Oculus Rift has some competition

All discussions regarding Board, Card, and RPG Gaming, including industry discussion, that don't belong in one of the other gaming forums.

Moderators: The Preacher, $iljanus, Zaxxon

Post Reply
User avatar
JSHAW
Posts: 4514
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2004 2:03 pm

Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by JSHAW »

http://kotaku.com/people-really-want-th ... 1507985058

I could see myself buying an Avegant. Cool video demonstration
User avatar
Daehawk
Posts: 63524
Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:11 am

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by Daehawk »

Imagine flipping the visor down and having a small camaera attached to it. You just walk and whatever you view is recorded. That would be cool.
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/daehawk
"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
User avatar
wonderpug
Posts: 10342
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 4:38 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by wonderpug »

I think you're thinking of Google Glass, or at least, what you're describing is what Google Glass is doing. Oculus Rift and the new thing in this thread are more like holodecks.
User avatar
Rip
Posts: 26891
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 9:34 pm
Location: Cajun Country!
Contact:

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by Rip »

Those sound very cool.
User avatar
disarm
Posts: 4951
Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2004 6:50 pm
Location: Hartford, CT
Contact:

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by disarm »

I read an article about the Avegant display that specifically argued that it is not a competitor to the Oculus Rift for one major reason...
The Rift contains a display that occupies your entire field of view, immersing you in whatever you are watching. The Avegant creates an image that appears much clearer than the Rift, but it only takes up a portion of your visual field. You can move your eyes to look around the Avegant image, making it a great way to view video content privately, but it isn't designed to be an immersive experience on the level of the Rift.
User avatar
ColdSteel
Posts: 3029
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:03 pm

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by ColdSteel »

Well, the competition had better step it's game up now because Oculus Rift just got bought out by Facebook for $2 billion. Not an early April fools joke unfortunately. Notch has already abandoned his partnership with them to bring Minecraft to the Rift because he says Facebook creeps him out. I think that just about sums it all up.

Talk about the old death knell. What's the great shining VR hope left now? Sony? Valve?
"This game is best played with a warm cup of Folger's coffee in your hands, so you can actually smell the oppression while you relive the greatest period of all time. The period when white people discovered the world, and decided they didn't like it." - EUIV Steam user review
User avatar
Blackhawk
Posts: 43487
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 9:48 pm
Location: Southwest Indiana

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by Blackhawk »

On the one hand, I have no idea what Facebook intends to do with this.

On the other hand, why is everybody reacting to this as if Facebook was run by Nazis? The amount of unfiltered hatred for Facebook I'm seeing is a bit of a surprise.
(˙pǝsɹǝʌǝɹ uǝǝq sɐɥ ʎʇıʌɐɹƃ ʃɐuosɹǝd ʎW)
User avatar
TiLT
Posts: 4435
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:01 am
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Contact:

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by TiLT »

ColdSteel wrote:Talk about the old death knell. What's the great shining VR hope left now? Sony? Valve?
How is this a "death knell"? Can you name even one reason? Just one? Do you seriously think you're going to have to log into Facebook to use the Rift or something (hint: you won't), or that the Rift will somehow report back to Facebook (it doesn't even have an Internet connection)? Oculus Rift has been entirely focused on games up until now, and Facebook isn't going to get in the way of that. They're going to help them produce their own components instead of relying on cell phone technology, will allow them to fund dedicated software, and will allow them to hire more people. Facebook will also allow them to expand beyond gaming. Why is this a bad thing? Nothing has changed with Oculus VR's mission statement, and Facebook has made it very clear that they have no intention of getting in the way. Oculus has made it very clear that they wouldn't sell to a company that wanted them to change their vision, specifically mentioning companies like MS and Apple.

