Facebook's payment in the legal battle of Oculus was just cut in half

The judicial battle between Facebook and ZeniMax was disastrous, forcing Facebook to pay $ 500 million by a jury that sided with ZeniMax that the social media giant stole the ZeniMax code when it bought out 39; Oculus. Virtual reality wars have never really become the battleground that some thought were due to the ZeniMax trial, which put an end to the momentum of the Oculus Rift. Well, in a recent call, Facebook managed to get out of the situation a bit cheerful because the $ 500 million the company owed to ZeniMax was cut in half.

Bloomberg reports that Facebook's appeal for the $ 500 million verdict was upheld midway through the court, the company now being only sentenced to pay $ 250 million plus $ 54 million in interests. This is something that ZeniMax's lawyers have not appreciated, and who even decided to qualify the new jury verdict of reduction of half of the payments.

Facebook is pleased that the company no longer has to pay all 500 million dollars. in the case, but will continue to appeal current fees of $ 250 million to reduce the payment below that.

It all started after Oculus brought John Carmack aboard after working on VR technology while he was at ZeniMax in the Bethesda division at id Software. He was renowned for developing the id tech game engine that powered games such as DOOM Quake and RAGE .

However, when Carmack joined Oculus, ZeniMax accused Facebook of stealing code developed under his studio. It turned out that out of the 42 billion lines of code, seven lines that belonged to ZeniMax Studios were used, which led them to be caught in the act of counterfeiting.

The legal battle dragged on for years In 2014 and ending in 2017. With the call, the case lingers a little longer.

What's interesting here is that Facebook has apparently spent more time and resources fighting the trial rather than focusing on construction. until the mark Oculus Rift. The headset was originally shipped in 2016, but has been very rough since.

The software library has somehow suffered during this time, as money that could have been spent to build the Oculus Rift's exclusive VR library was rather focused on keeping the device on the market as ZeniMax was trying to block the sale of the Rift on the market. It would have been a frightening time for the Rift owners if this motion had been passed.

Maybe the case begins to end, we will see Facebook come back to focus on building and building the brand of Oculus Rift. to attract more than the niche technology enthusiast. Facebook has finally released the Oculus Go for $ 199, which is a cost-effective virtual reality solution, but the company still has to work on the release of compelling software. Maybe with the trial against ZeniMax going a bit like Facebook, we'll see more support for the upcoming Oculus division.