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META'S VR efforts cost them 10BN last year

fart town usa

Gold Member
Yes, like every other PC VR headset. Only this also works by itself with different games, and is also a fraction of the price.
Nice, I'm new to VR so still not quite up to speed on how the PC compatible headsets work. I was strongly considering getting the Quest 2 the other month but just don't have a powerful enough PC to really take advantage of its potential. Went with PSVR instead. I think it's effing hilarious that this thing uses the PS3 Move Controllers.
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
They are trying to chase the dream of Ready Player One.

The problem is they don't have the ideal hardware to pull it off, everything right now is beta.
We need extremely high graphics, fidelity and latency, remove every form of hardware resistance such as wireless, weight the size of glasses, and accurate tracking.
So far everything VR produced is clunky it's like comparing a modern recent iPad to a desktop from 1995.
They explicitly laid out in prior investor calls that this is a 10 year investment/project. What improvements in VR do you think will have been made over the course of 10 years and billions in development by all these different companies?
 

NickFire

Member
I don't want to diss the headset because its pretty neat tech for a decent price. But I am very happy I didn't get sucked in and buy one last month after reading this. I want nothing to do with social media already, and if they're taking those kind of losses I have to assume they're only pushing this for Facebook (or Meta, whatever) social media VR. No thank you.
 
Nice, I'm new to VR so still not quite up to speed on how the PC compatible headsets work. I was strongly considering getting the Quest 2 the other month but just don't have a powerful enough PC to really take advantage of its potential. Went with PSVR instead. I think it's effing hilarious that this thing uses the PS3 Move Controllers.
Quest is pretty sick. It's the only one I've tried though. Everything is just easy. You can take it anywhere, draw a play area on the ground and you're good to go.

I've never hooked it up to a PC and there's a lots of things to play. It's not crazy photorealistic graphics, but I don't mind. Even stuff like Superhot is incredibly immersive with basic polygonal graphics. Some of the games look great, like Lies Beneath, Pistol Whip, RE4, and more. Plus Quest has a good VR web browser that makes looking at web pages feel like Minority Report a little bit, or movies, or explicit movies. For the low entry price I already feel like I got my money worth as my first VR device.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
There are a certain number of VR zealots on Neogaf who will hear no ill word spoken about it.

They'll somehow try to spin this as a positive, and remind us that VR IS THE FUTURE! :messenger_grinning:
I remember being called a heretic in here when I said vr was nothing but niche and will never really take off.

Hopefully they get a reality check with life now.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Quest is pretty sick. It's the only one I've tried though. Everything is just easy. You can take it anywhere, draw a play area on the ground and you're good to go.

I've never hooked it up to a PC and there's a lots of things to play. It's not crazy photorealistic graphics, but I don't mind. Even stuff like Superhot is incredibly immersive with basic polygonal graphics. Some of the games look great, like Lies Beneath, Pistol Whip, RE4, and more. Plus Quest has a good VR web browser that makes looking at web pages feel like Minority Report a little bit, or movies, or explicit movies. For the low entry price I already feel like I got my money worth as my first VR device.
Right on. I've used a Quest 2 for a bit, my buddy and nephew have one. I also played Super Hot and that was really cool, controls felt great. RE4 looks amazing, haven't played it yet but from footage alone, it's vastly superior to RE7. RE7 isn't interactive, it's just immersive and scary. RE4 looks like it lets you do all kinds of interactive things while also being immersive.

I will say though, I'm glad I went with PSVR due to Astrobot: Rescue Mission alone, that game is insanely fun. Definitely try it out if you ever get the chance, it's easily the best VR experience I've had so far.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
I remember being called a heretic in here when I said vr was nothing but niche and will never really take off.

Hopefully they get a reality check with life now.
It definitely is niche but it's capable of providing an experience like no other. I still prefer TV gaming but I'm glad I finally own a headset. Not all the games are killer apps but there are some that just make you be like, "damn, this really is amazing..."
 
Right on. I've used a Quest 2 for a bit, my buddy and nephew have one. I also played Super Hot and that was really cool, controls felt great. RE4 looks amazing, haven't played it yet but from footage alone, it's vastly superior to RE7. RE7 isn't interactive, it's just immersive and scary. RE4 looks like it lets you do all kinds of interactive things while also being immersive.

I will say though, I'm glad I went with PSVR due to Astrobot: Rescue Mission alone, that game is insanely fun. Definitely try it out if you ever get the chance, it's easily the best VR experience I've had so far.
I got Moss, but haven't tried it yet. There's a few other platformers available like Super Lucky's Tale and some other low budget one. I'm sure Astrobot is sick. I liked the PS5 one.

I would consider PSVR2 if it's cheap, and they have multiple exclusives I'm interested in.
 

kingfey

Banned
I remember being called a heretic in here when I said vr was nothing but niche and will never really take off.

Hopefully they get a reality check with life now.
niche products are the dangerous ones.

Fortnite was just a kiddy game, with cartoonish game. Now its bigger than call of duty.

VR has the potential to hit the world with a storm. The industry is providing that option, with all lockdowns, covid measurements. we are having less human interaction than before.

it would be the escape device for casuals.
 

Matt_Fox

Member
After news that Facebook burned through 16 billion in 2 years? I certainly don't expect MS to launch a VR headset in 2023. Team VR on Gaf are nothing if not optimistic.
money GIF
 

WitchHunter

Member
Facebook or META for the first time broke down their VR efforts. 2 years ago they lost 6BN and last year 10BN. So while on the outside it looks like Quest is a success it comes at a very costly price. They don't expect the VR market to be sustainable anytime soon for them.

