Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 announced, up for preorder (based on Crystal Cove)

It was the good time to sell, especially at this price. Zuckerberg really overpaid for this.

Morpheus would have killed this thing real fast since Sony will have both more AAA content due to 1st party studios AND a bigger potential installed base.

It's not like it was extraordinary tech or anything. It's basically a screen on your head, it's certainly easy to duplicate. 2 billions ? No way...

Another stupid Facebook move...

Joke post?
 
I wonder if this has anything to do with why they were so heavily pushing for consumers to not order the DK2.
Maybe the CV1 is better and closer than we think.


I'm just trying to stay positive over news that has kinda grossed me out
 
Can't wait to quote you in a few years when this and the other threads are hilarious in hindsight.


The gaming sector won't be enough to make a ROI for the purchase of OR and if the consumer version doesn't meet sales expectations.. ads or facebook integration will be rolled out a lot sooner. I'll see you next year.
 
http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/25/why-facebook-bought-oculus/

[Update: As for exactly how Facebook will monetize Oculus, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the call to investors, "We're clearly not a hardware company. We're not going to try to make a profit off of the hardware long-term...but if we can make this a network where people are communicating, and buying virtual goods, and there might be ads down the line...that’s where the business could come from."]

I'm not sure what to think...

That seems immoral, we're close to having technology to create virtual reality and there's already plans to brainwash the mind with ads.
 
That seems immoral, we're close to having technology to create virtual reality and there's already plans to brainwash the mind with ads.

moneyo.gif
 
Fuck.
So who's canceling their orders? I'm thinking about it, at the same time getting the version that Facebook doesn't have the time to change anything on sounds attractive.
I'm just afraid that the retail version will be technologically superior and cheaper due to FB money but they might also turn it into garbage.
 
I honestly believe people are overreacting to this whole situation. This won't be noticed by anyone, but I might as well put my predictions out there...

The acquisition will, undoubtedly, assist Oculus in bringing CV1 to the market in an even better form than it would be without. $2 billion is not pocket change, and they now have the financial backing to dictate to hardware manufacturers that will create the products they desire.

People will see little to no effect of the Facebook acquisition until the launch of CV1 and most likely a little after where Facebook will eventually bring out a social, Second-Life-like, PlayStation Home-like, VR MMO to the market. I believe this is where Facebook sees their profit opportunity in Oculus. Facebook does not care directly about the hardware, nor do they care about people using it for gaming. What Facebook has acquired this for is so they can create a social VR MMO - something that I've seen many people ask for, albeit from a gaming company and not Facebook.

And yes, this will have advertisements on it. Not very obtrusively like some of you seem to be speculating, but imagine VR billboards as you walk down a street or watching a video in VR will have an advertisement before it (no different than YouTube). Facebook will also expand this VR MMO to include their more casual gaming line - so imagine this MMO will now have Farmville integrated.

I do not disagree that this sounds terrible, but my prediction is that this will remain its own separate entity and, guess what! If you don't want to play Facebook's shitty VR MMO, you don't have to play Facebook's shitty VR MMO!

In terms of the gaming-sphere, Facebook won't touch it. Oculus will continue to operate independently as it has before to bring good gaming VR to the market.

Moving into future versions of the Rift (CV2, CV3...), the acquisition will have minimal affect beyond providing Oculus with more resources to improve the quality of their product. You might see one or two useless features in there for the purpose of Facebook's MMO, but usage of these features will be up to developers to integrate them, so they'll likely be ignored for the hardcore gaming population.

TL;DR: All in all, I'm not happy about the acquisition, but I believe that people are vastly overreacting. I will withhold judgement until I see something concrete that sways me one way or another. My predictions are that this will vastly assist Oculus in bringing a better platform to the market, quicker, with no interruption to their original vision. In the future, Facebook will utilize their new hardware to bring a social VR MMO to the market where they'll bombard you with ads, but this will not negatively affect the Rift as you don't have to play their game.
 
Fuck.
So who's canceling their orders? I'm thinking about it, at the same time getting the version that Facebook doesn't have the time to change anything on sounds attractive.
I'm just afraid that the retail version will be technologically superior and cheaper due to FB money but they might also turn it into garbage.

I feel the same way, but there's no need to cancel yet since it's not shipping until July. I can wait a few weeks and see how this plays out.
 
Fuck.
So who's canceling their orders? I'm thinking about it, at the same time getting the version that Facebook doesn't have the time to change anything on sounds attractive.
I'm just afraid that the retail version will be technologically superior and cheaper due to FB money but they might also turn it into garbage.

I'm not cancelling. This isn't going to affect the DK2 or the CV1.. Long term though..
 
Imagine a 100$ Occulus rift that has un-intrusive ads like a Kindle.

This has the power to democratize VR ten times quicker than if they stayed lone wolf.

Yes, this can be a good side of this.

