Oculus VR Facebookening Gets More Pronounced From October

The next generation of VR headsets remains unclear, but the VR software ecosystem has just confirmed an unsurprising – and potentially unwanted – requirement for a large number of users.

Beginning in “this month of October”, anyone new to the Oculus VR ecosystem will be required to sign in to devices using a Facebook account, instead of creating and logging into an account. distinct Oculus specific. If you already have an Oculus account (which is free and does not require an Oculus-branded headset), you can continue to use these credentials for existing and new headsets until January 1, 2023, when all Connected Oculus services (and the brand-new headsets) will not work without a Facebook account.

“Your use of virtual reality and other Facebook products”

While the official Oculus announcement begins by claiming how this change will improve the Oculus VR experience, it ends with the exact kind of information sharing and flood of trackers that many Facebook critics fear:

When you log into Oculus using your Facebook account, Facebook will use information about your use of VR and other Facebook products to provide and improve your experience. This information is also used to show you personalized content, including advertisements. For example, we may show you recommendations for Oculus events you might like, advertisements on Facebook apps and technologies, or advertisements from developers for their VR apps.

Since its massive Kickstarter-backed launch, Oculus has maintained its own login system so users can manage digital licenses, friend lists, and other VR-specific content. But Facebook, which acquired Oculus in 2014, ultimately asked VR users to connect their Facebook credentials to their accounts. While this process has been regularly described as entirely optional, Oculus has begun to associate certain content – particularly “social” sharing features like game videos – with FB logged credentials.

The move to 2023 includes very little good news for anyone without a Facebook account. At that point, your Oculus-made headset will essentially become an offline device when it comes to the Oculus Store, which is troubling news for anyone who has purchased the headset and connected software licenses assuming the devices can stay. without Facebook for years. come. Good news, this move likely won’t affect Oculus users who invest in purchases made through storefronts such as SteamVR or Windows Mixed Reality, as those platforms are open to Oculus headsets (although we can’t The same can be said of non-Oculus headsets accessing the Oculus Store, as those still require fan-made workarounds like Revive).

A link to your past

If you enjoyed the Oculus Quest “Link” feature, which connects this popular portable headset to high-end PCs, this will also be affected by Facebook’s requirement, as Oculus Link relies on the connected software suite to Internet from headset.

Facebook insists this change is essential for “social functionality,” but its list doesn’t appear to mention anything that would specifically benefit the development or usability of the game. The announcement also makes it very clear that Facebook will access it. to data based on your device usage and will associate that information specifically with your Facebook account, with no indication that users will be able to tell Facebook to stop tracking things like “your virtual reality activity, like what apps you use “or” information about your activity on other Facebook products, such as pages you like and groups you join.

Oculus could very well spread this news ahead of the big Facebook-related announcements for the Oculus hardware and software ecosystem, as rumors and device images suggest. a refresh of the popular Oculus Quest headset coming in September. We expect Facebook’s experiences with VR social spaces to be updated as well at this time, which we last saw in 2019 in the form of Facebook Horizon.