I'm not sure why people think Kickstarter is anything but that? That's all backers are - stepping stones on the way to greater glory, and a source of risk-free starting capital from gullible people who believe they are 'investing'. The number of backers who actually see KS for what it is are very few in number indeed.

I'm certainly saddened by this news, no doubt about that, but anyone who believes that the founders created Oculus out of desire to create the "future of VR" is seriously deluding themselves. They did it to get rich.

Gamers backed it thinking it would play a role in making VR a reality for PC interfaces. Who knows what Zuckerberg has in mind for it. all we've got now is Sony's craptastic device for PS4. We have nothing for PC. So yeah, the people backing this may have been nothing more than a bunch of tools.

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/037/923/keikaku.jpg

Yes, now I remember; Morpheus! From what I've read (not much) I suppose OR showed there was a market and now a company with massive R&D capabilities is doing a better job. I think the future is bright for this tech :)

Oculus is DOOMED DOOMED I tell you! F***ing Facebook! NSA CIA spy agency Facebook!

Buy Valve and Steam . :p

OK, so wont be ever getting Oculus after all.

Ready Player One.

FB bying Oculus is as sad news as it can possibly get.
I'm staying away and hope that the best alternative hardware catches up soon.
...sad to see mr.Carmack working for facebook too...

:(

Facebook has too much money...

They're also losing members fast and becoming increasingly reliant on an unstable revenue base (advertising), so this does make sense from the perspective of business expansion. Same reason MS went into the console industry when the computer operating system market had very little opportunity for further growth.

Sure but expansion must be paid by money. Recently they paid even more for Whatsapp. Both, not only Oculus Rift generate little income now. To really pay off economically they must grow a lot in the future and they must generate income with a fitting business model which is doable but risky. Otherwise they just burned their cash and the party will be over.

My impression is that Facebook is doing quite some unfavorable deals because they simply can afford it. A sign that they have too much money.

It actually doesn't. 1.6 billion was paid with Facebook shares, only 400 million with cash.

Exactly, FB has realized how really vulnerable they are, it would only take Facebook to stop being the latest fad for a while like MySpace and it's ad revenue would start shrinking. So they are desperate to use whatever cash they have now to expand into profitable emerging niches in markets, like VR tech.

Similar position Microsoft was in when they realized their was limited growth opportunity left in operating systems, so they expanded with the Xbox. Except that operating systems are a very stable business and nothing is ever going to challenge Windows seriously for a long time.

Poor Carmack. Out of the Zenimax, into the Facebook.