Virtually anyone else with the pockets to buy them would have been better.

Microsoft for example have to be kicking themselves right now. After last weeks PS4 VR headset announcement I honestly expect them to buy Oculus immediately. I'm shocked they didn't or got out bid.

I wonder if Carmack was in on the talks... he couldn't have possible left ID to cash in like this... he's got to be pissed off.

Carmack has always wanted to build a full VR world/universe, if that's Zuckberberg's vision, they actually might fit. Crazy though.

That's a very good point.

And that might well be Zuckerberg's vision. He probably read "Snowcrash" when he was about 10, after all.

Looking at his Twitter feed he seems to be happy and I don't see why he wouldn't be. The internet hacker crowd hates Facebook and loves Carmack but that doesn't mean that Carmack hates Facebook. No, he's probably way more pragmatic.

Microsoft would of broken up the company and integrated it into their own products. Facebook allows Occulus to stay Occulus which is probably a huge motivator for the people there.

All I know about Carmack is that he likes the 'metaverse'. It's quite possible that he thinks he has a better chance of building it with Facebook than without.

At last for me Oculus and Facebook where on opposite ends of the coolness scale. I wanted a Oculus so badly, and avoided facebook like the plague. I have the feeling facebooks spoils this. Instead of Half Life in vr i now expect "skype 3d" and "candycrush vr".

Oh yeah, and i expect facebook to watch me while i game, something that makes me seriously uncomfortable. Zuckerberg babbles something about this "open and connected" i do not want to be part of.

Well, I seriously doubt this will lead to Oculus becoming Candy Crush VR or Facebook looking at you while you play. It's just unrealistic and if that's your concern I don't think you have any reason to be worried at all.

It's most likely the association with opposite realities, one direction of whom is associated with passionate research, and the other, profit-based production for the masses.

And this is not far from reality, in a way. Carmack is a true innovator who's never thought about money, and shared his product with humanity - his writings are amazing -, Zuckerberg... well, "dumb f*cks who trust me".

Well for me its the fact Facebook is an overbearing controlling experience which abuses it market position for its own interests above those of its users (both paying and free).

Its also a very narrow sighted company that has moved into the clone or buy instead of innovate cycle that most big companies evolve into.

That sort of mindset in the upper ends of management would kill the potential of something like occulus, especially when occullus have essentially been trumped by Sony (standing vs sitting, supporting accessories, and a massive user base) in the last week and will be playing catch up... and no doubt the MS power house will be on full roll as well rolling out headsets in the same market space... so its market share is drastically shrinking before its ready for launch.

Theres no way Facebook management will be able to handle the company intelligently enough to prevent the product from faltering. IMO it's pretty much a death blow for occulus.

It's one of the greatest visionary companies around being bought out by by Facebook who hasn't launched anything relevant but more ads for the last 5 years.

I don't know, maybe the same thing that happens to almost every other rising star that gets grabbed up by a behemoth.

The fear is that they'll alter the product into something none of us care about, since Facebook does nothing like it.

Not being able to use an Occulus Rift without a Facebook account.