Nerd Rating

Tag: Facebook

  • UPDATE: Oculus VR “Sells Out,” Game Developers Jumping Ship

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    Update: Min-Liang Tan, the CEO of high-end gaming tech giant Razer,  has responded to Notch’s tweet: “Perhaps we can help out. Will be in touch.” This year’s CES saw Razer reveal multiple devices that hint toward a possible entry by the company into the realm of virtual reality.

    Original Story

    In a shocking announcement, Facebook has revealed that they will acquire Oculus VR – the company behind the ambition “Oculus Rift” virtual-reality headset – at the price of $400 million in cash, and 23.1 million shares of Facebook stock (valued at approximately $1.6 billion). The deal is set to close in the second quarter of this year.

    The leadership at Oculus has posted a statement on the company website: “At first glance, it might not seem obvious why Oculus is partnering with Facebook, a company focused on connecting people, investing in internet access for the world and pushing an open computing platform. But when you consider it more carefully, we’re culturally aligned with a focus on innovating and hiring the best and brightest; we believe communication drives new platforms; we want to contribute to a more open, connected world; and we both see virtual reality as the next step.”

    “Mobile is the platform of today, and now we’re also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow,” says Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. “Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate.”

    “After games, we’re going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side 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.”

    “This partnership is one of the most important moments for virtual reality: it gives us the best shot at truly changing the world,” the Oculus team says. “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.”

    The deal has already claimed one casualty, as Notch, the mind behind Minecraft, took to Twitter and his blog to announce that he will no longer be developing a version of the game for Oculus Rift. The Minecraft phenomenon sprang from very humble origins – though some claim Notch takes more credit than he deserves – and the creator doesn’t feel this new deal is good news for indie development.

    “Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts. Facebook is not a game tech company. Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers, and nothing but building user numbers.”

    Oculus Rift has garnered massive attention over the past year, as gamers have wondered what it would be like to experience games like Mirror’s Edge, Portal, Skyrim and more using the unique VR headset. Time will tell if this deal helps bring virtual reality one step closer to home, or reduces it to just another Candy Crush Saga accessory.

  • Rock Band Store Dies At 5 This April

    Photo courtesy slashgamer.com
    Photo courtesy slashgamer.com

    While the release of new music games has pretty much been put six feet under Harmonix has been releasing weekly content to their ever expanding library. Now, it seems, that it can fight no more.

    April 2nd will be the last week of content release for the Rock Band store bringing to an end an impressive five year run that saw the release of over 4,000 songs over 275 consecutive weeks. They are currently having a sale on over 1,100 songs at 50% off so people can keep filling out their Rock Band libraries.

    The company released a small statement on the Rock Band forums:

    “We hope that you’ll all agree that this has been a tremendous run, and you should know it’s a ride that we at Harmonix have been thrilled to be a part of. We’re going to continue to support the forums and RockBand.com and hope to still see you rocking out online, in photos of Rock Band parties shared on Twitter and Facebook, or here on the forums. Whether you waited in line for a midnight release of Rock Band over 5 years ago, or you just joined the party with Rock Band Blitz… whether you’ve downloaded every single song we’ve ever released, or you’ve just played on disc songs until your neighbors moved away… whether you’re a metal shredder, or a bubblegum pop singer… thank you for being a part of our band.”

  • Challenge Accepted: Four For February

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    2013 is going to hit gamers like a punch in the gut very soon. Between March and May there are no less than five triple-A games set to hit consoles. [amazon_link id=”B004FS8LYK” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Tomb Raider[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”B007FTE2VW” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Sim City[/amazon_link], God of War: Ascension, [amazon_link id=”B002I0H2AG” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Gears of War: Judgment[/amazon_link] and [amazon_link id=”B007CM0K86″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Last of Us[/amazon_link] will cerainly occupy a lot of your free time. Then you have the new consoles to look forward to.

    If you are like me, you probably have a stack of games that have been started and put aside for a later date. Well that is what February is for! An idea was given on a gaming group I am a part of on Facebook (taken from a story on Kotaku) called “Four for February” in which we pick four games that we decide to finish in the 28 days of the month to catch up on the “Pile of Shame” we collect as gamers.

    I will be attempting to do this beginning next month and encourage all of you who are besieged by unfinished games crying out for your time to do the same. Let us know what games you would want to attempt to finish in February. Here are my four:

    [amazon_link id=”B0076ZPYPI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Sleeping Dogs[/amazon_link]

    [amazon_link id=”B0050SYLRK” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Assassin’s Creed 3[/amazon_link]

    [amazon_link id=”B005THAX5Q” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Aliens: Colonial Marines[/amazon_link]

    [amazon_link id=”B0050SWTAQ” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Need For Speed: Most Wanted[/amazon_link]

    Will you accept the challenge? Or let your games remain to look sad on your shelf?

     

  • NCAA ’14 Cover Vote Has A Few Surprises

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    So let’s get beyond the fact that NCAA Football 13 was a bit frustrating in its overcompensation for NCAA 12’s problems with blocking, punt coverage and defenders blind swatting balls. Instead of showing us how they will be trying to improve NCAA 14, EA wants you to go vote for which school will represent the game on the cover.

    Okay EA, I will play along…for now.

    Voting is done through the game’s Facebook page by just liking the page then voting for your favorite school. You can continue to vote on all the schools until halftime of Monday’s BCS National Championship game and then the top 32 teams will move on to the next round of voting.

    Some of the teams in the 32 are a little hard to believe they have a shot to win much less be in the next round of votes. For example, Kentucky is sitting at 14th. You know, that great Kentucky football program that has has such classic games as………and that magical championship run in…….. Army is sitting at 32nd and Penn State is in 10th. Jokes are too easy to come by with that so let’s just all agree that they should not be anywhere near a video game cover for a while and the fact that USC fans are too lazy or don’t care about their program enough to vote enough for this tells me that Lane Kiffin’s job may not be very secure.