Notch is acting like a spoiled child in this case, and his statement made me lose a lot of respect for him as a professional developer.
Insert witty comment here.
User avatar
rshetts2
Posts: 6648
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:16 am
Location: North of 8 Mile (whew)

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by rshetts2 »

If Oculus proves to be successful then Notch just threw away a huge opportunity because Face Book creeps him out. All FB has really done is give Oculus very strong financial backing. Instead of being its death knell, this improves its chances at success substantially.
Well do you ever get the feeling that the story's too damn real and in the present tense?
Or that everybody's on the stage and it seems like you're the only person sitting in the audience?
User avatar
hentzau
Posts: 15092
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:06 am
Location: Castle Zenda, Ruritania

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by hentzau »

I don't get that stance, TiLT. Notch doesn't like Facebook as a company and distrusts their business practices, so he's decided he's not going to do business with them. Why does that make you lose respect for him? If anything, it increases my respect for him, because he's standing up for his principles and not just chasing more money.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
User avatar
rshetts2
Posts: 6648
Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 9:16 am
Location: North of 8 Mile (whew)

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by rshetts2 »

hentzau wrote:I don't get that stance, TiLT. Notch doesn't like Facebook as a company and distrusts their business practices, so he's decided he's not going to do business with them. Why does that make you lose respect for him? If anything, it increases my respect for him, because he's standing up for his principles and not just chasing more money.

Where exactly are you getting your information on Notch's reasons for bailing on Oculus, because in looking, I havent found a single comment from Notch regarding distrust of face books business practices etc. In fact his comments state that FaceBook "creeps him out" thats it. He does further his reasons for pulling out with this reasoning:
he doesn't want to work with social experiences -- he wants to work with games. Beyond that, he doesn't see the social network as a stable platform, and won't work with it in any form as such.
So it seems that his problem is not with Face Book and its business practices but with the concept of social networks. I get where TiLT is coming from on this because Notch comes off more like a pretentious teenager than an adult businessman. Notch is the exception though as more of the independent developers tied to Oculus see the Face Book buyout as a good thing. Heres where I got that Notch quote from:

http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/25/notc ... minecraft/
Well do you ever get the feeling that the story's too damn real and in the present tense?
Or that everybody's on the stage and it seems like you're the only person sitting in the audience?
User avatar
hentzau
Posts: 15092
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 11:06 am
Location: Castle Zenda, Ruritania

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by hentzau »

My statement about him distrusting their business practices came from this statement from his blog:
Notch wrote: 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.
Full article.

Did he specifically stay "business practices"? No. So, my apologies. But he clearly doesn't like Facebook, and doesn't want to do business with them.
“We can never allow Murania to become desecrated by the presence of surface people. Our lives are serene, our minds are superior, our accomplishments greater. Gene Autry must be captured!!!” - Queen Tika, The Phantom Empire
User avatar
wonderpug
Posts: 10342
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 4:38 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by wonderpug »

My biggest unease around this is just around privacy issues. FB goes for the "opt out" method for just about everything, even some privacy decisions that are pretty sensitive. You can't even just set your privacy settings once and then feel comfortable, because they regularly change or add new settings/features that have nonprivate default settings. I do still use FB, but I've gotten into a habit of auditing every page of the settings menus every so often just to make sure it's still locked down in the way I want it to be.

Marrying that privacy philosophy with gaming and VR isn't exactly a thrilling prospect for me.

My other big unease is just about whether or not this will significantly change the path Oculus was taking. If FB lets Oculus continue doing the things they've been doing that have been getting me excited, ok, but if the direction starts feeling too differently then Morpheus is going to start looking better and better.

It's pretty similar to my feelings about EA becoming the publisher for Titanfall. As long as Respawn can keep doing what they're doing, ok, but the more I start smelling EA on the product the more red flags go up. Except in this case FB isn't just a publisher; they bought the whole damn company.

As long as the Rift remains an open enough platform for me to be able to play weird experimental indie titles, I'll probably still be happy.
User avatar
ColdSteel
Posts: 3029
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:03 pm

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by ColdSteel »

TiLT wrote:How is this a "death knell"? Can you name even one reason? Just one?
Sure, I can name several.

