Sony VR Headset/Project Morpheus/PlayStation VR

[dobwal]

To be fair, that expertise can be bought in and that's something OVR will be able to do now. But the hardware companies with existing production and distribution channels are a much more obvious choice.

Expertise can be bought, but it doesn't mean that expertise will lead to a capable and effective operation.

OR as a company is already busy working on the technology. Now it has a naive FB doling out cash trying to build out the rest of the pipeline.

 

[dobwal]

Shop? Sorry but no one in their right mind would have given them all this money. Only FB and their crazy valuations.
You can call the expertise police all you want, but in front of $2bn not many would have said no. Even though it's a typical FB deal - "only" $400m cash and the rest in FB shares which can't be sold before 2 or 3 years - and god know what they will be worth then.
Huge risk for everyone involved.

FB makes perfect sense if your prevailing goal was simply to become stupidly wealthy. In that case it didn't matter who bought OR. Could of been McDonald or Walmart.

I'd say Sony is in the driver seat now. Sony doesn't seem to far behind OR in terms of performance. And the FB deal does little to undermine the advantage Sony has as a CE company. Never mind that the huge amount good will OR built up in the gaming community is not going to easily migrate over FB.

 

[London Geezer]

FB makes perfect sense if your prevailing goal was simply to become stupidly wealthy. In that case it didn't matter who bought OR. Could of been McDonald or Walmart.

One's goal does not need to be wealth. But any dream can be glossed over when someone gives you a cheque for hundreds of millions, plus the idea of being able to cash our on billions in shares.

 

[dobwal]

One's goal does not need to be wealth. But any dream can be glossed over when someone gives you a cheque for hundreds of millions, plus the idea of being able to cash our on billions in shares.

True. But I am sure Jobs, Gates, Page, Brin and Zuckerberg himself have been proposition by vast amounts of money to hand over their products in the early stages of existence. Only to turn it down because they were more focused on their creation versus wealth.

I don't fault OR for making the deal, I just don't have any more faith in the viability of a OR device because of FB. In fact I have less.

 

[Shortbread]

I think the main reason for FB's purchase of OR, was to compete against Google ...Google glasses to be exact, and the future of it in the social media space.

 

[Billy Idol]

Sony needs to open Morpheus for the PC market now. But they unfortunately they won't...

 

[MfA]

Shortbread, that's silly ... Epson Moverio as crappy a product as it is is a closer competitor to glass than Rift. The vapour ware from Lumus optical is a closer competitor too.

 

[Shortbread]

Shortbread, that's silly ... Epson Moverio as crappy a product as it is is a closer competitor to glass than Rift. The vapour ware from Lumus optical is a closer competitor too.

I didn't say Google glasses was a great product, nor a popular one. It was the mentioning from Google, of wanting to see Google glasses in all aspects of people lives, especially social media. Which would be "something" FB wants to avoid, or compete with - with a better product as OR. So it's not silly...

 

[patsu]

Next - FB buys Nintendo for $50bn. You've seen it here first

Let's pool money and buy some company for ourselves !

FB is probably also buying talent for content creation and tools in the OR deal.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I think the main reason for FB's purchase of OR, was to compete against Google ...Google glasses to be exact, and the future of it in the social media space.

I'm not sure about that. Glass is more of an alternative to a phone/tablet in a relatively unobtrusive configuration (it'll only get smaller) where VR it a complete piece of headgear that could be a tethered solution for a while and even when it's not, I can't see people walking about indoors or outdoors with a OR/Morpheus headset on ;-)

 

[MfA]

I didn't say Google glasses was a great product, nor a popular one. It was the mentioning from Google, of wanting to see Google glasses in all aspects of people lives, especially social media. Which would be "something" FB wants to avoid, or compete with - with a better product as OR. So it's not silly...

I mean if they want a google glass competitor they need to buy AR technology (like Moverio and Lumus Optical) and not VR.

