The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Wednesday April 23 that it had approved Facebook's purchase of Oculus VR. Facebook announced its intentions to buy the virtual reality gaming company back in March.
At the time, Oculus VR was a 20-month-old company with crowd-funded capital and a legion of excited fans behind its efforts to make VR gaming a reality. When Oculus VR announced that it was selling to Facebook for $2 million, its devoted backers were enraged and bitterly disappointed.
But the FTC doesn't seem to mind.
Oculus fans expressed their concerns over user privacy, over commercialization and the dilution of Oculus VR's vision by Facebook on the company's Kickstarter page. The general sentiment among Oculus VR's VR gaming user base was that the company had sold out to one of the biggest and most evil corporations in the tech world: Facebook.
Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey has devoted all of his time ever since to assuring VR gaming fans that Facebook ownership of Oculus VR is a good thing.
"This partnership is one of the most important moments for virtual reality: it gives us the best shot at truly changing the world," Luckey and the Oculus team said at the time. "It opens doors to new opportunities and partnerships, reduces risk on the manufacturing and work capital side, allows us to publish more made-for-VR content, and lets us focus on what we do best: solving hard engineering challenges and delivering the future of VR."
Facebook also stated that although it had plans for Oculus VR, it was merely expanding the company's vision rather than diluting it.
"Mobile is the platform of today, and now we're also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow," Zuckerberg said in a statement. "Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play, and communicate."
"We're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences," Zuckerberg said. "Imagine enjoying a courtside seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face-just by putting on goggles in your home."
Needless to say, Oculus fans, much like WhatsApp users, are still very skeptical of Facebook's intentions.
