Facebook is on a roll; buys out Oculus VR for $2 billion.

[brandonrush]

http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-to-buy-oculus-rift-for-2-billion-2014-3

 

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[FastLaner007]

I wonder what's in it for them? I mean a quick Google search told me that Oculus is some kind of gaming goggles. Someone care to explain guys?

 

[Enki]

Curious to see how this pans out. Is Facebook going to exert control over what developers can sell (Adult content$$$$)???

 

[brandonrush]

I wonder what's in it for them? I mean a quick Google search told me that Oculus is some kind of gaming goggles. Someone care to explain guys?

If you watch some of the youtube videos on the Oculus Rift you'll see that it has some pretty ground breaking technology, but I have no clue what Facebook is going to do with the technology.

 

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[Enki]

Is this the first kickstarter project to get bought out for billions?

 

[RHL]

I'm fairly sure, yeah. How epic is that?

 

[Deleted21704]

I wonder what's in it for them? I mean a quick Google search told me that Oculus is some kind of gaming goggles. Someone care to explain guys?

Facebook has no viable way of monetizing its platform, which is now passé among the trendy set that elevated it to the mainstream. So, it is now throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

It's able to do this because of the suckers who have bought the stock at lofty valuations which rely on some magical infusion of cash through some means of business wizardry at some point in the future.

 

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[The-J]

Either Zuck knows something we don't know or they're just pulling a Yahoo circa 1999

 

[smarty]

I wonder what's in it for them? I mean a quick Google search told me that Oculus is some kind of gaming goggles. Someone care to explain guys?

I bet you didn't read the article before google searching:

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 expanded on that in a conference call following the announcement, saying he believes virtual reality will be the next big computing platform after mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

 

[Gale4rc]

About the kickstarter


- I'm 99% sure they didn't need the money from kickstarter and had investors before hand. They used it as a kickoff platform.

 

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[splok]

Curious to see how this pans out. Is Facebook going to exert control over what developers can sell (Adult content$$$$)???

FB will certainly control what gets sold over its own platform, but the Rift is just a display. If you can get adult content on your computer/device, then you shouldn't have any trouble using a Rift with it, assuming that it's made for the Rift.

If you watch some of the youtube videos on the Oculus Rift you'll see that it has some pretty ground breaking technology, but I have no clue what Facebook is going to do with the technology.

I can only assume that they want to make a communications platform from it. I've had lots of conversations about Rift's chances of going mainstream and what it needs to do to get there. There have been lots of attempts at VR headsets in the past, but there's always been a lack of content made specifically for them and just shoehorning normal content into a head-mounted display has never really worked. What it really needs to do to go from being a super-niche device into something that the average person will actually use is to solve that problem. It doesn't just need to be better at VR (which it is), it needs to be better at everything. It needs to be better than your monitor or your phone for consuming normal online content. Oh, also, the tech needs to get compact enough for it to resemble a nice pair of sunglasses too. No average person wants to be seen wearing it in it's current form (while a bit superficial, I think this is a giant barrier actually).

Those are pretty big leaps from today of course, but mobile tech is moving really fast. In a long-term view, it's hard for me to imagine this not happening. Consider how much our mobile devices are constrained by the need for a big, flat screen that we have to directly interact with. If everyone just had a pair of glasses that functioned as their universal display, that would be pretty F*cking great!

- I'm 99% sure they didn't need the money from kickstarter and had investors before hand. They used it as a kickoff platform.

I'm pretty sure the opposite happened. Their Kickstarter struck such a nerve with the public that it attracted investors to them. Afaik, they needed the kickstarter money to build the first round of dev kits, which were really just a proof of concept. If you watch any videos with their founder, Palmer, he's just a kid who's always been super-obsessed with VR. He has an infectious excitement when he talks about this stuff. I watched his presentation at GDC last year, and he almost had me convinced that I needed to drop everything and go work for Occulus heh.