1. Zuckerman bought this company not because it fits the Facebook core business model but because he though it was cool and he had the money to burn. Facebook is in the business of social media and not in the business of games. This introduces the risk that they try to bend the technology into areas that the developers never intended. This could have very, very bad consequences.

2. The Rift developers state that Facebook will leave them alone and they have complete freedom to proceed as they wish. This is an old, old story that has been repeated over and over again in this industry and has been the death of many an acquired company. It may well be true for a while but for how long? Which brings us to #3.

3. There's a lot of hostility and distrust of Facebook these days. It's no longer considered 'cool' by younger folks anymore and it's stock looks to be way overvalued. This are all signs of a fall or at least a major correction coming. If that happens, and I think it's more likely than not, then acquisitions that don't fit within the core business may become a luxury they can't afford. History says bad things then happen to Oculus Rift.

4. A lot of indie developers feel the same distrust of Facebook that notch does. He's hardly alone in thinking Facebook 'creepy'. I think it likely that the Facebook acquisition is going to drive away some indie developers. Those developers are critical for adoption of the technology into the mainstream and if they abandon it in any kind of sizable numbers it will very much hurt the chances of the product being a success.
"This game is best played with a warm cup of Folger's coffee in your hands, so you can actually smell the oppression while you relive the greatest period of all time. The period when white people discovered the world, and decided they didn't like it." - EUIV Steam user review
User avatar
TiLT
Posts: 4435
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:01 am
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Contact:

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by TiLT »

How are any of those reasons "death knells"? Those are things to be on the lookout for, sure, but you implied that this acquisition had already killed the Oculus Rift.

Also, if you think indies are going to abandon the Oculus Rift because of this, you are delusional. What happens when a competing product comes out, one that is inferior and a cash-in to the concept that Oculus VR started, and someone who refused to support the Oculus Rift starts supporting the competitor instead? That won't end well for that developer.

The amount of people who will be exposed to Oculus Rift as a result of this acquisition is way, way, way bigger than the amount of people who were already aware of it and will now shy away because of Facebook. If anything, Facebook might have saved the Oculus Rift from obscurity and inevitable failure.
Insert witty comment here.
User avatar
ColdSteel
Posts: 3029
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:03 pm

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by ColdSteel »

TiLT wrote:How are any of those reasons "death knells"?
Because this is simply my own judgment and opinion, based on prior experience and the factors I listed. It doesn't mean I'm right. You obviously feel something different will happen, that's fine, we'll see. I hope I'm wrong, actually.
TiLT wrote:Also, if you think indies are going to abandon the Oculus Rift because of this, you are delusional.
I said it's likely 'some' will. We know that one has, so it just depends on how many 'some' turns out to be.
TiLT wrote:If anything, Facebook might have saved the Oculus Rift from obscurity and inevitable failure.
I think it's possible you may be underestimating just how disliked Facebook is.
"This game is best played with a warm cup of Folger's coffee in your hands, so you can actually smell the oppression while you relive the greatest period of all time. The period when white people discovered the world, and decided they didn't like it." - EUIV Steam user review
User avatar
Zarathud
Posts: 16433
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:29 pm
Location: Chicago, Illinois

Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by Zarathud »

Oculus Rift will need a "must have" app to sell, but it only works for developers if they see it becoming a viable product. The strange fit with Facebook jeopardizes the model -- is OR the first item on the inevitable chopping block, a vanity project never fully supported as a release product or integrated into a Facebook VR? I expect Notch fears the answer is Yes to those questions, so he's getting off the train now. I don't blame him. This acquisition is a head-scratcher.
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein
"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
User avatar
ColdSteel
Posts: 3029
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 2:03 pm

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by ColdSteel »

