Jo Yardley has an article up about Facebook buying out Oculus Rift. It would be nice to know the details of that deal. But, an upfront US$2 billion… that is a deal. See: Facebook buys Oculus Rift for $2 billion.
Is this a good thing for Second Life™ users? At this point there is no way to know. Everyone on both the Facebook and Oculus sides are talking about how great a deal this is. Companies always do that.
Putting $2 billion in Oculus’ pocket is a good thing for them. Having access to Facebook’s resources is a good thing for them. But, they had to give up some measure of control. Only time will tell if that works out. Remember the movie? Still that is a lot of money for a tech company that has yet to prove the tech will be as popular as hyped.
For Facebook they get the Oculus tech. They obviously think they can to something with it. Strongly enough they shelled out $2 billion. But, what they say they will do with it is pretty vague.
We do know Facebook is NOT privacy oriented. Nor are they a game company. So, where will they take Oculus development? Minecraft developer Markus Persson is backing off plans for teaming with Oculus because Facebook creeps him out.
I just want a ‘retail’ Rift to play with.
Yeah… can’t wait to play Farmville on Oculus Rift.
I’ve already cancelled my order today.
lol… I had thought of that Farmville thing too. Thanks.
FB is a greedy monster and will monoloplize & farm any new technolgy it can devour, first we saw FB buy ‘whatsapp’ now OR, I certainly won’t be investing in OC. A sad annoucement in my opininon, FB is evil
FB is run by a group of people. I don’t see them as evil. I do see them as serving what they see as their best interest. That may not be good for Oculus or people in general.
I find this deal disturbing. I hope I am wrong, but I think the next move will be when Facebook buys SL. The people who rely on SL as a lifeline, such as disabled people, will be screwed. This is not a good thing. Facebook is bad news.