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Signing the end of any degree of separation remaining between Facebook and its VR headset division, Oculus, the social media company today announced that it will further integrate the two services. This fall, the company will begin phasing out standalone Oculus accounts as part of an effort to transition the entire Oculus ecosystem to Facebook. This will begin in October, when all new Oculus accounts and devices will need to sign up for a Facebook account, while support for existing standalone accounts will be removed entirely in early 2023.
Initially an acquisition for Facebook, the Oculus Rift and the underlying Oculus software ecosystem were initially developed by the then independent Oculus VR group. After acquiring the company for $ 2 billion in 2014, Facebook has, in recent years, largely treated Oculus as a stand-alone entity, selling products under the Oculus brand and leaving Facebook integration as an optional feature – a co- Founder of the same guaranteed Palmer Luckey feature upon acquisition in 2014.
Nonetheless, the era of Oculus as a standalone ecosystem is drawing to a close, as Facebook showcased its plans to transition Oculus users to Facebook accounts, and the significant social media impact that entails.
According to Facebook, the liquidation of Oculus accounts will be a two-step process for the company. Starting in October, all new accounts will need to be Facebook accounts – or more specifically, users will need a Facebook account to log into the Oculus ecosystem. Meanwhile, current standalone Oculus account holders will for a period of time have grandfathered rights on their existing devices, but all future unseen devices, even when paired with an existing Oculus account, will still require a Facebook login.
Facebook will then maintain support for grandfathered accounts until early 2023. At that point, the company will officially drop support for standalone Oculus accounts, and although the company is not threatening to disconnect or disable immediately non-Facebook users, “all functionality will require a Facebook account.” ” In particular:
We will take steps to ensure that you continue to use the content you have purchased, even though some games and applications may no longer work. This could be because they require a Facebook account or because a developer has chosen to no longer support the app or game you purchased.
Ultimately, for Facebook, this marks the final step in the Oculus acquisition, more fully integrating the business and its systems into the larger Facebook ecosystem. Facebook’s primary strength as an end-user service provider remains its social offerings, so the company cannot fully harness these strengths as long as Oculus users stay outside of the Facebook ecosystem. At the same time, it will also give the revenue-generating side of Facebook much more access to information about Oculus users, which the company can then use for targeted advertising, usage tracking and usage. other purposes.
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