This guy over at the reddit Oculus page articulates some of the concerns quite well:
http://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/
So I think the reason people are worried about this (and to be honest, why this worries me) is that we want the Rift to be an open hardware device. As open as a computer monitor is. My fear is that Facebook will restrict how it can be used, or force you to tie your Facebook account to the peripheral. I'm a software developer so I understand how you get benefits from connecting systems and how having user data means providing a better, more tailored experience, but I'm absolutely frightened by the possibility that the insanely detailed profile data Facebook already has on me (both public data and private data Facebook doesn't share with others but still has internally) might be further augmented by the company having control over the very output device I interact with my computer through and storing data around the content I'm consuming. Also, Facebook's revenue model is selling advertising space and selling user data. Neither of these are acceptable for a VR device.

I know someone at Oculus is probably reading this right now. To you I will say:
I understand that you believe Facebook has the best intentions - and as a software dev I actually do believe Facebook has good intentions - but I still don't feel comfortable with idea of a company that makes money off of knowing as much about me as possible having access to what I'm viewing on my computer. I don't want any one entity to have that much of my data.
I'm also dreadfully scared Facebook is going to try to tie this hardware device (pure and open) to Facebook specific use-cases (Facebook walled garden) or restrict access through a Facebook account.
Finally, even if this is merely ownership and Facebook isn't interfering with how the Rift works or forcing the device to be tied to Facebook services today, there's absolutely nothing stopping them from doing so in a year, five years, or ten years from now. They can change their mind whenever they want.

If you can truly alleviate these fears it will be a marketing miracle. Facebook just has that bad of PR connotations from a privacy standpoint. But then again, everyone still uses Facebook. And if you make Oculus a good enough UX, people will still use it anyway as well.

But I have to say my heart really sank reading this news. It's absolutely the opposite of what you'd hope to see for a non-walled garden device.

Edit: Saw this in Iribe's letter: "We’re able to tap into Facebook’s experience and backend systems for our platform services. As an added bonus, Oculus now has a rock solid, global payments solution."
Don't know if the payments solution will be used for just hardware sales, but if there's a walled garden VR "app" store (powered by Facebook payment processing), then that would suggest Facebook will be combining data about what VR content you are purchasing and using with their social graph data.
Also:
Zuck: "We're clearly not a hardware company. We're not gonna try to make a profit off of the devices long term. We view this as a software and services thing, where if we can make it so that this becomes a network where people can be communicating and buying things and virtual goods, and there might be advertising in the world, but we need to figure that out down the line."
"This game is best played with a warm cup of Folger's coffee in your hands, so you can actually smell the oppression while you relive the greatest period of all time. The period when white people discovered the world, and decided they didn't like it." - EUIV Steam user review
User avatar
TiLT
Posts: 4435
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:01 am
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Contact:

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by TiLT »

That letter is kind of invalidated by what Oculus VR said earlier today. They mentioned that they're working on front-end software for the Oculus Rift, but that they will not force people to go through it. Based on that, I'd venture to say that they aren't going to make this a closed solution. They know they have little to gain and everything to lose from that approach.

In addition, they mentioned that they are now going to be able to fund development of Oculus Rift software. This means that for those cases where a developer might be skeptical of adding Rift support, they can step in and cover the costs. It also means they can fully fund software that requires the Rift. They said we should expect an announcement about this stuff really soon.

I suspect they're working really hard to get some press releases out there about their plans. The acquisition of a company in this way requires going public about it. If not, they would probably have kept it secret until they had something to show for their collaboration. This whole thing will be a non-issue in a few months, and everyone will feel slightly embarrassed about it in a year when the thing is out (it'll be out before that, especially now that they've got this amount of funding).
Insert witty comment here.
User avatar
raydude
Posts: 3894
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 9:22 am

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by raydude »

