A great many people in the indie scene are upset about the Oculus Rift Facebook Buyout. A great many more people don’t really care that it happened. So we’re going to explore, with you, what it really means that they bought it out on all sides.
A Scarred Indie Scene Due to the Oculus Rift Facebook Buyout
After the announcement there were thousands of posts and even quite a few videos lamenting the buyout. For many of those who buy into projects like this they have alienated them forever. It remains to be seen whether this will hurt their overall profit margins. Most of us have little use for VR Farmville.
The Oculus Rift Facebook Buyout and Games
It certainly is true that some developers stopped working on their games for it. That’s a solid fact. However a great many more are continuing full steam ahead. People are also supporting Kickstarters for the project like Technolust. So there is still a place for developers with this.
The Oculus Rift Facebook Buyout and Donators
As many people have pointed out the new company that owns the game has little reason to fill donator orders. They might still do it but you could be left high and dry with little recourse. Even if you got your money back from the original creators they have more than enough to make up for it.
The Oculus Rift Facebook Buyout is Good for Making Money
The facts were clear as we explored before that the setup was not going to work. It didn’t have a large enough fan base to stay alive. Even those of you who wanted to keep it indie have to face facts that it just wasn’t going to survive. It was going to go the way of the Ouya.
Some of you are probably saying it would have worked but there is just a mountain of evidence that it wouldn’t have. Others are probably saying “we would have rather had a few good games and had it die than this” which is totally valid. We agree.
Did the Developers do the Right Thing with the Oculus Rift Facebook Buyout?
While it’s easy to make a knee-jerk reaction that it was wrong or bad we should all think about it. It was a project being supported by a lot of people who didn’t have the money to keep it going. You’re offered either the chance to publish a failing product for the fans or make a lot of money for little work. Plus there are other factors for a company to consider. As retireat21.com discusses, some offers are too good for a company to ignore if it means they can fully support their workers and provide for their needs, as well as be duly rewarded for their efforts.
What would you do if you had people to support? You should decide for yourself as usual. For those of you saying you had the money to support it, sure. But did you have the money to buy a huge number of games to support it when sales slumped? We don’t personally.
The Final Effect of the Oculus Rift Facebook Buyout
The final result is that we’re going to see a successful third party console from a company we really didn’t want it from. It’s going to make more money from the mainstream than they would have in any other way. Development continues regardless of how we feel about it.
The main thing that amused us about this is how quickly opinion turned. We had always been against it from the start since something like this was sure to happen. It’s good to see criticism finally as the industry could surely use more of that.
