VR will eventually matter in esports, but not this year.

Today’s podcast episode is an attempt to explain why I think that esports and VR wont mix until 2017 at the earliest. Even then, considering the games that could be called major esports right now, it’ll be difficult to create meaningful VR gameplay interactions without resorting to segregating VR games from non-VR games, at least on a competitive level.

And shoutout to critical thinking skills that a growing number of fans apparently lack: the Drone Racing League is not an esport simply because it features VR headsets and you should feel bad if you think it is.

Facebook takes promising future away from gaming for just $2b USD.

It all started with a simple text I received last night. “What did Facebook buy?”

Facebook

Facebook to Acquire Oculus — Facebook today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Oculus VR, Inc., the leader in immersive virtual reality technology, for a total of about $2 billion. This includes $400 million in cash and 23.1 million shares of Facebook common stock (valued at $1.6 billion…

If I wasn’t in a church building at a band practice, I would have said a few things inside of a church that I would regret. Ultimately, Facebook spent $2b USD on a company leading the charge on modern virtual reality implementation, called Oculus VR. All for the sake of “getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow.”

The $2b USD buying price sounds like a blocker buy-out price to prevent Oculus VR from being picked up by a peripheral company or multiplying its valuation by taking in more venture capital funds. However, Zuck’s comments sound like that they’re looking to right a wrong they made that allowed so many games and services to operate through Facebook—to take a page from the Apple playbook of completely locking down the system and turning the Oculus Rift’s final retail product into the Facebook VR app marketplace vector.

Internet cool guy keekerdc has found a series of tweets from a certain well-known mobile developer who has already pulled the plug on any potential Oculus VR port that was picked up by the CEO of peripheral company Razer who then offered to “help out.”

Razer’s nonexistent VR product isn’t the only way out. Sony has been teasing its own VR headset that will eventually be deployed to the PlayStation 4. CCP Games’ dogfighting simulator originally designed for the Oculus Rift, Valkyrie, announced just this last week that they would also be developing the game for Sony’s Project Morpheus.

I’d imagine that there will be plenty of game developers following CCP’s lead and announcing development for Sony’s VR headset in the coming weeks after the Facebook acquisition.

The reaction to a post made by Oculous founder Palmer Luckey in /r/oculus was met with some pretty negative reactions, but this particular comment by /u/AlexHD concisely explains gamers’ hesitation with the Facebook acquisition.

> By Gamers for Gamers
Was the original Kickstarter pitch. But now it’s
> We believe virtual reality will be heavily defined by social experiences
What a shame.

Perhaps there was a little miscommunication involved at Facebook HQ about a question from Zuck…

Here’s what I learned from CheckPoint S3E8.

  • Aussies being screwed about video games is nothing new.
  • Ghost-free is the best free.
  • I’ve never played any of the Saints Row games before, but I wonder how many folks will actually buy a pre-order collectors edition of the upcoming title.
  • Globacore creates a VR-enhanced version of Paperboy. Good on them.
  • The Aussie government doesn’t really care about the reasons that software is generally more expensive to buy in-country than to buy out-of-country. All they really care about is the substancial increase in tax revenues that they get from selling these games in addition to the prices’ discouraging effect on consumers to purchase them. That last bit has to have the uber-moralistically-imposing government feeling happy as can be, I’d imagine. The invocation of price-gouging, a well-time pause, and the accompanying rolling headline of ‘literally what is happening’ is awesome. It’s like Graham knows exactly what’s going on, here.
  • Gift a Game to an Aussie Day is fucking brilliant. So much so, in fact, that it deserves its own bullet point. Which it now has.
  • Another borderline-perverted Japanese dating-sim-meets-actual-sim? Don’t they have any more ideas about how robots can be giant suits for humans to ride in and save the world or something? Actually, now that I think about it, SQUARE ENIX, LOCALIZE MORE FRONT MISSION GAMES YOU WHORE OF A VIDEO GAMES COMPANY.
  • Kathleen wants to pile on the ongoing feminism-in-video-games conversation by rating fictional Japanese characters. #standard
  • Whoa, this segment from Kathleen is definitely on point. Pretty damn hilarious.
  • Graham’s face at the end. I know that feel, bro.
  • Oh god, Kathleen is right. By buying itself out, Activision Blizzard is essentially an indie game developer. THE SKY IS FALLING.