Facebook to buy Oculus VR.

$2 Billion Deal announced as Zuckerberg pins hopes on Virtual Reality

by hodg100
Gaming News

12

Facebook to buy Oculus VR.
Facebook has announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Oculus VR.
The Virtual Reality goggle makers will cost Facebook in the region of $2 billion to acquire with $400 million in cash, up front, and 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock (valued at $1.6 billion) making up the balance.

The agreement also provides for an additional $300 million to Oculus’ founders, based on them reaching some unspecified milestones.

Oculus has already received more than 75,000 orders for development kits for the company's virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift.

Facebook plans to extend Oculus' existing advantage in gaming to new areas, including communications, media, entertainment and education.
Facebook seems to be backing VR as the next social and communications platform.
"Mobile is the platform of today, and now we're also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow," said Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. "Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate."

Facebook to buy Oculus VR.

"We are excited to work with Mark and the Facebook team to deliver the very best virtual reality platform in the world," said Brendan Iribe, co-founder and CEO of Oculus VR. "We believe virtual reality will be heavily defined by social experiences that connect people in magical, new ways. It is a transformative and disruptive technology, that enables the world to experience the impossible, and it's only just the beginning."

Reaction to the deal have been mixed with the creator of Minecraft, Markus Persson, clearly not keen. Persson revealed his company had been in talks with Oculus VR about bringing the game to the headset but since Facebook were now involved, any such deal has been scuppered.
Facebook "creeps out" Minecraft Creator
"We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus," he tweeted.

"I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out."

Former head of id Software and creator Doom, John Carmack, was more phlegmatic, however, insisting that he was "still coding" on Oculus titles as normal and that he expected the deal to be beneficial to all concerned, allowing Oculus VR to, “ avoid several embarrassing scaling crisis.”

Given Carmack now works at Oculus, he's hardly going to be poo-pooing the deal.

Oculus will maintain its headquarters in California and will continue with the development of the Oculus Rift.

Does Facebook’s involvement dampen your enthusiasm for Oculus or is it – like Carmack says – just business as usual?
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