[An4ximandros]

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/facebook-to-acquire-oculus-252328061.html
http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/25/5547474/facebook-acquire-oculus-vr-2-billion

[Mongoose]

Well that potentially demolishes my enthusiasm for it.

[JCDNWarrior]

Gets harder and harder to get away from these mass info-intelligence gathering companies. It doesn't bode well, I can imagine a lot of dystopian appliances to things like this, though it might require the Rift to become modified.

If only Kickstarter backers had some kind of legal ownership of the product/company for effectively causing them to (still) exist to begin with.

Let's hope it's competitors won't disappoint.

[General Battuta]

lol

[An4ximandros]

WOULD SOMEBODY TELL CARMACK TO THINK OF DEKKER?!

[swashmebuckle]

With all those glassholes running around silicon valley, it was only a matter of time before all the big players got theirs. Facebook buys Occulus Rift. Twitter brings back virtual boy. The myspace guy hits himself in the face with a Tiger handheld, etc.

[An4ximandros]

Palmer Luckey is engaging in PR speak now...

These developers are theirs, they have claimed them as an instrument of their design.

[Hobbie]

Palmer Luckey is engaging in PR speak now...

These developers are theirs, they have claimed them as an instrument of their design.

I imagined evil laughter after this statement.

Also: https://twitter.com/notch/status/448586381565390848

[Dragon]

Honestly? I don't care. I don't play Minecraft, and my little brother (who does) probably isn't gonna get OR anyway. Unless SCP and Squad boycott Oculus Rift because of this, I'm not going to care if Facebook has their hands in development or not. And even then, all hardcore simulators like ArmA or DCS will probably get support for OR, because it just has too much potential in for them to pass. I will be getting Oculus Rift once it's available, though it probably won't be cheap (Dev kit 2 is 350$, so I don't expect release to cost much less).

[An4ximandros]

"...We are not a hardware company..." "...There might be advertisement..." http://www.shareholder.com/visitors/event/build3/stage/stage.cfm?mediaid=63723&mediauserid=0

Yeah... I will just quietly sink into the shadows and forget about the "O! cul us!"

[Scourge of Ages]

Well I was optimistic for the Rift, and I still am. But it's now (heavily) tempered by caution. You never know, maybe Zuckerberg just wanted a chunk of the pie, and will be content to keep his invasive mitts off the Rift. That's probably the ideal situation.

Otherwise, we still have the Sony whatcha-ma-call-virtua-face-thing that showed up at GDC.
https://twitter.com/SimoRoth/status/446096306311032832

Pre-EDIT: Morpheus is currently PS4 only. Well. If that doesn't change, looks like I might be sticking with the giant LCD. LIKE A CAVE MAN.

[Bobboau]

http://notch.net/2014/03/virtual-reality-is-going-to-change-the-world/

[Aardwolf]

Oh. That's where he's been posting instead of his tumblr. Dammit, Notch.

[0rph3u5]

I don't know why there is reason to freak out... actually Im tempted to say nothing really happened here

OR would not have revolutionized the gaming I care for; It is like 3d for movies (nice to be there when done well, otherwise just an unneesary selling-point for having-a-selling-point's sake)

VR doesn't make narratives deeper or gameplay more engageing - it might just do the opposite (but the flaws and merrits of VR are a matter for another time)

[TwentyPercentCooler]

reddit is exploding in rage over this. It's hilarious.

I don't really have a dog in this fight, since I was never interested in OR, but **** Facebook. They're going to ruin OR with "market research" and advertising; it's almost a given, because otherwise there's no fathomable reason why a social media and market research company would pay 2 billion dollars for this.

[Dragon]

As long as the ads are not displayed during the game, I don't see how they'd use that for advertising (except maybe by putting a huge "OCULUS RIFT SUPPORTERS" sign on FB). As for "market research", I don't think the driver software would have to be connected to the net (since this would disallow offline play), so I don't think they have any real way of "ruining" OR. They could load the installer with bloatware and ads, but I don't think it'd be too bad.

[666maslo666]

wow.. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand they need capital in the billions to really bring VR into its full potential, custom hardware, building a new software platform and large-scale developer support aint cheap. On the other hand, its ****ing Facebook!

According to a person involved in the deal who was not allowed to speak publicly because he was not authorized by either company, Facebook eventually plans to redesign the Oculus hardware and rebrand it with a Facebook interface and logo.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/technology/facebook-to-buy-oculus-vr-maker-of-virtual-reality-headset.html?hpw&rref=business&_r=0

ugh..

If the product is good this doesnt change my decision to buy the Rift one bit, tough.

[Luis Dias]

i really dont get why facebook is touching this.

on twitter someone smart said something smart: the idea of the Occulus Rift is escapism, the idea of Facebook is social interaction. They both don't mix.

[The E]

Who knows, maybe they want to reinvent Second Life?

[Nuke]

you know what, **** it. im sick and tired of awesome new technology being dangled in my face and then locked down by bull****. hardware physics, nope locked down. smartphones, locked down. tablets, locked down. now vr, locked the **** down. i dont even want to know what the next new thing is because its going to be locked down. **** all y'all.

BOYCOTT COMPANIES THAT LOCK DOWN TECH
**** BOYCOTTS, STEAL THEIR STUFF, BREAK THEIR THINGS
NO! **** THAT! HUNT THEM DOWN AND MURDER THEM!

really that could have come out better