Oculus gift: VR biz to cough up half a billion dollars for ripping off software copyright

Re: Bit Steep

everyone interested in the gimmick have bought their toy

Actually no, I haven't bought mine. I'm waiting for the 2nd generation. Plus actually I am broke, and can't afford the headset plus the graphics card it would need.

I'm conflicted. On one hand I love seeing Facebook forking out the money. On the other, I kind of think this verdict is BS, and the award amount is ludicrous.

Re: Bit Steep

A different POV is that, if Oculus was acquired for 2+1 B$, then that gives them 15% of the acquisition price. Depends how much the value of what FB acquired was based on what was supposedly stolen from Zenimax.

Seems steep, but who knows? In any case, a type of IP shenanigans that FB's founder should be well acquainted with, neh?

Re: Bit Steep

Another shortsighted view from someone who obviously doesn't think this new fangled VR thing is worth the bother.

VR is not going the same way as 3DTV, because VR is still improving and developing. It offers a far greater sense of immersion than 3DTV ever could, and while the 1st generation of these new headsets are still not perfect, they have already built upon the prototype versions that came before, and will continue to improve.

IT's only a matter of a year or 2 before we see 2k and 4k screens that will allow VR to really shine. GPU's are catching up fast, and should allow the resolutions needed which are the only key problem right now.

Even 3DTV has a chance to make a comeback, once glasses-free tech is perfected.

People like you are the reason we are slow to improve, and move on.

Re: Bit Steep

>taking the upper estimation of 400,000 @ $600 a piece = $240million

Components alone are $200-$350 (depends who you believe) - assuming they keep a lid on development and increasingly desperate attempts to find non-niche applications - 400,000 is $20 million @ $50 a headset - $50 profit is probably over-generous.

@Sampler Re: Bit Steep

"How do they calculate a half a billion value for Zenimax if total Oculus revs have been a quarter of a billion (taking the upper estimation of 400,000 @ $600 a piece = $240million)."

They use the same math that they do when they calculate the values of those Unicorns.

Re: Bit Steep

I think it would be based on Facebook paying "an additional $1 billion for Oculus employee retention packages" when "Oculus hired five senior employees away from ZeniMax" only the month before. The ruling could be compensating ZeniMax for these employees if ZeniMax were able to show that Facebook's purchase of Oculus depended on this hiring.

Re: Bit Steep

400,000 LOL. Get a grip. Not even a quarter of that. Playstation VR has outsold Oculus and Vive sales COMBINED, in a quarter of the time.

As for the 1/2bn, I'm sure Palmer Luckey will be on the phone to his mate Trumpy as we speaking, getting the judgment overturned, with a new amendment adding that Presidents pals have unlimited get out of jail free cards.

Re: "Oculus products are built with Oculus technology"

I think you mean: Oculus wouldn't be where it is today if they hadn't ripped off 9500+ people for over $2 million with the promise of an open VR platform, only to turn around and give a glorious "fuck you" to everyone who chipped in on kickstarter.

Re: "Oculus products are built with Oculus technology"

"and ZeniMax employees.

Honestly, Oculus would not be where it is today if Carmak hadn't gone over to Oculus with a group of colleagues. If I were the CEO of ZeniMax, I'd be seething. Half a billion wouldn't seem exaggerated to me."

As it happens, ZeniMax don't own people, so they can leave if they want. It's ex-ZeniMax employees. What this shows is that ZeniMax should have paid those employees more, so they wouldn't leave.

This is capitalism in action. If your company hinges on one, or a small group of people, then you need to pay them basically all of the revenue from the company. Like sports clubs (that don't have wage caps).

You are of course entitled to your opinion on how good Bethesda games are.

What confuses me is your opinion that the engine alone makes games bad. Sure, getting fallout 4 to work at native resolution on my main monitor requires me to disconnect the other displays and specifically run in borderless windowed mode but that's only part of the game and hardly a defining feature...