"Net loss from Meta's Reality Labs, the company's augmented and virtual reality business, was $10.2 billion for the full year 2021, compared with a $6.6 billion loss the previous year. It was the first time the company had broken out this segment in its results."

"Zuckerberg had previously warned that the company's investment in this area would reduce 2021 operating profit by $10 billion and would not be profitable "any time in the near future." Reality Labs posted revenue of about $2.3 billion in 2021. The company has not made public the sales numbers for its virtual reality Quest headsets."

It's too early...
 

W11d

Member
After news that Facebook burned through 16 billion in 2 years? I certainly don't expect MS to launch a VR headset in 2023. Team VR on Gaf are nothing if not optimistic.
money GIF
this is a long-term investment. And it's still less than MS investing on gamepass with 70 bil Activision.
 

ZehDon

Member
The interesting element for me is the cost of equivalent hardware. If Meta is losing this much cash to price their headset at USD$299, how much is PSVR2 gonna cost given the hardware?
 

Matt_Fox

Member
this is a long-term investment.

It's an investment, sure, but the markets don't think its a good one - as evidenced by their share price falling 20%.

People are genuinely trying to spin this as good news, the mind boggles.
 

kingfey

Banned
It's an investment, sure, but the markets don't think its a good one - as evidenced by their share price falling 20%.

People are genuinely trying to spin this as good news, the mind boggles.
Everyone knows that too for gamepass. Yet, MS is heavily invested in.

Same thing was for netflix. People doubted that service as dead on arrival and now, every movie is streaming.

Metaverse and gamepass would be huts like netflix. But they would need investment for long term, which means losing alot of money in the process.
 

Kerotan

Member
The interesting element for me is the cost of equivalent hardware. If Meta is losing this much cash to price their headset at USD$299, how much is PSVR2 gonna cost given the hardware?
Sony won't be selling at a big loss if at all.
 

kingfey

Banned
Sony won't be selling at a big loss if at all.
They would selling at a loss, if the demand isn't that high.

Quest2 had more sales, and gains more money through software sales.

VR games cost money to make. You need to make those money back.
 

Romulus

Member
After news that Facebook burned through 16 billion in 2 years? I certainly don't expect MS to launch a VR headset in 2023. Team VR on Gaf are nothing if not optimistic.
money GIF


The problem is we don't know how much that investment is actually VR, specifically quest 2. AR is listed there and VR future projects or whatever this metaverse shit is.
 

W11d

Member
It's an investment, sure, but the markets don't think its a good one - as evidenced by their share price falling 20%.

People are genuinely trying to spin this as good news, the mind boggles.
this is not the main reason their share price falling.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Holy shit, that is a shed load of money.

theres no way that VR is a lucrative business choice right now. I need to see how Sony can leverage this.

PSVR 2 has to work on pc, it just has to imo.

Sony is a "ROCK-hard"-ware company, those bloated, massive companies on the other hand are "soft"-ware and flaccid. Sony's using all its tech, so much less loss there, and it's profitable for Sony.
 

ToTTenTranz

Banned
Facebook / Meta has been spending billions in headset technology since they bought Oculus 8 years ago.
All that people have seen so far are the iterative VR headsets that we've seen from Oculus, and those probably represent a small fraction of their R&D spending.

Meta has reportedly been snatching all the technical talent behind Microsoft's Hololens 1 & 2, to the point where it seems Hololens 3 has been cancelled and Microsoft will be using AR headsets from Samsung instead.


I think people should wait until Meta gets their AR headset and EMG bracelet controller out there before coming to early conclusions on how well or bad their R&D spending has been. I suspect a lot of hats may have to be eaten ~4 years from now if/when everyone and their dogs are using cheap AR headsets from Meta, Apple or Samsung.
 

Romulus

Member
Profiting? Yes.


I like feel oculus is helping other VR companies too. They invest to get the mainstream numbers where more people can try VR, and sony etc benefit. Everything about VR comes down to actually using it. These forums are a literal example that most people haven't, even many hardcore gamers think VR is just a monitor close to your eyes lmao
 
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Bo_Hazem

Banned
I like feel oculus is helping other VR companies too. They invest to get the mainstream numbers where more people can try VR, and sony etc benefit. Everything about VR comes down to actually using it. These forums are a literal example that most people haven't, even many hardcore gamers think VR is just a monitor close to your eyes lmao

PSVR2 would be my first, despite my older brother at home has PSVR but I didn't try it.
 
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IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Meta’s first-quarter results showed us that Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the metaverse is very expensive. And its losses are widening even as its VR hardware and software sales grow.

Meta has started breaking out its results from its Reality Labs division, (former known as Facebook’s Oculus division) to give investors a sense of how much it is investing in the next version of the internet.

Reality Labs generated $695 million in revenue in the first quarter ended March 31, up from $534 million a year ago. The loss in the quarter was $2.96 billion in Q1, compared with a loss of $1.83 billion a year earlier.

Overall, revenue was higher than expected at $27.91 billion in Q1, compared with $28.2 billion expected. Earnings per share were $2.72 a share, compared with expectations of $2.56 a share.

Meta’s overall headcount was 77,805 as of March 31, an increase of 28% year-over-year.
 

reksveks

Member
Meta spent 7.7bn on R&D last quarter, only company that spent more was Alphabet, they spent 9.6bn.

One thing to add is there is a real bidding war between Apple and Meta for talent in the ar/vr space.
 
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Goalus

Member
Is there anything I can do to help Facebook lose as much money as possible?
Buy as many Quests as possible and then don't buy any software.

Meta investing this much money in the technology is why I am most excited for their future headsets instead of any competing product. If anyone is able to do it right, it is going to be them. They might need to buy a GAAS company who has a lot of users to reach their goal though. Epic would probably make the most sense.
 
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