ColdSteel wrote:This guy over at the reddit Oculus page articulates some of the concerns quite well:
Also, Facebook's revenue model is selling advertising space and selling user data. Neither of these are acceptable for a VR device.
No, that revenue model is not acceptable for a VR device. Which is why Facebook will probably not try to shoehorn the VR device into their core revenue model. Instead I see them making a slight profit off sales of the hardware and possibly requiring a cut from developers in the form of either buying the SDK or licensing fees.
I know someone at Oculus is probably reading this right now. To you I will say:
I understand that you believe Facebook has the best intentions - and as a software dev I actually do believe Facebook has good intentions - but I still don't feel comfortable with idea of a company that makes money off of knowing as much about me as possible having access to what I'm viewing on my computer. I don't want any one entity to have that much of my data.
I'm also dreadfully scared Facebook is going to try to tie this hardware device (pure and open) to Facebook specific use-cases (Facebook walled garden) or restrict access through a Facebook account.
Finally, even if this is merely ownership and Facebook isn't interfering with how the Rift works or forcing the device to be tied to Facebook services today, there's absolutely nothing stopping them from doing so in a year, five years, or ten years from now. They can change their mind whenever they want.
As a hypothetical let's assume some other big company bought Oculus.

Like say, EA. I can change Facebook in the above quote to EA and it would be a totally legitimate concern. I would be concerned that EA would tie the Rift specifically to EA-games. Or make EA games more optimized.

Or let's say MS bought Oculus. I can change Facebook in the above quotes to MS and it would still be a legitimate concern. I would probably be even more concerned because I would think MS would totally tie the Oculus to MS products.

Or Activision. Or Google. Or Apple (god no, not Apple!).

So I get that there are legitimate concerns. But IMHO those concerns are independent of the company that bought them because those same concerns will be there regardless of who bought Oculus.

So let's say no one bought Oculus. Then I would wish them all the best of luck because I can't think of a scenario where a small company comes out of nowhere with a gaming peripheral that becomes the industry standard - or at least mainstream enough that it becomes affordable for me.
User avatar
TiLT
Posts: 4435
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:01 am
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Contact:

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by TiLT »

raydude wrote:No, that revenue model is not acceptable for a VR device. Which is why Facebook will probably not try to shoehorn the VR device into their core revenue model. Instead I see them making a slight profit off sales of the hardware and possibly requiring a cut from developers in the form of either buying the SDK or licensing fees.
My take:

Facebook trying to get ad revenue from the Oculus Rift user base is a ridiculous concept in my opinion. Why on earth would they care about advertising for what's initially likely to be a few million users, at most? Facebook operates at a scale that makes that kind of income not worth the bother. The investors know this. That's why the stock price for Facebook went down yesterday. The purchase of Oculus VR doesn't make sense from the traditional business model Facebook has followed up until now, as ads and user tracking are not worth bothering with for this particular technology.

That brings us to your suggestions on how they are going to earn money on this. First of all, they are most likely going to sell the Oculus Rift at a loss in order to boost the potential user base as much as possible. Again, the potential income from hardware sales is insignificant for Facebook. They're much more concerned with building a market for other things, which I'll be getting back to below. The Oculus VR guys have also already said that Zuckerberg wants to sell the Rift at a loss to build a user base, so this isn't really speculation. This is what they claim to be planning.

As for taking a cut from developers to develop for the Rift, I find that to be extremely unlikely. Once more, this is a business model that won't matter much to Facebook in the end, and the potential income is just too low. Worse still, it will severely limit the amount of developers who will be willing to create new experiences for the device. Facebook and Oculus VR will be focusing on building a large user base early on, and that means providing them with large amounts of great experiences. To do that, they need to keep things open. The Oculus guys have also clarified that they don't want to "lock in" developers.

The general consensus right now is this, and this is a theory I agree with: Facebook is expecting the Oculus Rift to be a short-term (as in the next 5+ years) loss. They've purchased Oculus VR because they want this company to be the leader in VR, and because they think and hope that VR will be the next big thing in devices after cell phones and tablets. They are already working on a piece of front-end software (as mentioned in interviews yesterday) that is likely to be out by the time the first commercial units are ready, and which will be the place to go for Oculus Rift experiences. They've also said that they will not require developers to use this platform, so nobody will be forced to go through this thing.

