[hunta2097]

I see Facebook are still pretending the HTC Vive and SteamVR is not a thing.

Oculus need to support other headsets or they are going to fall even further behind. Win the mindshare where you can, because you are certainly not anywhere near winning the PC-VR space.

[t0mbstone]

Yep.

All they have to do is release Facebook Spaces for the HTC Vive. Why not? Why tie themselves to only one VR platform? That would be like Facebook only supporting iPhones.

My guess is that the higher-ups are suffering from the sunken cost fallacy, and think that they have to stay exclusive to the Rift to justify their Oculus purchase. After all, if they support the Vive, why did they need to purchase Oculus in the first place?

[cr0sh]

Why not an open API for that matter? What if I want to use my Virtuality HMD, hacked PowerGlove and surplus Ascension Flock-of-Birds rig to drop into a VR world? Why shouldn't I be able to do that if I have the equipment and skills to get it to work?

BTW - I actually do own all of that equipment (collecting older VR gear is a side hobby of mine).

An open API will allow for any VR gear manufacturer to participate.

Think about it this way - what if in the beginning, Facebook only supported Dell branded PCs - or more realistically, only Mozilla on Linux - back when they started? Do you think they'd have been as successful? No way to know, of course, but only supporting one (or a few) manufacturer's devices doesn't seem like the best way forward for quick market saturation.

Whereas an open api would allow for far more people to get into the game; and if things started to take off, you would also see new independents spring up to sell lower cost HMDs, VR rigs, tracking systems, etc as demand heated up.

[DonHopkins]

To get Carmack.

[bitmapbrother]

They won't support Steam and it will be their demise. And when they finally realize all is lost they'll add support, but it'll be too late. PC gamers like all of their digital PC games in one silo and that silo is Steam. Microsoft has repeatedly tried and failed to compete with Steam so the hubris of Facebook/Oculus to think they can win is amusing.

[drzaiusapelord]

and this is why I think these initiatives will ultimately fail. They're way too closed and Facebook has yet to do anything meaningful outside of its social media space. VR is a totally different beast and you can certainly dress it up in social media clothing, but it doesn't mean VR suddenly falls under social media rules.

In a way I pity Zuckerberg. I feel like he's only known how to be a monopolist and, frankly, got lucky with both friendster and myspace being messy user-unfriendly messes who dropped the ball for him to pick up.

Spaces should have SteamVR, Hololens, and Daydream support on day one. Rifters already are geeky types who shun the facebook product and, if being social, can be found on Altspace or Rec Room. Its a big move, even for them, to go to Spaces where all your relatives are one click away and where you can't even use a fake name.

Worse, getting Grandma on a VR set is somewhat ridiculous. Even if we imagine a gen 2 or 3 in the coming years, there are practical limits to how much these things can be shrunk considering the FoV you want. They will always be clunky things you need to attach to your face. I'm sorry but Facebook casuals aren't running the to store for nerd goggles.

Everything about this is off message. I suspect this is another Zuck stinker like the Facebook phone. The problem is phones have competition so consumers chose against it. VR social apps have competition as well and I don't see consumers rushing to Facebook for this either.

[gman83]

Or Daydream