
Could be some cool social-stuff in VR atleast.. :-)
 
No. What Im saying is that I wont buy it SPECIFICALLY because facebook owns it.
 
I'm kind of in shock right now. lol There's so many angles to go at this.

The initial knee-jerk reaction is negative for sure. I need time to process this.
 
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KongRudi said:
So.. John Carmack is now a facebook game-developer... :p

They say Oculus VR will operate independently inside Facebook, but I have my doubts how long that will remain true. :-/
In any case, facebook has alot of financial muscle, so maybe they can make something wich dosn't look like a diving-mask, and maybe they might be able to push down pricing aswell, by producing greater bulk.
Could be some cool social-stuff in VR atleast.. :-)
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I'm curious what you think Facebook would do to negatively effect this outside of cut budgets (which if they did would certainly not be in the short term.) It makes sense Facebook wants to branch into what they think is a future technology. Its not like game developers are now no longer going to make games. I mean for the most part, the parts are done. The final consumer version is the next step.

The more i think about the more this is a GOOD thing. If someone like Microsoft bought them..all of a sudden its only on xbox....they would probably demand more control of the team/production. Having someone not REALLY in the game space this is going to live in is the optimum outcome.

Adam said:
No. What Im saying is that I wont buy it SPECIFICALLY because facebook owns it.
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Whats wrong with facebook?
 
It always seemed like a tech demo for a rich investor to snap up anyway.

Oh well, VR has been dead to me since The Lawnmower Man craze when you could play around with VR goggles at Blockbuster faded.
 
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Notch is not impressed. He has just cancelled a deal to bring Minecraft to Oculus.
 
How did Facebook get so much money in their pocket? Billion of dollars is a lot.
 
Thug541 said:
I'm curious what you think Facebook would do to negatively effect this outside of cut budgets (which if they did would certainly not be in the short term.) It makes sense Facebook wants to branch into what they think is a future technology. Its not like game developers are now no longer going to make games. I mean for the most part, the parts are done. The final consumer version is the next step.

The more i think about the more this is a GOOD thing. If someone like Microsoft bought them..all of a sudden its only on xbox....they would probably demand more control of the team/production. Having someone not REALLY in the game space this is going to live in is the optimum outcome.
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To be frank, I think this is very good for VR overall. :)

But if it's good for hobby-developers interested in buying Oculus as a stand-alone devkit, selling with tools for games - at a very low profit-margin, I have my doubts. :-/
I think this would have been better, if it had happened in a year or two, after more game-devs have had time to sink it's teeth into experimenting with VR.
But overall, I think it's a good thing, I just would have liked it to happen abit later.

Clearly, gamers like me, is most interested in the VR-tech used in games. It brings a new dimension to gameplay.
The Valkyrie multiplayer demo were it were mainly used for a helmet in a space-ship sounded particularly exciting.
The stuff I want, is a single-player game like the old Wing Commander-games, and 3D cutscenes - with that tech - if we can play comfortably like that over long periods of time - my life would be pretty great.. :-P
But, I'm not blind to the fact that you'll probably have a much bigger market for 'Visit Disneyland with FacePlate VR'. :-/
Not saying that is what happens next, it's just one thing I think is more likely to happen.. :-)
 
Insane news.

This move could potentially take VR from a niche hardcore gamer movement to a global movement by transforming it into a platform down the line, yet lots of people are upset when they see the name "Facebook". This company was fighting for scraps and had to take to Kickstarter and now they have the financial backing to do literally ANYTHING. The positive far outweighs the stigma of "Facebook :(" for me. Even if Oculus' image suffers as a result, it's going to put VR out there in ways they literally never could have before and in general it will help push all VR tech to te forefront.
 
KongRudi said:
Facebook had 1.23 billion active users in december 2013, out of the roughly 7 billion people in the world. :-/
That's a pretty big marketplace. :)
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Yep. When one in seven people in the entire world use your service, you have A LOT of marketing data on your hands.
 
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