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Facebook account required for new Oculus hmd users Oct 2020 - existing users can wait to Jan 2023

RuneSR2
Grand Champion
More here:

https://www.oculus.com/blog/a-single-way-to-log-into-oculus-and-unlock-social-features/

Today, we’re announcing some important updates to how people log into Oculus devices, while still keeping their VR profile. Starting in October 2020:

  • Everyone using an Oculus device for the first time will need to log in with a Facebook account.

  • If you’re an existing user and already have an Oculus account, you’ll have the option to log in with Facebook and merge your Oculus and Facebook accounts.

  • If you’re an existing user and choose not to merge your accounts, you can continue using your Oculus account for two years.

After January 1, 2023, we will end support for Oculus accounts. If you choose not to merge your accounts at that time, you can continue using your device, but full functionality will require a Facebook account. We will take steps to allow you to keep using content you have purchased, though we expect some games and apps may no longer work. This could be because they include features that require a Facebook account or because a developer has chosen to no longer support the app or game you purchased. All future unreleased Oculus devices will require a Facebook account, even if you already have an Oculus account.

Oculus Rift CV1, Valve Index & PSVR2, Asus Strix OC RTX™ 3090, i9-10900K (5.3Ghz), 32GB 3200MHz, 16TB SSD
"Ask not what VR can do for you, but what you can do for VR"

1,250 REPLIES 1,250

NsurgNt
Protege
Well lets just say they dont know that there are worse things in the water. But together we can help them back onto the boat and help wash the bad taste from their mouths. Nobody told them about the big ole holes, they were hidden from sight. but we can make it all better, just shoot me that PM and we can start to Make Facebook Great Again. Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaahh.

NsurgNt
Protege
Still hoping that Facebook will do the right thing, but I am sure that doing the right thing is not a high priority for them given their past track record. There are many different HMDs available now and many of them offer similar or better experiences. I can only begin to imagine the advancements that will be available to the buyers of those HMDs. Either way, I believe the future for VR is very bright. I will be choosing a different headset and a platform with a higher ethical standard than the one that I am currently a part of. Follow your conscience and above all have fun.  

Cpt_Custard
Adventurer

kevinw729 said:


Thanks for making your point excellently, and I have to agree to a point as well. 

The growing pain has been made 100x worst by bad management decisions and directions - and we have seen Facebook scythe through the original management team to try and get back on course. Those bad decisions have now manifest themselves at this very point, you accurately defined.

In order to "hide" their plans from a vocal and troublesome userbase, they felt it was needed to appease them, to limit information interchange, and go for a "bunker" mode of information sharing (best illustrated with this forum that was created to "help share OculusVR's plans with its customers")[paraphrased]. They have now reached a point where (to use a vague analogy), 'the passengers on the cruise ship had paid for Greece, (as have new joiners), and are now about to learn that the ship is in fact going to Venice! Many had complained that it was obvious the ship had changed direction, but the Captain and crew hid in their cabins shouting vague suggestions through the door, and tried to use loyal passengers to plicate and obfuscate the situation. A hell of a way to run a cruise line!

In reality Facebook feels "they know what's best", driven by a founder who runs a dictatorial operation successfully! Having invested $3b, been forced into a messy legal battle, and has been pillared by a community that he feels should be in fact thanking him - its obvious the operation has taken its own council and will roll how it feels best, with no impute from the community. As the VR community had been under the misguided illusion that they had a voice that mattered, and they could shape business (as they had done in backing the Kickstarter), this realization, and the understanding that the previous guarantees are now worthless. They face the facts that in a matter of months, their great white hope in VR is about to move away from their sector to focus wholly on a standalone VR approach that will exclude many of those that think they are entitled!

A lot of reality checks are about to come to pass, and its going to be a painful realization - especially for those "passengers" that shilled for the previous captain! 

Enjoy Venice 🙂



Well explained, I think that with Facebook going the standalone route it will encourage corps like valve to focus more on PC. There will be a lot of people shift allegiance over the next couple of years.
Also, there is another disruptor coming to market, the Nreal glasses and a bit further down the road apple glasses both for the AR market which I am very interested in.
I know for sure though I actively avoid Facebook along with a lot of other people and although I am mad about the change I probably wouldn't have owned my quest 2 years down the road anyway. All this announcement has done is made up my mind not to invest in any more quest/Facebook games by going back to steam for my PC needs and that I will no longer buy oculus hardware going forward.
And the point about the games, how badly will this affect developers in sales? It is hard for them already. With my personal opinion about moving back to steam to purchases PC VR titles to actively avoid Facebook, I assume I can not be the only one thinking this, I bet they have seen this as a bad move and it will discourage them from starting that new title they had been talking about.

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
NsurgNt said:
There are many different HMDs available now and many of them offer similar or better experiences. 

I'm waiting on a HP -G2, I pre -ordered for PC -VR. I'm sure that will give me a better experience than the current PC -VR headsets for the price. I'm also waiting to see if Samsung announce something regarding standalone. You will need a good graphics card though for the HP -G2, but I've heard a Geforce 2070 Super will suffice.

Zenbane
MVP
MVP
While it's easy to claim that the VR Community doesn't have a voice with Facebook, the reality is that... all of us VR Consumers most certainly have (in the past) and do now (in the present) impact Facebook's decisions directly.

As just one simple example, many consumers complained that VR was too expensive due to the cost of entry. The extra space requirement coupled with cable management made VR completely unrealistic for many households, and most certainly any Enterprise use.

I remember quite well the battles on this forum in 2016/2017 from all the VR users who thought that Room-Scale was a joke due to the space requirements. Back then, HTC seemed to be in the lead since the Vive had room-scale but the Rift was just 1 lonely sensor.

