Yesterday brought with it the bombshell announcement that Facebook is purchasing Oculus for the hefty sum of $2 billion. This has understandably caused quite a stir on among the gaming faithful, even prompting Minecraft creator Notch to withdraw his support for the VR headset.
Several members of the Oculus team have since spoke to the many benefits that come from Facebook's purchase. For one, the costs will go down. "We're able to go out and get components at a lower cost and being able to make more units and ultimately sell the consumer product at a lower cost," CEO Brendan Iribe told IGN. "We're going to leverage what we can from Facebook to scale and deliver a better product at a lower cost."
Not only that, but with Facebook's support, VP of product Nate Mitchell believes that what was before impossible is now possible, resulting in a better overall experience for gamers. "We say 'if only we could do these things, it'd be incredible but it's impossible — we don't have the resources it takes too many people, whatever it is'," he told the outlet. "With Facebook, that impossible roadmap is now really likely."
As far as how this acquisition will affect the release of Rift, co-founder Palmer Luckey has made it clear that nothing will change. "The launch date, in terms of timeline, doesn't change," he explained. "It's not delayed, it's not particularly accelerated — but it does let us ship a better product at a lower cost in that same timeline."
Do you think Facebook's purchase of Oculus will prove to be a good thing for gamers and the industry as a whole?
