The Failures of Oculus
The Oculus Rift is, in some ways, one of the most important inventions of the 21st century, at least when it comes to entertainment. Virtual reality has been a coveted dream of science fiction authors for generations, right up until Oculus stepped in and announced that they could actually make it come true. They had the technology, and all we had to do was wait… and back up their Kickstarter campaign, of course. And back it we did, allowing Oculus to receive almost $2.5 million for the development of their Rift. In the four years since then, numerous companies, including Samsung, HTC, Google and Sony, have all attempted to create their own virtual reality headsets, with varying degrees of success. It’s no question that we’re currently living in the era of VR, for better or for worse. Despite the fact that half of the peripherals aren’t even out yet, we’re already seeing some major uses for VR not just for videogames, but also for simulations, movies, even online casino (as evidenced by the VR roulette prototype that Microgaming developed).
But things aren’t all roses and butterflies. The first problem that arose was when Oculus allowed itself to be purchased by Facebook despite the fact that fans invested so much money into their product. At the end of the day, even if it’s not explicitly stated, isn’t a Kickstarter campaign an unwritten agreement that the company will remain independent? After all, why did they even need the fans’ money if they were just going to end up taking Facebook’s too? But hey, maybe $2.5 million wasn’t enough for their ambitious project, so they needed a bit of extra support from Facebook in order to make their dream project come true. I can understand that. What I don’t understand is how a company that is owned by Facebook, of all corporations, managed to be so completely disorganized.
Despite the fact that Oculus launched officially a few days ago, most people who have paid the rather hefty $600 pricetag for one don’t seem to have a unit. Only a couple of the people who supported the Kickstarter campaign back in 2012 seem to have received a unit. Those who pre-ordered one back in January need to wait until later this year. And if you buy a Rift right now? You’ll be getting it in July at the very earliest. JULY! Have you ever paid for a $600 piece of technology that you won’t actually get for over 3 months? Yeah, me neither, and I’m not planning to! This is a terrible business model!
And what about the shady things found in the Rift’s terms of service? Basically, since this is now technically a Facebook product, it’s going to be monitoring your activities and using them to target ads for you, which is what Facebook has been doing for a really long time. But now we’re no longer just limiting ourselves to search histories and liked pages, oh, no! We’re talking stuff like body size, movements, you name it. In other words, if the Oculus decides that you’re fat, you’re gonna start seeing weight loss ads on Facebook. Marvelous. And worst of all, any content that you create with the use of the Oculus can be used by Facebook for pretty much anything without permission and without payment. Say you decide to create a 3D model using the Oculus to view it in 3D while you sculpt. Well, too bad, that 3D model is practically owned by Facebook now. Enjoy!
By all accounts, the Oculus Rift is a pretty solid piece of hardware. Which makes all of the shady things happening around it all the sadder. I hope that a year or two from now, when the dust settles, we’re only going to remember the good things about the Rift. But right now, this otherwise very promising product simply isn’t worth most people’s time, money and energy, especially not with all the alternatives which seem to work just as well or even better.