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Family sharing

tyler_evan_2010
Honored Guest
Oculus really needs to add true family sharing.  I have two boys that I bought two quest units for and in order for them to play a multi player game together I have to buy the game twice which is really unfair and expensive
26 REPLIES 26

CybrXandr
Honored Guest

PITTCANNA said:

You people think buying one licesne from a developer should grant you unlimited seats to play a game together is standard practice......IT IS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO STANDARD PRACTICE.



It's standard practice on every other platform, specially when you buy the game as a digital download, it's tied to the account owner, so we only need to buy the game once for our 3 Nintendo Switches w/ 3 different people playing, same thing with 2 Xbox's, the digital purchases are installed on all the consoles I'm signed on. Same thing with SteamVR with our older Vive headsets, buy the game once and wife and kids have access through Steam Family Library sharing. I'd be hard pressed to find a platform that doesn't do this, besides Oculus.

HitchRogers
Honored Guest
The Oculus App store *EXPLICITLY* advertises "Family Sharing" but the only way to "share" is to hand someone a device that has COMPLETE ACCESS TO THE OWNER'S FACEBOOK ACCOUNT through the Oculus browser

Is Facebook going to argue in court that's how their "Family Sharing" feature works?

By releasing this device in this condition Facebook has opened itself to a class action lawsuit. Every day they fail to fix it increases the chances such a lawsuit will be filed, increases the likelihood the court will rule against them, and increases the damages they will be liable for.

usurffree
Explorer
Put me in the vote for family sharing and sending my 2nd unit back because they don't.

But let me add an expanded viewpoint and clear a few statements up said in this thread.  My background is one child of my own.  I'm dating someone with 2 kids, her oldest is in the gaming age range of 9.

First, 99% of consoles don't take the Oculus approach.  It was said earlier.  We have all systems.  I have multiple XBox units at my house.  We now have the Series X as well.  My son has units at his mom's house, as well as the new X Series there at her house.  I've always purchased games for "our" play under my account.  If he's in his room at my house, or his mom's house, he is playing off the games under my account.  I can be playing a game against him purchase a single time.  Now that my gf's daughter is involved, I've put her under my family sharing with a spare XBox we have, and she plays along with the single purchase.  Microsoft seems to be the most liberal of the consoles with this family sharing.  Much like a movie or game purchased in iOS and Android family sharing.  One purchase for the family.

Playstation is the same way, but can get a little complicated.  The purchase have to be made from the primary system, and you can only change that every so often.  Again, he and I have often played against or with each other in games purchased under my account only.

Nintendo is the one you have to purchase a game per child for them to play together.  For that purpose, I never let him get anything but a Nintendo built game like Mario.  I will not purchase a game that is also available on XBox on the Switch because of the multiple copy rule if we play it on the switch.  The money is better used on the XBox, better right for my buck.

Also, the whole losing money per unit is somewhat bunk as well when just talking the maker of a device.  Google how much money Playstation and XBox are losing on the PS5 and XBox Series X.  You'll see that they are very heavily dependent on staying at a price point and having a formula on how many games the typical households will purchase the first 18-24 months of a new generation cycle go make them whole.  Hitting a consumer friendly price point is important, thus the $100+ loss per system sold.  They have the long view.  If they wanted the typical 25% margins, their new consoles should be $799-$999 each.

And don't feel sorry for people in the data business.  Why is Google so valued?  What's their product?  What's the value of Facebook to almost be a trillion dollar company?  It's our data and advertising.  Why have TV's with Alexa/Google built in become so cheap?  Set one up lately and see how much of our viewing habits are now sold and can't be turned off without some processes?  That TV that you bought for $398 at Walmart would be $898 if it wasn't for that all important data subsidy they now factor in.  So don't think loss leading is loss leading on a product.  Money is being made behind the scenes and for a long-term view in case of the consoles being sold at a loss early in each generations new launch.

If I'm Facebook and I want VR to get true traction.  I want to win the VR war against other brands.  To become the Apple of this war.  I'd want as many product prophets I could get early on.  I manage about 40 guys.  I destroyed their desires of purchasing a Nintendo Switch for their kids when I told them they would be out $190 per game if they have 3 kids and each wanted to play with each other.  Drove them to Xbox.  But I sold many on this new Quest 2 when it arrived to my office at launch.  I saw family sharing in the store, but see that it means something else, not as Xbox, PS4 or Apple do it.  It's still like Nintendo.  So when the 2nd Quest 2 came, now I'm returning it, I'm telling them the same story.  Stay away. I'm not paying $(120 to Walking Dead game) for myself, my son, and the gf's daughter if I buy her a switch.

If they took the longer win the war view, they would have true family sharing.  I'd be here this week talking about how my son and I competed against each other in a VR world.  Instead, I'm talking about how great the Xbox Series X graphics are and how my guys should spend their money down that hole.