But then, imagine VR now with another focus.

I understand the need for the deal, but i hope it was a benefical one.
 
The gaming sector won't be enough to make a ROI for the purchase of OR and if the consumer version doesn't meet sales expectations.. ads or facebook integration will be rolled out a lot sooner. I'll see you next year.

Are you saying ads or required Facebook integration in every game that uses the Oculus as VR hardware?
 
I am considering cancelling, not because of this news but because id rather have a shiny new powerful gpu first, I think I'll wait for consumer rift. Does anyone know how to cancel?
 
Ok so they're expecting the hardware to take a massive bump in specs, while getting a massive downbump in price?

Well they no longer have to sell for a profit to ensure the future of their business. Rifts can be sold at a loss to drive mainstream adoption of VR for Facebooks future VR platform. So yes, it's possible CV1 will be cheaper than DK2. Which kind of does make me consider cancelling if I can...
 
Well they no longer have to sell for a profit to ensure the future of their business. Rifts can be sold at a loss to drive mainstream adoption of VR for Facebooks future VR platform. So yes, it's possible CV1 will be cheaper than DK2. Which kind of does make me consider cancelling if I can...

Yeah, it's making me think as well...
 
I'm not cancelling. This isn't going to affect the DK2 or the CV1.. Long term though..

Long term there will be alternatives. If Facebook does fuck it up in the long term, we'll have something else to buy.

Looks like Facebook sees this as a long term investment from a software perspective. If they can ensure that VR takes off and is successful, they can capitalize on that market. There is really nothing to indicate they'll impede the progress of the Rift because of this.
 
Facebook may now own Oculus, but the combining of those two products is so far into the future. There's so much ground to be covered before we'd have mainstream social VR. If it happens at all, it'll be a big win for VR in general. At which point the chances are you'll probably have some other company bubbling up that'll be more gamer oriented (if that's what has your panties twisted right now).

I think it's a great move by OR. There was no way sales of the Rift were going to drive the tech forward as quickly as it needs to go. It would die on the vine if it had no future beyond nerds.
 
I think it's important to see that VR is still effectively the Wild West. Facebook is just trying to amass an army with OR to tame that frontier.

Doesn't mean they'll be the only ones trying.
 
Facebook may now own Oculus, but the combining of those two products is so far into the future. There's so much ground to be covered before we'd have mainstream social VR. If it happens at all, it'll be a big win for VR in general. At which point the chances are you'll probably have some other company bubbling up that'll be more gamer oriented (if that's what has your panties twisted right now).

I think it's a great move by OR. There was no way sales of the Rift were going to drive the tech forward as quickly as it needs to go. It would die on the vine if it had no future beyond nerds.


Indeed, lets hope it develop into this scenario.
 
after the shock and awe. I am calm now. I will retain my preorder and looking forward to CV.

the support of OR is in hand of dev and indies. I don't expect that to change after this takeover.

My only fear is if Facebook creates a platform/OS closed system like stream for OR. Where dev will be tied to FB. OS and ads . And I really can't see that happening. I can see a Facebook VR app but not integral OS
 
I honestly believe people are overreacting to this whole situation. This won't be noticed by anyone, but I might as well put my predictions out there...

The acquisition will, undoubtedly, assist Oculus in bringing CV1 to the market in an even better form than it would be without. $2 billion is not pocket change, and they now have the financial backing to dictate to hardware manufacturers that will create the products they desire.

People will see little to no effect of the Facebook acquisition until the launch of CV1 and most likely a little after where Facebook will eventually bring out a social, Second-Life-like, PlayStation Home-like, VR MMO to the market. I believe this is where Facebook sees their profit opportunity in Oculus. Facebook does not care directly about the hardware, nor do they care about people using it for gaming. What Facebook has acquired this for is so they can create a social VR MMO - something that I've seen many people ask for, albeit from a gaming company and not Facebook.

And yes, this will have advertisements on it. Not very obtrusively like some of you seem to be speculating, but imagine VR billboards as you walk down a street or watching a video in VR will have an advertisement before it (no different than YouTube). Facebook will also expand this VR MMO to include their more casual gaming line - so imagine this MMO will now have Farmville integrated.

I do not disagree that this sounds terrible, but my prediction is that this will remain its own separate entity and, guess what! If you don't want to play Facebook's shitty VR MMO, you don't have to play Facebook's shitty VR MMO!

In terms of the gaming-sphere, Facebook won't touch it. Oculus will continue to operate independently as it has before to bring good gaming VR to the market.

Moving into future versions of the Rift (CV2, CV3...), the acquisition will have minimal affect beyond providing Oculus with more resources to improve the quality of their product. You might see one or two useless features in there for the purpose of Facebook's MMO, but usage of these features will be up to developers to integrate them, so they'll likely be ignored for the hardcore gaming population.

