Oculus owners told not only to get Facebook accounts, purchases will be wiped if they ever leave social network
- Reference: 1603780085
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/27/facebook_oculus_accounts/
- Source link:
The rule is a further binding of the gaming company that Facebook bought in 2014 to the mothership, and comes just two months after Facebook decided all new Oculus users [1]require Facebook accounts to use their VR gizmos, and all current Oculus users will need a Facebook account by 2023. Failure to do so may cause apps installed on the headsets to no longer work as expected.
The decision to cement together what many users see as largely unrelated activities – playing video games and social media posts – has led to a wave of anger among Oculus users, and a renewed online effort to jailbreak new Oculus headgear to bypass Facebook’s growing restrictions.
That outrage was fueled when Facebook initially said that if people attempted to connect more than one Oculus headset to a single Facebook account, something families in particular want to do as it avoids having to install the same app over and over, it would [2]ban them from the service.
Facebook has since dropped that threat, and said it is working on allowing multiple devices and accounts to connect. But the control-freak instincts of the internet giant were yet again on full display, something that was noted by the man who first [3]drew attention to Oculus’s new terms and conditions, CEO of fitness gaming company Yur, Cix Liv.
“My favorite line is ‘While I do completely understand your concerns, we do need to have you comply with the Facebook terms of service’ like Facebook thinks they are some authoritarian government,” he [4]tweeted .
Rumblings
All of this makes a promise made by Oculus’s former CEO Palmer Luckey, when it was acquired by Facebook, sound rather hollow. “I guarantee that you won’t need to log into your Facebook account every time you wanna use the Oculus Rift,” Luckey [5]said on a Reddit post discussing the purchase.
Efforts to jailbreak the Oculus Quest 2 also got a boost when Mozilla engineer Robert Long offered $10,000 to anyone who could pull it off. On Monday, one group said it had [6]managed to do so and could bypass the Facebook login requirement, and the news was rapidly disseminated by angry players.
Facebook apologizes to users, businesses for Apple’s monstrous efforts to protect its customers' privacy [7]READ MORE
Which made it the perfect day for Facebook to announce its new cloud gaming service that will allow users to stream and play games for free without downloading them.
"We're not spinning off a separate cloud gaming service," the mega-corp said in a [8]blog post . “All cloud-streamed games are playable in the same way you play games now on Facebook - whether it’s in our Gaming tab or from News Feed. No special hardware or controllers needed - your hands are the controllers since we’re launching with native mobile games. And you can play these games with a mouse and keyboard on desktop.”
Despite its own policies, Facebook had no problem with publicly complaining about Apple’s hard-line stance regarding software allowed on its iOS operating system. Facebook's new service won’t be available on iPhone or iPads, Facebook whined, because “Apple treats games differently and continues to exert control over a very precious resource.” ®
Get our [9]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/18/oculus_facebook_login/
[2] https://twitter.com/CixLiv/status/1320068735730733056
[3] https://twitter.com/CixLiv/status/1319364000501526528
[4] https://twitter.com/CixLiv/status/1320109352720592897
[5] https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/21cy9n/the_future_of_vr/cgbz2vw/
[6] https://twitter.com/ReadyHackerOne/status/1320765608875601927
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/27/facebook_ios_ads/
[8] https://about.fb.com/news/2020/10/cloud-gaming-meet-facebook-gaming/
[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re:but damnit, it's not right.
but, as you said, "They'll keep their millions, they'll laugh at all the stupid fucks who bought into i". And the world moves on, and news suckers fund new, revolutionary, breakthrough, disruptive, life-changing, indispensable and absolutely essential toys. Great idea, let the fools pay for x number of ideas, see which one breaks through, scoop, repeat. Isn't it what other giants practice, google particularly, but not solely?
Fuck you, Zchmuck.
Need I say more?
Optional
Oculus is definitely now technologia non grata. Hopefully this will cause it to fail.
Facebook telling you who they are - we should listen
Facebook said that "Apple [...] continues to exert control over a very precious resource" . They are, of course, referring to people.
Surely illegal
IANAL but at least in Europe, I would think that them deleting games from your account would be an illegal act. Yes, I am aware that you dont "buy" software anymore, you licence it, blah, blah, blah. But even so, removing something you've paid for would seem a step too far simply because you deleted your account. This is not a service shutting down and deleting the things you've bought (like what happened to that Microsoft book service whose name i cant remember). This is an active service deleting paid for content because of a change in the terms of service (now requiring a login). That would seem likely to be illegal to me.
Any one want to test the rules, and then take this to court? It would be lovely to get a solid European court ruling on this, so that we can finally put a stop to these tech giants threatening such actions. I wouldnt count on the American Courts to do anything about this, so lets hope the European courts continue to be the beacons for consumer rights...
Re: Surely illegal
I can't speak for America, but I suspect in Europe you'd get a sympathetic view from the courts of a large company unilaterally fundamentally changing their T&Cs to the detriment of consumers.
in Europe you'd get a sympathetic view from the courts of a large company
problem is, it would take a non-gov to pick up the fight, the court case will take 10 years (minimum, with appeals and further appeals), and in the end, the offender will pay 10 - 100 mln, which is not even small change to them. Rinse and repeat.
Step back, way back
From the social network, and anything connected to it. Run away!
Re: Step back, way back
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast
Far more appropriate when referring to Zuckerberg or Facebook
Tying unrelated goods/services together ...
... to excert control ovver customers and/or hurt the competition?
IANAL and all, but this just sounds like the perfect application for antitrust law...
And to think we complain about...
the Apple 'lock-in'. This move by Faecaebook takes the whole concept to new levels of scumbaggery. This will be the new baseline.
