http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/25/facebook-to-acquire-oculus-vr-for-2-billion
So I was pretty bummed to find this out today. I really don't like Facebook much, and only have one for keeping in contact with friends. I don't play games, organize events, any of that kind of stuff through them. To me they've always been increasingly money hungry, which is disturbing.. add to that constant 'updates' and it becomes a rather unstable platform. You can't do anything on there without ads being slipped in nowadays. On top of that the Oculus Rift was intended to be a fairly 'hardcore' gaming accessory. Facebook has games yes, but it's mostly a casuals social platform. If Facebook starts mucking around with things, I can imagine that it will end with actual gamers being dissappointed, or with the casual crowd being disappointed when they purchase a gaming peripheral and discover it's not for them when they only got it because it was associated with Facebook.
Plus, now that it's a 'facebook thing', I can imagine the price point will go up since it's exclusive and what not.
The companies claim so far that they will be operating separately, and so far it's a money/stocks exchange deal. But with Facebook involved, I worry... If Oculus performs well, I can see Facebook starting to make decisions with it, and that's just darn unsettling. The acquisition has already had one ill effect however:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/25/notch-minecraft-on-oculus-canceled-facebook-creeps-me-out
Mojang was intending to create a VR formatted version of Minecraft for the Rift, but now they've pulled out of the deal, and honestly I can't say I blame them. Their concerns seem valid to me. Here's a few quotes from the article.
Notch writes. "Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers, and nothing but building user numbers. People have made games for Facebook platforms before, and while it worked great for a while, they were stuck in a very unfortunate position when Facebook eventually changed the platform to better fit the social experience they were trying to build."
"I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook. Their motives are too unclear and shifting, and they haven’t historically been a stable platform. There’s nothing about their history that makes me trust them, and that makes them seem creepy to me."
So how do you feel about this? Were you excited about the Oculus Rift? Are you still excited now that Facebook's gotten hold of it? For me at least, it definitely won't be a day one purchase anymore. I'll be keeping an eye on exactly what Nonsense Facebook is up too, and looking at Oculus alternatives...
So I was pretty bummed to find this out today. I really don't like Facebook much, and only have one for keeping in contact with friends. I don't play games, organize events, any of that kind of stuff through them. To me they've always been increasingly money hungry, which is disturbing.. add to that constant 'updates' and it becomes a rather unstable platform. You can't do anything on there without ads being slipped in nowadays. On top of that the Oculus Rift was intended to be a fairly 'hardcore' gaming accessory. Facebook has games yes, but it's mostly a casuals social platform. If Facebook starts mucking around with things, I can imagine that it will end with actual gamers being dissappointed, or with the casual crowd being disappointed when they purchase a gaming peripheral and discover it's not for them when they only got it because it was associated with Facebook.
Plus, now that it's a 'facebook thing', I can imagine the price point will go up since it's exclusive and what not.
The companies claim so far that they will be operating separately, and so far it's a money/stocks exchange deal. But with Facebook involved, I worry... If Oculus performs well, I can see Facebook starting to make decisions with it, and that's just darn unsettling. The acquisition has already had one ill effect however:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/25/notch-minecraft-on-oculus-canceled-facebook-creeps-me-out
Mojang was intending to create a VR formatted version of Minecraft for the Rift, but now they've pulled out of the deal, and honestly I can't say I blame them. Their concerns seem valid to me. Here's a few quotes from the article.
Notch writes. "Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers, and nothing but building user numbers. People have made games for Facebook platforms before, and while it worked great for a while, they were stuck in a very unfortunate position when Facebook eventually changed the platform to better fit the social experience they were trying to build."
"I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook. Their motives are too unclear and shifting, and they haven’t historically been a stable platform. There’s nothing about their history that makes me trust them, and that makes them seem creepy to me."
So how do you feel about this? Were you excited about the Oculus Rift? Are you still excited now that Facebook's gotten hold of it? For me at least, it definitely won't be a day one purchase anymore. I'll be keeping an eye on exactly what Nonsense Facebook is up too, and looking at Oculus alternatives...
