17 votes

Requiring a Facebook account for Oculus VR is bad for users, devs, and competition

6 comments

  1. [2]
    Douglas
    Link
    God I fucking hate this bullshit. Not the most tactful way to put it, but I'm just especially sour because I helped Kickstart Oculus before it was bought out by Facebook, and all I have to show...

    There's already concern about Facebook's actions. "Let's talk about how Facebook is screwing us in VR," BigScreen VR developer Darshan Shankar posted on Twitter on Tuesday. He went on to explain that his app's built-in store, which sells licensed content like films, must fork over a transaction fee to Oculus for every sale. "Bigscreen's video store must pay Oculus: we lose >$1 for every $1 we make," he wrote. "We asked for help. Facebook told us to find a better business model like games."

    That doesn't bode well for existing, popular third-party apps—like Rec Room, VRChat, BoxVR, and more—should Facebook carpet-bomb the Oculus operating system with its own versions of apps. And it'd sure be a slap in those developers' faces after their services attracted so many users to Oculus in the first place; as I've written time and time again, Oculus' first-party efforts have routinely underwhelmed compared to the competition.

    God I fucking hate this bullshit. Not the most tactful way to put it, but I'm just especially sour because I helped Kickstart Oculus before it was bought out by Facebook, and all I have to show for it is a stupid t-shirt and a poster-- I opted not to get the Oculus itself 'cause I thought I'd save up for it, but by then FB stepped in.

    And now that I'm excited with VR games (with my Index & PSVR) and love both BigScreen VR and Rec Room, that is absolutely bullshit if Facebook is the reason those services get sidelined into more predatory, price-gouging tactics (though I would happily pay a monthly fee for Rec Room any day/I'm expecting that to happen regardless).

    Fuck you Facebook! Fuck youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

    15 votes
    1. Shneebs
      Link Parent
      Wow, how had I not heard of this, thank you for the recommendation!! More in line with the article, this really really sucks, I've just got a friend to fork out £499 for the Oculus Quest (as they...

      Rec Room

      Wow, how had I not heard of this, thank you for the recommendation!!

      More in line with the article, this really really sucks, I've just got a friend to fork out £499 for the Oculus Quest (as they don't have a gaming PC) and they're pretty anti facebook. This is not going to go over well.

      5 votes
  2. [2]
    babypuncher
    Link
    Anyone interested in VR should stick with headsets that work natively with SteamVR. Valve has done an excellent job cultivating an open platform that encourages device cross-compatibility.

    Anyone interested in VR should stick with headsets that work natively with SteamVR. Valve has done an excellent job cultivating an open platform that encourages device cross-compatibility.

    13 votes
    1. Akir
      Link Parent
      That's the one thing that I'm greatful for during this whole debacle. I may have bought an Oculus headset, but all of the games I have bought have all been on Steam. So when I end up switching,...

      That's the one thing that I'm greatful for during this whole debacle. I may have bought an Oculus headset, but all of the games I have bought have all been on Steam. So when I end up switching, the only games I have actually spent money on will still belong to me.

      Though that does mean that I'll miss out on some of the free stuff I got from them. Oculus Medium is a pretty neat creation app.

      7 votes
  3. [2]
    pezhore
    Link
    A few coworkers had picked up the Oculus Quest and I was giving some thought to joining them, but this announcement kills that desire. I deactivated my Facebook account around 8 years ago and...

    A few coworkers had picked up the Oculus Quest and I was giving some thought to joining them, but this announcement kills that desire. I deactivated my Facebook account around 8 years ago and haven't looked back - I know I could setup a throw away account, but it's just not worth it.

    11 votes
    1. frickindeal
      Link Parent
      We're finding out it's not quite that easy nowadays. People are making new "throwaway" accounts and getting challenged by FB for a photo ID and other proof of ID. I remember when the internet was...

      We're finding out it's not quite that easy nowadays. People are making new "throwaway" accounts and getting challenged by FB for a photo ID and other proof of ID. I remember when the internet was brand-new, the best advice was always "never provide your real name or details online;" now it's "give us all your info or you're locked out of a headset you bought in May of last year" (in my case—I bought the Quest at release).

      10 votes