# Facebook buys Oculus. Huh?? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 25, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555 "2014-03-25T21:51:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2014, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/21 "2014-03-27T01:32:35Z")
> [@dzeiger](#): > > Which is a problem since the main things the Oculus had going for it was community support and indy developers. Going up against the likes of Sony was going to be difficult enough with those advantages. Ok, but now they have a corporation behind them with 8 times Sony’s market cap. It’s not like Sony is some paragon of user respect, either. At any rate, VR headsets are still just dumb display devices, like a monitor. There’s nothing Facebook _can_ do to them to ruin them. I’ll almost certainly buy the consumer model when it comes out, and I fully expect that it’ll be just as open and usable as the dev kits are now. Sony doesn’t seem to be courting indy devs at all with their unit. If you want something you can tinker with on a PC, there probably won’t be a choice (well, we’ll see about Valve, but they don’t seem to be interesting in actually building their own headset). ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/22 "2014-03-28T14:51:45Z")
Well, actually it [seems like Sony DOES want to court indies with their headset.](http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/27/5553506/project-morpheus-indie-dev-kit) Anyway, competitors seem to be coming out of the woodwork now, since [True Player Gear](http://www.trueplayergear.com/) seems to be adding their name to the pile as well. So uh… maybe Oculus wasn’t as far ahead as everyone thought, they’ve just been the most open about where they stand. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/23 "2014-03-28T18:09:40Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > Notch just tweeted that he’s cancelling Minecraft for the OR. Does he have a beef with Facebook/Zuckerberg or something ? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/24 "2014-03-28T18:23:32Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > Well, actually it [seems like Sony DOES want to court indies with their headset.](http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/27/5553506/project-morpheus-indie-dev-kit) Yes. I have to be careful with what I say due to NDA, but in my job at Sony I’m working with several indie developers who are already working toward supporting the Morpheus. That said, it’s true that you won’t be able to just go out and BUY a Morpheus dev kit. It’s like getting access to a PlayStation dev kit … you’ll need to be a registered developer. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/25 "2014-03-28T20:25:53Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > That said, it’s true that you won’t be able to just go out and BUY a Morpheus dev kit. It’s like getting access to a PlayStation dev kit … you’ll need to be a registered developer. That’s unfortunate. When I think indie I think of individual developers and the maker community, not just registered developers (even small ones). There’s some more big news for Oculus: Michael Abrash [joined as Chief Scientist](http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/introducing-michael-abrash-oculus-chief-scientist/). Carmack+Abrash is pretty much the best combo you can imagine: they were responsible for Quake back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/26 "2014-03-28T20:26:06Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > Yes. I have to be careful with what I say due to NDA, but in my job at Sony I’m working with several indie developers who are already working toward supporting the Morpheus. > > That said, it’s true that you won’t be able to just go out and BUY a Morpheus dev kit. It’s like getting access to a PlayStation dev kit … you’ll need to be a registered developer. Sure; But Sony has been generally trying to make getting dev kits easier lately, as best as I can tell, so… ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/27 "2014-03-28T20:27:27Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > There’s some more big news for Oculus: Michael Abrash [joined as Chief Scientist](http://www.oculusvr.com/blog/introducing-michael-abrash-oculus-chief-scientist/). Carmack+Abrash is pretty much the best combo you can imagine: they were responsible for Quake back in the day. Er, not to disrespect these gentlemen, but was Quake really that groundbreaking? Really? I mean, when I think “Amazing technical breakthroughs in gaming” Quake isn’t the first thing that leaps to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/28 "2014-03-28T20:54:35Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > Er, not to disrespect these gentlemen, but was Quake really that groundbreaking? Really? I mean, when I think “Amazing technical breakthroughs in gaming” Quake isn’t the first thing that leaps to mind. Really? Quake was pretty much the first true 3D shooter out there. It was out before even the original Voodoo Graphics, and initially relied on its software renderer. There was nothing else like it at the time (well, there was Descent, but that was a pretty different game). ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/29 "2014-03-28T21:18:52Z")
Yeah, Quake was a ground-breaker. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/30 "2014-03-28T21:38:43Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > Sure; But Sony has been generally trying to make getting dev kits easier lately, as best as I can tell, so… Oh absolutely. It’s not hard getting a PlayStation dev kit, and I expect it won’t be hard to get a Morpheus dev kit once production ramps up. But it’s not “consumer-product easy”. You can’t just buy a dev kit at Best Buy and noodle around with it the way you can with a PC. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/31 "2014-03-28T21:41:25Z")
What does it take to get a PS3 dev-kit? Is it more difficult if one wants a PS4 dev-kit? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/32 "2014-03-28T21:49:42Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > What does it take to get a PS3 dev-kit? Is it more difficult if one wants a PS4 dev-kit? The PS developer site gives these requirements as a start: - Form a Corporate Entity - Obtain an Employer Tax ID Number (see [www.irs.gov](http://www.irs.gov)) (Recommended) - Static IP (Required for DevNet Access) - You must be physically located in US, Mexico, Central America, South America, or Canada Already those seem like pretty severe restrictions for anyone that just wants to play around. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555/33 "2014-03-28T22:19:25Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > You must be physically located in US, Mexico, Central America, South America, or Canada This requirement is an artifact of how Sony dices up the world internally. SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America) sells into those territories, so if you sign up as a developer with SCEA you need to be in the Americas. If you’re in Asia or Europe you’d sign up with SCEJ (Sony Computer Entertainment Japan) or SCEE (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe). I don’t remember who handles Africa. Probably SCEE. But yeah, it’s easy if you’re a **company**. Dev kits aren’t set up to be consumer products. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-buys-oculus-huh/684555.md?page=1)