Did Facebook Buy Oculus To Counter Google Glass?

Nerval's Lobster (2598977) writes "In a statement soon after Facebook announced the acquisition of Oculus Rift, CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested that the bulky Oculus headset had the potential to transform VR into the "most social platform ever." Whatever his reasons for shelling out $2 billion for the company, it's clear that Facebook is now a player in the augmented-reality space, which Google is also exploring in its own way. Yes, Google Glass serves a different function—overlaying maps and text over the wearer's view of the real world, rather than immersing people in a virtual environment—but the potential customer base for both devices is basically the same, and now Google has some real competition if it wants to transform Glass into some sort of gaming device. And despite some blowback from Markus Persson, it's likely that developers will continue to explore Oculus as a gaming platform, Facebook or no. Zuckerberg might be talking a good game about virtual realities far into the future (does he have to pay to promote his own posts on Facebook? Joke.), but this acquisition was likely a short-term play, as well."

No. Next question?

[gelfling]

fb's user growth flattened out as fb less cool to its own target demographic. It's just randomly looking for the next cool thing it can use to be cool. And trust me, google glass is not cool. Google glass is something your douchebag fratboy older brother uses to be cool to HIS boss. It's this year's bluetooth earbud.

Re:Does it matter?

[bhcompy]

Meh. Look at Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and Surrogates, now mix Occulus Rift with Playstation Home and you have those worlds. Those realities aren't too far off. Google Glass allows you to walk bodily in the world, but VR allows you to become someone better than yourself, and, as the internet has shown, plenty of people hate themselves enough to pretend to be someone else when they can. The virtual main streets of Snow Crash may be the future, or the body doubles of Surrogates may be the future. Either way, those are competition to Google Glass, but it's a bit further sighted.

Re:Does it matter?

[HornWumpus]

The new rift comes with a camera, it's not impossible.