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Re:Facebook acquires Oculus VR by Tloewald on Tuesday March 25, 2014 @06:02PM (#7469453)
This is a bit of a WTF.

I don't think Facebook would necessarily "ruin" Occulus (although it likely will) but I don't really see the fit. Courtside seats at basketball games -- OK totally doable technically speaking, but the hard part would be licensing.

If VR ever takes off in the mainstream it will probably end up becoming a "FRAND" kind of deal, where a bunch of key players pool their patents. Occulus will be a player, but hardly the only player.

I could see Sony or Microsoft wanting to sew up Occulus (although I think it would be a mistake to sell to either). Facebook just doesn't make much sense. Maybe it's just Zuckerberg really likes the technology.

Re:Facebook acquires Oculus VR by cweiss on Tuesday March 25, 2014 @07:22PM (#7470072)
Here's the thing, if FB really wanted to do the 'courtside seats' thing, they should have licensed being able to stream the feeds through the FB web site - In terms of revenue stream, they'd make a boatload more $$ off of charging for that than they will by attaching it to a $1500 piece of headgear that you're not going get away with slipping on in your office to sneak a quick game.
Re:Facebook acquires Oculus VR by Tloewald on Wednesday March 26, 2014 @09:37AM (#7473206)
The point is that to stream video from an NBA game you need to license it (you can't even carry pro photo gear into a professional sports venue without the appropriate credentials, let alone hook it up to the internet and stream video out of it). So this is totally pie-in-the-sky above and beyond the technical side of it which is perfectly feasible with off-the-shelf stuff today (Occulus would simply be a nicer HMD than most).
Re:Facebook acquires Oculus VR by bripeace on Wednesday March 26, 2014 @11:37AM (#7474115)
The NBA has heard of Facebook. The NBA probably had not heard of Occulus. They certainly have now. These are the kind of things that once the technology has matured a bit the Facebook association will really help out with.

The idea that brands like NBA/MLB/NFL won't want to get in on selling people VIP VR Experiences is crazy. VR is going to be absolutely huge, it's the next truly disruptive technology.