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Comment by whywhywhywhy | Hacker News Reader

Genuinely think VR would be dead by now and considered a flash in the pan fad if it wasn't for the software and hardware Oculus has done. Valve and HTC just really didn't invest the time and money seriously in the platform and think HL:Alyx only shipped because Oculus dragged the format forward and showed the potential.

Just don't get why they're doing this at this point, I'd understand if they had iPhone level sales but although the Quest is selling great it's not there yet and it seems a misstep to push everyone into FB from it so soon lots of people will be turned off by the idea. Forcing the tens of thousand Oculus holdouts and saving a handful of engineering salaries surely can 't be worth the bad press and harm to the growing platform

Hope the 4 people who bought Quests after playing mine don’t whinge to me about this.

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When the actor seems irrational, you should step back and ask "who is the actor and what are their motivations?"

This doesn't feel like an act of Facebook as a whole. They should be thinking long term, big picture. Zuckerberg seems to have an image of Neuromancer's Matrix in his head, and we ain't there yet. He'd definitely take this step but I wouldn't think he'd do it until he more solidly owns VR.

What I see here is a senior manager type, maybe a VP or a bit below it, who needs numbers that go dramatically up and to the right in the short term and is thinking about their own personal success. They'd be the ones to say "how do we turn this acquisition into Facebook-measurable success metrics so we can prove that we're worth all this spending? Ah, yes, mandate Facebook logins, great idea, do it."

Think you're spot on, makes a lot of sense of this move that doesn't really make sense.

> "What I see here is a senior manager type, maybe a VP or a bit below it, who needs numbers that go dramatically up and to the right in the short term and is thinking about their own personal success."

I mean, there are plenty of other ways to demonstrate value without forcing people to login with a Facebook account to use their Oculus devices. In-fact, I'm not sure what added value this requirement demonstrates in the first place?

People already pay for the hardware, servicing, apps/games, and upgrades.

“Demonstrate added value” can be an entirely fictional construct in business environments. Don’t take it literally.

Maybe the metric they're judged on is "connections" (Taking a hint from that memo in the sibling comment) not sales or even users.

Correct. The VP is also the person who wrote the "Ugly" memo that was leaked: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/growth-at-any-c...

Hardly a surprise.

Is this a non-sarcastic comment?

Valve and HTC VR are far superior. Quest is selling great because it's a standalone, but the resolution is poor and it's pretty buggy. Mine crashes at some point in about 33% of sessions. Oculus store has a very limited selection of games, and their recommendation engine is laughably bad ("Did you like Beatsaber? maybe you'll like a roller coaster simulator"). Casting from the Quest barely functions and disconnects frequently. Thank god for Sidequest, or I'd already have upgraded to Valve Index.

In what way do you think Oculus is superior?

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