Just when it looked like Facebook has stopped branching into new domains it has gone ahead and made a high-profile entry into the virtual reality gaming scene. It has done this by purchasing none other Oculus VR in exchange of 2 billion USD. For those worried, third-party games which are being developed now using dev kits of the virtual reality headset will remain unaffected due to this deal.
However, the technology won’t just be limited to games from here on. The Facebook acquisition means that Oculus VR will be aimed towards ‘completely new kinds of experiences.’ These include watching sports broadcasts, interacting with doctors and more according to Facebook-founder, Mark Zuckerberg. It seems though that there are detractors of this whole deal already.
Those who have supported Oculus VR in the past have started expressing apprehensions about the acquisition owing to Facebook’s prior record of toying with its products for huge monetary gains. The loudest among all those critics is Mojang co-founder Markus ‘Notch’ Persson who has gone on record saying, ‘Facebook creeps me out.’
The developer has revealed that Mojang was in talks with Oculus VR about bringing Minecraft to the said virtual reality platform, but it seems that isn’t anymore. The Facebook acquisition of Oculus VR will be complete in the second quarter of this year, and for the moment, the latter will continue to function independently.