Quest and Rift-S has answered the call made by voices on multiple fronts. While a select few higher-end VR enthusiasts in this community may not feel represented, there are a ton of other VR users who have been.

Everything Facebook has done up to this point... is specifically the result of listening to the overwhelming majority of the VR community.

Well, with one exception: The forced Facebook Account linking. That's just Facebook being Facebook. lol

Granted, there is a realistic advantage to the Facebook Account linking that will benefit the end-users; but obviously, nobody was asking for it.

NsurgNt
Protege
I'm kinda hoping that some of the Enterprise options will be low enough in price by the time 2023 hits, they seem to have higher specs than whats available on the consumer side. But really, anything that brings higher resolution and better fov and framerate less godrays and just generally makes the experience more immersive would be welcomed. iIwill be looking into the HP also but not purchasing anything till a year or 2 from now. will check into Samsung too. thanks for the heads up.

Anonymous
Not applicable

NsurgNt said:

I think that saying facebook wont have access unless the child has an irresponsible parent is a little naive. Kids will create their own account or as you mention use a parents account. Or find a way to do it via Google or Youtube. Parents cannot watch their children 24/7 and have no control over them while they are unsupervised or with their friends. It is an unfortunate byproduct of the world we now live in, that 12 year olds are walking around with enough tech to login remotely to an ftp server or or file sharing system and the ability to transmit images around the world. I will say that it is not responsible for parents to allow this, but even if you don't GIVE them a phone they would still be able to use a friends or find another way such as purchasing their own phone or having a grandparent get them one.Responsible parent is almost an oxymoron at this point in today's society. 



There's a difference between having a Facebook account and linking that Facebook account to the Oculus Store anyway. Sure, someone's kid might have a unauthorised Facebook account but they'll just use their parent's Facebook account for VR anyway, like I mentioned before.

kevinw729
Honored Visionary

Cpt_Custard said:
.....

Well explained, I think that with Facebook going the standalone route it will encourage corps like valve to focus more on PC. There will be a lot of people shift allegiance over the next couple of years.
Also, there is another disruptor coming to market, the Nreal glasses and a bit further down the road apple glasses both for the AR market which I am very interested in.
I know for sure though I actively avoid Facebook along with a lot of other people and although I am mad about the change I probably wouldn't have owned my quest 2 years down the road anyway. All this announcement has done is made up my mind not to invest in any more quest/Facebook games by going back to steam for my PC needs and that I will no longer buy oculus hardware going forward.
And the point about the games, how badly will this affect developers in sales? It is hard for them already. With my personal opinion about moving back to steam to purchases PC VR titles to actively avoid Facebook, I assume I can not be the only one thinking this, I bet they have seen this as a bad move and it will discourage them from starting that new title they had been talking about.



Thanks @Cpt_Custard - long time no speak.

I agree the Nreal looks interesting (much more than Magic Leap ever did)!
From the well placed rumors 2021 looks to be heavy on AR/MR - and if Facebook does drop their new AR glasses on the scene then I would not be surprised to see a move towards MR headsets as HTC tried to usher in with their Focus / Cosmos Elite ranges.

As has been said before, this is not a new move by Fb, and it was always a part of their roadmap. The only surprise is that so many in the community defended it, and that some that had said it would not happen because of the "guarantee" suddenly changed their tune so blatantly. This is a "Honey Pill" moment, and it will be fascinating to watch the community suffer amnesias when OC7 swings around. A stage presentation and a shinny new headset should be enough to plicate the concerns!

With HTC out of the game, the Index and HP Reverb expensive PC derivatives and Samsung / Panasonic waiting on next years Qualcomm MR announcement - there is (as has been said in numerous editorials) no real competition to the Oculus strategy. All that said the one threat to their domination is from Sony - and we know that worries them. The only company with a software ecosystem and manufacturing background - so the aim of the game is to lock the users into the Oculus-ecosystem as fast as possible before the 2021 PSVR2 launch.
https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

kevinw729
Honored Visionary

NsurgNt said:

I'm kinda hoping that some of the Enterprise options will be low enough in price by the time 2023 hits, they seem to have higher specs than whats available on the consumer side. But really, anything that brings higher resolution and better fov and framerate less godrays and just generally makes the experience more immersive would be welcomed. iIwill be looking into the HP also but not purchasing anything till a year or 2 from now. will check into Samsung too. thanks for the heads up.



Yes, the natural order of things seems to be returning to the innovation aspect of VR.

It had always been the case that Enterprise innovation had trickled down to the consumer scene, as happened in Phase Three of VR adoption - the Jaguar / Philips VR took directly from arcade VR and the Forte VFX took from other Enterprise innovations.

That a DIY enthusiast thought that this was the time to side step Enterprise and hope that consumer innovation was enough to both launch a new generation and also build an install base was a major gamble, and to be frank without Valves ideas and Facebooks deep pockets would have failed.

The failed business strategy has reverted into what we now see with the move to Quest as a better consumer ecosystem, while in the Enterprise realm we see the vast sums raised by Varjo for their superior system. The work of VRgineers and their amazing platform - and waiting in the wings, new MR headsets that are only able to live in the rarefied atmosphere of Enterprise. 

Those that promised that consumer would be the only innovators of VR are long gone to work on military project, while the vacuum they left behind implode on itself in a frenzy of incriminations and Enterprise innovation. 


https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959

RedRizla
Honored Visionary
@kevinw729 - I'm really hoping that Sony are working on another VR headset, it was always my intention to ditch PC -VR and go with a PS 5 and PS VR 2, but I didn't hear anything more from Sony about a PS VR 2 headset. I was hoping that Microsoft might announce XBox VR given HP -G2 seems to have sold all of it's pre -orders. XBox really needs VR, or should I say we need XBox to climb aboard to give VR another kick start.