This will be where the money will start to pour in for them. Steam will focus on offering VR games and will likely lead in that area for a while, but Facebook looks beyond that. They want to offer things beyond games. Over time, I expect them to offer specialized hardware and software suites meant for businesses and commercial use, and this will be licensed in a way that can produce real, tangible income at a level and quantity that Facebook will care about, but this is still far away.

They're also likely to provide incentives to integrate your Rift with other services they provide. Facebook itself is likely to end up having a VR chat system, for example, and that will require a Facebook account with all that entails. Other companies will be free to provide their own competition for this, but since "everyone" is already on Facebook, and since "everyone" who uses the Rift will have the front-end software built for it, Facebook's solution will be the most popular. By integrating their systems like this, they drive sales for the Rift and increase their user base and relevancy on their other platforms.

This is a long-term gamble for Facebook, and they are the ones that have got the most to lose from this deal. Oculus VR is in a good spot right now, on the other hand. They got way more money for this deal than they are honestly worth at this point, saliva-inducing technology aside.
Last edited by TiLT on Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
Insert witty comment here.
User avatar
D.A.Lewis
Posts: 3227
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:36 pm
Location: Los Angeles Area

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by D.A.Lewis »

A few months ago I read an article on the Oculus Rift that stated they were looking for new investors and had something big in the works.

The Facebook purchase of the company is more than an investor. And at $$$2 billion dollars$$$, I can't see the OR boys having the control they think they're going to have.

However, a 2 billion dollar purchase should result in some product getting produced and hopefully it's the gamer centric VR product we've all been looking forward to. But Zuckerberg said he wants to implement a facebook aspect to the device. It sounds like Zuckerberg is thinking along the lines of the VR world in the book Ready Player One. Which would actually be pretty cool.

OTOH, I'm sure the NSA is licking their chops whatever Facebook comes up with . . .
AKA: Dajjer
User avatar
LordMortis
Posts: 70098
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:26 pm

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by LordMortis »

From an outsider perspective.

Kids are fleeing Facebook. Facebook investors need to guard against going the way of myspace. That's a lot of investment money that can go in smoke relatively quickly.

So FB obviously bought OR to in an attempt to make sure they stay relevant. The question is, are they diversifying or are they attempting to FB revenue model OR. I don't think we have enough information to tell, but I would also have the gut feeling that FB has never given any indication that they are willing to treat their users as anything other than a salable product and would act on that gut feeling if I were a developer.
User avatar
tcweidner
Posts: 241
Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2004 3:35 pm
Location: NJ
Contact:

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by tcweidner »

if you listen to Palmer, in recent interviews he admits that everything used in the Oculus is off the shelf technology, they have let other companies spend the R&D and Oculus just kinda picks the best available and molds it to their uses and needs. He was even asked point blank, if given a billion dollars what else could you do, and he said, not much because as he said they dont do manufacture hardware. Now perhaps 2 billion and FB gives them a chance to, but all that will do is slow down and sidetrack the Oculus release. My take on this is this. The world is ready for VR, the first one out the gate which gives a good usable VR experience AND who has the goodwill and backing of early adapters will be in good shape to capture market share.

What happened this week is Oculus traded that goodwill in for cash, will it come back to bite them in the ass, we will see. VR is coming to the masses with or without Oculus and FB, that much is sure.
Last edited by tcweidner on Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
TiLT
Posts: 4435
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:01 am
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Contact:

Re: Oculus Rift has some competition

Post by TiLT »

Palmer also specifically said that the acquisition will let them bring the Oculus Rift to the market better and faster. It'll be hard to tell since we haven't got a release date in the first place, but whereas I would have been surprised with a 2014 release a week ago, it would no longer surprise me today.
Insert witty comment here.
Post Reply