 

[London Geezer]

Correction!

FB buys Nintendo $50B in FB Shares!

2 years later - FB SHARE PRICE CRASH! FB bought Nintendo $50, Whatsapp for $19, OR for $2! Retains all patents!

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Sony needs to open Morpheus for the PC market now. But they unfortunately they won't...

Actually, Sony's execs did say that making Morpheus available to other platforms was still being evaluated. The fact that the external box has an audio DSP to downmix multispeaker audio from the HDMI-in into stereo is proof of that.

Correction!

FB buys Nintendo $50B in FB Shares!

2 years later - FB SHARE PRICE CRASH! FB bought Nintendo $50, Whatsapp for $19, OR for $2! Retains all patents!

Oculus' buyout is $400M in cash + shares. At the very least, the company was bought for $400M (+$300M if certain milestones are achieved, but there's isn't a lot of info about that).

Palmer Luckey and his friends are all multi-millionaires and none of them needs to work ever again during the rest of their lives.

 

[Cyan]

Mixed feelings about this, but it should help them to actually ship the product some day.

I think Facebook has its advantages, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/03/26/burger-king-baby-birth-mother/6902791/ but none related to games, and in the Reddit link that Rangers shared, one of the creators of the Rift says that this deal will help to decrease the final price of the product, which is a good thing.

I expect lots of Occulus invites in the future, along with Candy Crush invites. Peeper Panic Saga, Skyward Tale...

In the end, I am not very happy with Facebook behind it and its possible implications. I’ve had serious privacy issues with a woman who got obsessed with me and also wanted to control me, not to mention asking me to get rid of some of my RL friends –especially females- and serious stuff like that, and she knew how to keep an eye on every movement of mine on FB, which she did because of how Facebook works.

Then you can get publicity on things based on your preferences on Facebook . Tbh I find Youtube and Xbox Live as superior social (online) networks, and consider Facebook some kind of empire of evil, ‘cos it’s the perfect stalking platform.

That woman certainly taught me a few tricks that I didn’t know about FB, so I am better protected now. I had to outsmart her first though.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

In the end, I am not very happy with Facebook behind it and its possible implications. I’ve had serious privacy issues with a woman who got obsessed with me and also wanted to control me, not to mention asking me to get rid of some of my RL friends –especially females- and serious stuff like that, and she knew how to keep an eye on every movement of mine on FB, which she did because of how Facebook works.

And because you shared too much of your life on Facebook, otherwise she wouldn't know so much.
I'm sorry that you had this stalking episode happening to you, and I guess it might have been a real bother.
However, people wouldn't know things they shouldn't know about you from Facebook... if you didn't put things on Facebook that you shouldn't.


I'm not a fan of Facebook and what it enables, either. Which is why I don't use it at all except for putting up a few interesting photos when I travel abroad (also to just let my friends+family know everything's okay without having to dedicate too much time on texting and videocalls).
And when people combine too much Facebook activity with FourSquare.. then that's like giving away most of your privacy just to get some (digital) attention in return. Not worth it, IMO.


For example, me and my gf got engaged a couple of weeks ago and when we told our family and closest friends, we made sure to ask everybody to not comment in any social network.



Yet (and because I had to put something on-topic here), although I'm not fond of Facebook either, I'm okay with them injecting lots of money into Oculus.
I'm hoping to see a good competition between Facebook and Sony on this. Google will eventually get there, but they're doing augmented reality first and foremost.

 

[Cyan]

And because you shared too much of your life on Facebook, otherwise she wouldn't know so much.
I'm sorry that you had this stalking episode happening to you, and I guess it might have been a real bother.
However, people wouldn't know things they shouldn't know about you from Facebook... if you didn't put things on Facebook that you shouldn't.