I can't wait for someone to reverse engineer the Oculus H/W and provide a new service without the Facebook Big Brother Overlord watching your every move.
Stop using Zuckbook now. Vote with your feet. Give them the finger.
What's the state of play with other VR systems? Does Occulus have better hardware than competitors? (Edit: a quick Google search tells me the Occulus systems are stand-alone and work well, the HTC systems are tethered and the Valve system looks to be the mutt's nuts but is very pricey. )
Last I looked, VR looked to be slowly growing (hampered by the cost of the GPUs required to use it satisfactorily), with only a few gamers dipping their toes in the water... haven't heard much about the PlayStation VR kit for a while either, amongst the news of the latest generation consoles.
PSVR
Not the best system but it works and the games are good.
Ask Mark Cerny about PS5
Not regretting...
...my recent purchase of a Valve Index over here.
A couple of months ago I was still weighing up which headset was the best buy. The Oculus gear was getting the best reviews on the various tech websites, it's price point was much lower than the competition (in the £300-£400 region)... but that "you now need a Facebook account to use it" had happened. I thought it just wasn't going to be worth the hassle of dealing with whatever jack-assery Facebook started to throw around and went with the (much) more expensive option instead. The Index was £919, if I recall right.
Hear that, Facebook? I'd rather pay an extra £500 than deal with you and your bullshit.
How to piss off potential customers 101
I'm sure its no coincidence that there have been a convergence of stories about Facebook and gaming recently and it looks like Oculus has been dragged into the mire with it. Maybe as the Oculus Quest 2 goes mainstream they've decided they can piss off the tech nerds who are their existing user base. Or perhaps they've committed a major error. Either way it seems like a dick move to force people to use a Facebook account to use their headset.
One piece of advice I would give for anyone pissed by this but who still wants to use a headset is to buy a burner sim, register a separate FB account and never mix the two together.
Re: How to piss off potential customers 101
That simply won't work. If you have purchased something then you will be linked and tracked.
Re: How to piss off potential customers 101
Just remember HTC are still in the game (much better kit) and PSVR is similar cost IF you have a PS4.
I am going to borrow sons PSVR and play his motion controlled FPS game. As I am very good with MOVE and FPS* should be fun.
* Top 0.5% online with Killzone 3 and entirely with MOVE.
Surely changing their terms and conditions after you purchased the item to make Facebook login compulsary, is then a breach of contract? So everyone should be able to send back their Oculus for a full refund or sue facebook?
after you purchased ... login compulsary
At least Personal Skype was free and MS had more or less broken it anyway by the time you could only use an MS account.
See also Minecraft, which MS bought.
When are the so called Tech companies going to be reigned in? Apple and Microsoft are Tech, but really Google, Facebook and Amazon just leverage technology.
These are shocking lists
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Amazon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Facebook
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mergers_and_acquisitions_by_Alphabet (Google)
The real tech companies don't have a great look either. Oracle, Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Qualcomm etc.
Not really.
Pretty much all EULAs have a "we can change this at will and f$#@ you for thinking otherwise" clause in there somewhere.
The problem is that you never signed an actual contract. It's the miracle of the Internet and Terms of Service that you automatically accept when you use the site. If the terms change, which they definitely can, then it is up to you to not use the site if you don't agree.
Generally, if a website actually comes up with something I do not agree with, I will indeed no longer use the site (eh, LinkedIn ?). However, one must admit that Facebook has the easy upper hand here, because of the amount of people who basically have it connected intravenously.
So The Zuck just goes and makes a monopolistic dick move, because he can.
I really would like to see a class action lawsuit on that, but I don't see that you can complain legally.
Standard Borg Procedure.
WhatsApp, Instagram etc.
"Let us buy them and we won't slurp or combine data"
Facebook, one Lord to rule them all.
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish?
If Facebook is trying to kill the Oculus, this is a great way to do it. Just piss off not only your existing customers, but all your new customers to. This is like the French threating to cut off the middle finger of British archers, but got defeated instead. The archers showed the one-finger salute yelling "We can still pluck yew!" The modified form is what everyone should be yelling at Facebook as their ass is dragged into court for bait and switch.
I don't understand. If you object to this, why wouldn't you just set up a throwaway Favebook account?
Easy ways round this.
Very easy way of avoiding it luckily there are other good companies, one even works on a games console!
A son has the following VR platforms.
Firstly PSVR, it works really well and is a good entry level system. It may be tied to PSN but with a PS4 you tend to have to be.
Next Vive, very good setup not as comfy. I don't think it is tied but the games are from Steam.
Note NO OCULUS.
Also funny how gamers are happy to sign up to STEAM, PSN or XBL but Faecesbook no. What are they doing so wrong?
Fuck FB
Flogged my Oculus Quest on fleabay last week. a) I wasn't using it really b) FUCK FB and its insidious ways. I know I had until 2023 to merge accounts with FB but I got off that shit show probably 8 years ago and no intention of returning. I had considered creating a fake account just to use the Quest but thats a no go either.
Oblig python reference
RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!
"a wave of anger among Oculus users"
I felt that wave the minute I read that The Zuck was buying Oculous. It was at that moment that the product died for me, and that made me angry because it was promising at the time.
Oculus is fraud
Over 9500 people ripped off for just under 2.5 million based on false promises on their kickstarter. Followed by lie after lie.
Now this.
I can only hope Oculus just dies. Hard. It deserves to die. As a company. As a product. As an idea that it's ok to lie, cheat, lie again, cheat, defraud, and somehow still be able to find enough people purchase the product. The people who were behind this massive shit-show of a fraud need to be taken down.
They won't, I know. They'll keep their millions, they'll laugh at all the stupid fucks who bought into it, but damnit, it's not right.