TL;DR: All in all, I'm not happy about the acquisition, but I believe that people are vastly overreacting. I will withhold judgement until I see something concrete that sways me one way or another. My predictions are that this will vastly assist Oculus in bringing a better platform to the market, quicker, with no interruption to their original vision. In the future, Facebook will utilize their new hardware to bring a social VR MMO to the market where they'll bombard you with ads, but this will not negatively affect the Rift as you don't have to play their game.

I agree with this. GAF, it's to soon to have a meltdown. See how it plays out. Obviously Facebook is going to use this to gain ground on Twitter because it's dying in Twitters shadow. I also see the Rift being used to serve two separate markets. One for gaming and one for social. The two might possibly bleed into one another but I doubt it. Zuckerberg knows what the Oculus Rift was built for and won't compromise that.
 
With Palmer hinting that CV1 might be cheaper, unless they're announcing a $100 pricecut on DK2 I'm canceling. Also going to wait and see if Valve enters the ring now.
 
I posted this in the other thread, but that one is moving so fast that I doubt anyone will read it.

Anyway, it's my reasoning why I don't think much will change for Oculus HW in the short term:
  • VR is uncharted territory, Oculus doesn't really have a stranglehold on it any more than any other company.
  • The basic Luckey/Carmack HMD design is easy to reproduce and probably not protected by any fundamental patents, as shown by Sony and hobbyist-built devices.
  • Middle-ware engines can easily abstract software stack details of HMDs as long as they have the same basic feature set (6 dof tracking, stereoscopic high-FoV screen)
These 3 points together guarantee that any company with decent funding can enter the fledgling VR space and compete in it. This in turn means that at the very least for the first few years, you can't just make your solution significantly worse for people (with e.g. forced FB integration) if you want to stand a chance.

Actually, if anything, this guarantees that someone will make the VR solution we're all looking for at some point, mainly because of how much relevance and validation this acquisition gave to VR. Whether or not Oculus is the one to do it is up in the air, but I think if Sony entering the VR space in a big way is good for VR then I don't see why Facebook dumping 2 billion into VR isn't, even if it ends up sinking a company.

Interesting times, though.
 
With Palmer hinting that CV1 might be cheaper, unless they're announcing a $100 pricecut on DK2 I'm canceling. Also going to wait and see if Valve enters the ring now.

I'd imagine that their feelings on the subject are that real developers can afford $370 (after shipping) per kit, so I doubt they'd lower it.

I'm definitely waiting out CV1 now/canceling my pre-order. I don't want to be in a position where I'm trying to recoup money on the DK2 after they've announced a cheaper/better CV1.
 
With Palmer hinting that CV1 might be cheaper, unless they're announcing a $100 pricecut on DK2 I'm canceling. Also going to wait and see if Valve enters the ring now.

The thing is that OR doesn't have to give a price cut for the DK2. Who knows, this may be the fucking reason why he was screaming for consumers not to buy the DK2.
 
I'd imagine that their feelings on the subject are that real developers can afford $370 (after shipping) per kit, so I doubt they'd lower it.

The thing is that OR doesn't have to give a price cut for the DK2. Who knows, this may be the fucking reason why he was screaming for consumers not to buy the DK2.

Yeah, I guess it's no surprise that now the Oculus DevKit is only aimed at developers.
 
i wonder how this will affect their customer relationships. Oculus is (was?) a very indie friendly company, you could email them and have an actual conversation, discuss pricing options if you're ordering in bulk.

Now that they've ballooned into something big I doubt we'll get the same level of interaction..
 
which acquisitions are you thinking of?

edit: and even if there were an example like that. plenty of people leave when they're contractually allowed to after a payday. if palmer and his team are passionate, then they'll hang around. if not, then they would have cashed out when VR got big anyway. though palmer and carmack dont strike me as the hit and quit it kind of dudes to be honest.


Gowalla to name one. Got shutdown right away, users abandoned.

Instagram forced to serve ads.

Palmer should cash out for his own sake since oculus is no longer his. I don't see anything passionate coming out of Facebook.
 
Why ? Don't make posts like that, explain what you think. But it should be in the other thread actually, this one is about Dev Kit 2 (I was a bit off topic here).

The easy to replicate screen on your head part was pretty ridiculous, for starters. There's a lot more to it and I think you know it.

A lot of people are way too emotional about this right now. The best move I could do to preserve my sanity is to stay away from VR threads for a few days I think.

homer-simpson-bush-gif.gif
 
Holy crap at all the kneejerk reactions to Facebook acquiring Oculus. I can understand that people are worried about FB integration in the tech, but that hasn't happened yet and Palmer has stated that they will not be doing that. Now if it becomes obvious in the future that FB was heavily integrating itself into Oculus then I'll be upset about that too. In the meantime it's business as usual for Oculus, only with a bigger playground to work with.
 
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