I'm not a fan of Facebook and what it enables, either. Which is why I don't use it at all except for putting up a few interesting photos when I travel abroad (also to just let my friends+family know everything's okay without having to dedicate too much time on texting and videocalls).
And when people combine too much Facebook activity with FourSquare.. then that's like giving away most of your privacy just to get some (digital) attention in return. Not worth it, IMO.


For example, me and my gf got engaged a couple of weeks ago and when we told our family and closest friends, we made sure to ask everybody to not comment in any social network.



Yet (and because I had to put something on-topic here), although I'm not fond of Facebook either, I'm okay with them injecting lots of money into Oculus.
I'm hoping to see a good competition between Facebook and Sony on this. Google will eventually get there, but they're doing augmented reality first and foremost.

Spoiler

Well, you sound like me before I lived that. Trust me that I could give you my FAcebook -open account- and judge by yourself the amount of personal details I give there.

The key was that she added me to her Close Friends list, without me acknowledging that, but what did I know? That sounds pretty pretty cool at first, even if she told me I'd be so happy knowing that, it makes you feel exclusive.

In fact I added two friends of mine to my close friends list the first days I joined Facebook on Dec 2011.

To me it was one of those things that go overlooked, and in fact I added them to the list to have someone there. Still I didn't notice what was the purpose of that.

So.... thing is... She used that to know to whom I gave *likes* and read ALL my comments.

It felt quite surprising at times that she liked some comments I made in Facebook accounts from certain corporations, talking about DVDs, or CDs, or Windows, or Google, or whatever...

I was like... How the heck did she read that to give me a like? I blamed it on the status bar by the right side of the screen, which gives you -mostly unnecessary- information on what people on your FL are doing.

So it went unnoticed for me. But then she began to control everything people said or did in my Facebook account. "Huh? Your sister-in-law gave you a like for this, but she didn't give you a like when you mentioned me. " Things even escalated and she wanted me to distance from my family. I love my family, whether it's less or more perfect, so...

That was the last straw. Still I am surprised at what happened.

I ended up outsmarting her several times at the end and found out that if you add someone to your close friends list you can basically know every single activity of that person on Facebook.

Fortunately for me, I used Xbox Live for social networking sometimes, which is much more private. She even wanted my email password and told me that she would pay me a year of Xbox Live if I gave her my Live account password, to know my interactions with people there. :/

She didn't even know what a Xbox is nor what Live is, and that increased her curiosity. She knew some of my FB friends are also friends on XBL...

Anyways, your approach on FAcebook sounds interesting for me, it might be useful for future interactions.

On another note, and back on topic, competition is good, and had I the choice I'd get the Project Morpheus if it were available for the Xbox One, which I don't see happening, 'cos it's a Sony product and gives a lot of extra interest to the PS4, tbh.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Sony needs to open Morpheus for the PC market now. But they unfortunately they won't...

AFAICS they'd have to actively prevent it. As described, Morpheus uses an HDMI in with hardware processing. Ergo it should attach to any HDMI source. If the input is SBS stereoscopy, or whatever, the PC can output that. And with engines like Unity supporting it, any game written in such an engine would transfer with VR into PC. I suppose the limiting factor will be stereoscopic camera feed for tracking, if that's important. I expect a single camera is good enough. Sony would have to provide tracking libs. If not, someone will for sure. And unlike, say, Wiimote on PC that had a driver, this device will see interest from PC gamers just like OR. And Sony have a good competing product that they can sell at a profit, so there's little reason in gimping the experience and preventing PC owners buying it.

Well, I suppose locking down VR to force interested parties into buying your entire console is actually a pretty good reason...

 

[Gradthrawn]

Here's Sony's GDC 214 Project Morpheus presentation.

 

[London Geezer]

Please, for the love of God, change the thread title? Projecto Morpheus? Does it come with nachos? I've been waiting for someone to mention it or change it, but no one did, and I can't take it anymore.

Thanks,
Your beloved OCD spelling bee.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You mean it's not actually called 'Projecto Morpheus'? I just presumed the R&D project was headed by a Mexican.