And to the game developers.  Get in a time machine and go forward 5 years.  Do you want Oculus to really get traction.  Is it about now?  Or about where you as a developer could be in 5 years?  You want FB to eventually sell 10 Million, and VR still be side-stream.  Or do you want 200 Million sold over a 5 year cycle, and the product to become mainstream because Facebooks money stays invested in the project?  If you want as many buyers as possible in the long-view, then you need to win this war early.  And that momentum comes from those office conversations about how perfect the ecosystem is.  How much fun families had.  You need the VR household to have 2 units with a hell a lot of fun going on, and 3 more units are bought in that household like phones.  That then addicts another household to give VR a shot.

But that's just my 2 cents.

HitchRogers
Honored Guest

usurffree said:

Put me in the vote for family sharing and sending my 2nd unit back because they don't.


Facebook's investment in the Quest 2 is an enormous investment in the VR market, and I view that as a real investment in the future of technology and ultimately the future of humanity. The vision they laid out in this year's Connect event shows that VR has the potential to revolutionize not just gaming, but more critically telepresence and even the home office.

But Facebook has also mandated Facebook accounts for their devices and controls a walled garden that chills innovation in other ways, because this revolution is a vehicle for profit, not a humanitarian venture. They are offering a thing of value because doing so begets value for them. So the balance between value given and value taken is worth inspecting

Facebook highlights Family Sharing as a feature of every paid app I've inspected on the in-headset Oculus store, but they do not provide any such feature, at least not in the matter of Microsoft, Sony, Valve, or any other competitor offers it, and they offer no alternative explanation of the feature.

In fact, searching the Oculus help db for how to use Quest or Quest 2 with a different account simply directs the user to instructions how to perform a factory reset.

To the best of my ability to determine, as of 31-DEC-2020, Oculus Family Sharing is Vaporware and False Advertising

Please explain how I'm mistaken. I'll even settle for a much-too-late firmware update to remedy the issue, but let's be real: Even in a worst-case scenario, any responsible corporation would have had this handled before Christmas.

Robot0Plus
Honored Guest
I see all these comments along the lines of 'developers dont allow multiple plays off one license', I think these posters are forgetting this style of gaming has been around longer than lan play and online multiplayer games...its why most game systems had multiple controllers, from tv pong through to modern ps5 or xbox series x there is the ability for more than one player to play froma single license. As for the research before purchasing oculus clearly stated it plans on making it possible for players to enable multiple users to log in to th same device with their own facebook account, with the goal of sharing content with friends and family "while keeping their information seperate" and this is evident when logging into your account on oculus.com and viewing your devices but the device menus don't support this action yet. So it looks like its coming but not ready yet.
this is as of runtime version 23.0.0.87.517.260511615

SwoopWest
Honored Guest
We got a single headset for Christmas, I share it with my son and sometimes my wife.  

I would buy another headset in a heartbeat (maybe even a 3rd) if I could just play along side my wife and son.

My xbox one only has a single paid account, but my son and wife can still create profiles and play with me.  

We don't need to play with others just each other.  That said if my son and I want to play rocket league it still works.

If facebook wants to win the VR market early, they should help out families otherwise this device may be short lived for many gaming families.

Gilldorf
Honored Guest
I will add my voice to this issue. My two sons and I have Quest 2s and would like to share games just like we do with our Xbox/PC games.

cyber-kitty
Honored Guest
Add family sharing!!!!

Daemi
Honored Guest
I'm in the same boat as most of you here. I have 2 headsets. The same account that is logged onto both of my Q2s. We love playing games together and need the family share ability to get the most out of the systems. We like to play games with other family members across the country, who have their own account, but is also shared on 2 devices. So when we play only 2 of the 4 people playing can be heard. Gameplay begins to kinda suck when a teammate can't let you when zombie is coming up behind you. Lol 

As to the apparent developer's complaining of not making enough money if people share a license...At the moment this is still a capitalist USA. (We'll see if that begins to change in the next 4 years. Lol) But for now, it's about supply and demand. If it's not worth making the game with family share available then feel free to not supply it or or charge more for it or find another profession. Conversely all of us consumers can simply choose to support  or not support the non-family share games and consoles by not making the purchase. If it happens enough they will get the hint and respond appropriately.

Oh by the way developers while I personally have not done this yet. However, I am considering the following an option for the games I have purchased once and that falsely advertise the family share feature. There are ways to get those games for free and side load them using a different account. While I plan to only use this option for games I have paid for there are plenty of people that won't buy the first but still side load the games allowing people to still partially enjoy the games that otherwise might have just been purchased if family share is available. I'm just saying...legal or not, right or wrong it will happen more when people have to buy the games multiple times for family members. 

Cowboycaleb07
Honored Guest
Just to be fair the quest 2 is 300$ so if they did add family share then they would buy the quest like crazy plus the family share should be a subscription so it's not really unlimited games because my brother and I have a quest 2's and we both have to buy a game we both want then it's a lot of mula so it would be better if they made a subscription for family share