 

[Genester]

I actually think it is a very smart purchase. Virtual reality is the way of the future and will be the "next big thing". Try to think above just playing virtual reality games, in one of the articles I read Zuckerberg gave examples of what was possible with this kind of technology, you could experience sitting court side at an NBA game without really being there, or sitting in a doctors office and being face to face with them when they are half way across the country, the possibilities are really endless. I know this all seems like something out of a movie now, but this is where things are heading and Facebook is going to be at the forefront of it all because of the head start they just achieved. I think this is their most significant acquisition to date.

 

[CommonCents]

I think augmented reality has much much more potential than virtual reality. Look doing real stuff, real time, in real life. Now that the VR tech is better I think it will be popular for entertainment mostly and you can't ignore the value of consumer devices, look at apple. But overall I live augmented reality better for more opportunities as a more widespread platform.

 

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[workingtitle]

Why wouldn't facebook want to invest in technology that literally captures eye movements? Think about it.

 

[CryptO]

I was a big fan of Oculus (still am) and so badly wanted to invest in their business, I think I even sent them an email once last year to ask if it was possible.

Feel slightly disappointed they've sold out to Facebook, but perhaps it is for the better of developing VR products, which is what gets me excited.

Sony also announced their VR headset for the PS4, which would of put up stiff competition against a relatively small structure like Oculus. Now, Facebook Oculus will be able to go toe-to-toe with big companies like Sony and all the others that will follow.

 

[FoxFire21]

So how would stadiums protect their ticket sales of big events?

 

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[workingtitle]

So how would stadiums protect their ticket sales of big events?

What do you mean? VR would be a god-send for people who stand to make $ from ticketed events.

Two revenue streams:
1) Physical tickets
2) The VR experience

They'll hire a few guys to be at select locations during the show (front row, side view, on stage, etc.) with all the VR equipment and record the show with binaural audio so it sounds and feels like you're physically there. The VR experience might even be better than the actual show itself.

They'd charge more $ to "attend" the show in VR live, and then less after-the-fact. It's revolutionary stuff.

 

[Eskil]

I've been sitting on an augmented reality idea for a couple of years now that I think would really be amazing. The big barrier of course is the technical execution of it.

 

[CryptO]

VR will take gaming to a whole new level!

Also, would be cool to be able to sit down and have a couple of drinks with a friend or friends that live hundreds of miles away and feel like your with them (because you can see them in full 3D).

 

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[ChristopherP]

So how would stadiums protect their ticket sales of big events?

By making people pay for virtual attendance? Being able to experience an event like that without having to travel and pay the associated costs, that's valuable.

 

[Genester]

By making people pay for virtual attendance? Being able to experience an event like that without having to travel and pay the associated costs, that's valuable.

Exactly, they will not only have real people that bought tickets in their stadium, but they can now get VR attendees to pay a fee as well to watch the game from a courtside view, can you just imagine that? Their reach could be in the millions per game if that were to happen, that's millions of people paying them.

 

[workingtitle]

I'm calling it right now. They're going to put a VR cam on quarterback's football helmets so people can pay for a first person view during the game. Sports is going to be one of the MANY killer apps.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Man, gonna be a gamechanger, perhaps along the sames lines as a car, a computer, and/or an airplane.

The hardware problems have been solved, the production lines are almost open, and the Rift will be here soon. After that it’s anybody’s guess. “I’ve written 2 million lines of code over the past 20 years, and now I’m starting from a blank page,” Carmack says. “But the sense that I’m helping build the future right now is palpable.”

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/oculus-rift-4/#x

 

[CryptO]

Man, gonna be a gamechanger, perhaps along the sames lines as a car, a computer, and/or an airplane.



http://www.wired.com/2014/05/oculus-rift-4/#x

Yep! so pumped for this...

Saving a crypto miner with 4 x r290s to run Oculus when consumer version is finally here.