I imagined the second part modified the claim as well. Oculus wasn’t gutted and repurposed - Meta is building itself around it. Oculus was a successful company - selling hella units. Being bought didn’t result in a shutdown or anything. I would call it a huge success.
Then again Apple is the canonical consumer hardware startup and that’s the problem with these things. A successful startup just becomes a big company. No one would call Dyson a startup but it was one.
VR enthusiast here, Oculus was absolutely gutted of its core morals, its core goal, and the majority of its original talent. Oculus insisted they'd never require a Facebook account, and now they do. They've fully rebranded to Meta. They were focused on PC VR gaming, and now they're focused on mobile based social experiences with some garbage laggy interface to get PC VR if you're outlandish enough to want that. They only retain compatibility with other VR standards to appease their customers, but it just results in additional lag and a messy experience.
Facebook purchased Oculus before they sold a single consumer unit. Any headset that wasn't sold by Facebook was a dev kit you had to apply for. (edit: looked up the original kickstarter, they did sell 6-7k dev kit units, which was mostly targeted towards game devs. After the KS the DK2 was sold on an application basis. The consumer versions that moved 10mm+ units were 2 years after Facebook's acquisition.)
I've clocked 10k+ hours with silly screens strapped to my head and I am deathly afraid of what Facebook has done and continues to do to the VR industry. The "metaverse" existed long before Zuckerberg set his sights on it, and he's already killing it.
It is an amazing piece of tech at a price lower than the BOM. I own one myself and can't blame anyone else that likes it too. The dissonance is still too strong.
I don’t get it. Most people. The vast majority, won’t ever spend $700-ish on any thing that isn’t proven, incredibly popular, and has limited functionality. On top of that, as you stated, the higher priced VRs required a high end PC (maybe Windows?). Then a bit below that I think some were or are available for the latest Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Isn’t very other VR set up not too cheap with no external requirements?
The average person in first word countries doesn’t have a ton of spare money. The majority of people don’t. How is being financially elitist about VR better than what FB did?
Then again Apple is the canonical consumer hardware startup and that’s the problem with these things. A successful startup just becomes a big company. No one would call Dyson a startup but it was one.