Oculus VR, the company behind the Kickstarted virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift, has been acquired by Facebook for $2 billion. I guess competition for Sony's Project Morpheus just got a little bit thinner/thicker?
As noted in a brief report by VR Focus, Mark Zuckerberg made a post on Facebook saying...
“I'm excited to announce that we've agreed to acquire Oculus VR, the leader in virtual reality technology.”“Oculus's mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Their technology opens up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences.”“After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face -- just by putting on goggles in your home.”
Zuckerberg points to making the world more “open and connected”, to which there is a long line of comments decrying how it costs crazy amounts of money to just have standard Facebook posts get seen by the intended audience, or how ads pervade every single waking moment of the social media service.
More than anything, there are multiple threads across Reddit – one in particular on the /r/Games/ sub-reddit – where gamers completely breakdown, almost about as much as Cleveland broke down when Lebron abandoned the Cavaliers for the Heat.
However, the whining, crying and the weeping isn't without merit. One certain Rasmus Heide passionately, and briefly, wrote a quick rebuttal, saying...
“Your mission is still to make the world more open and connected? Like you said when you purchased snapchat (or whatever it was), but you're still putting up artificial fences around Posts to Pages, impairing visibility of your user's Posts to other users. This furthers neither openness nor connectedness. You won't read this, but one or two people might Like it.”
One of the big concerns about this takeover is that the Rift was completely geared toward gamer-centric immersion. It was funded by gamers for gamers.
Taking it commercial under a large banner corporation like Facebook looks like – to a lot of gamers – as the Rift becoming a mainstream sell-out device. There is very little eagerness or hope from the community that good will come from this deal.
Nevertheless, Oculus VR's co-founder, Brendan Iribe, commented about the buyout with words of positivity, as noted on Player Attack, saying...
“We are excited to work with Mark and the Facebook team to deliver the very best virtual reality platform in the world. We believe virtual reality will be heavily defined by social experiences that connect people in magical, new ways. It is a transformative and disruptive technology, that enables the world to experience the impossible, and it's only just the beginning.”
Words of encouragement and all, Mr Iribe's comments did nothing to assuage the feeling of betrayal that resulted in an internet wide cry of pain through gnashed teeth and teary eyes.
DualShocker's Giuseppe Nelva appropriately summed up the situation with the following...
You can learn more about the deal by paying $150 to reach a potential 150,000 people, and maybe you might get the proper links sent to you in your Facebook feed.
‘I Think I Was Terrible’: Daisy Ridley Recalls Star Wars Nerves During The Force Awakens’ First Read Through
Swifties Can't Stop Speculating About Why Taylor Swift Seemingly Edited Joe Alwyn Out Of Her 'Bejeweled' BTS Video
The Masked Singer's Season 12 Winners Get Honest About Whether It's Easier For Groups Or Solo Competitors On The Show
