I was far from the only one who was saying this at the time. I don't believe Facebook had a significantly different reputation in 2014.
I also have a follow-up draft from 2016 that talks about how the things predicted in the blog post have already begun.
This development was trivially predictable right when Facebook acquired Oculus. Which is why I bought Vive instead.
You don't need to be a genius to see stuff like this ahead of time. All you have to do is refuse to be gaslit and be honest about the high-level drivers of corporate decision-making.
Did you just predict it happening "eventually"?
If you predicted it would happen before your headset was obsolete, I'd say you were wrong. And that's usually the important part for making a purchase. Six to seven years is enough lifetime for an early VR kit.
From the 2014 HN thread[0]
>Please login using your Facebook account to continue.
That's not really true. Hipster antitrust wasn't a thing yet, so people weren't talking about it at your neighborhood Starbucks. But serious people were talking about it. Look at the conflicts of interest disclosures for prominent antitrust scholars... they were busy during that period.
Also, the infamous "Zuckerberg destroy mode" email is from 2012.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/30/17304792/whatsapp-jan-kou...
>Founder at Framework, formerly part of the Oculus founding team
I don't recall it being much different, but I _do_ recall the outcry from Oculus followers and fans when the buyout occurred. This is exactly what we predicted and the fact that PL was assuring us it wouldn't happen would seem to disagree with what you're saying. It seems you may have just been ignoring it at the time for what may be a very obvious reason.
You can only make promises about what you control.
I had huge concerns regarding FB's purchase of Oculus at the time and I wasn't the only one. It was the single reason I did not buy an Oculus. It wasn't that I thought they would be brazen either, I just assumed they would be hoovering data up behind the scenes, and trading data between Oculus and FB.
If this announcement had occurred in 2014, it would not have been surprising, I think the concerns were clear from the outset to most of the community. The only people who were starry eyed were those who just wanted Oculus funded well and were happy to take the word of the founder.
