Oculus Backpedals From Heavy-Handed DRM Policies, Headset Check Removed From Latest Runtime

[kcarbotte]

It has been only one month since Oculus added a headset check to its DRM software that attempted to prevent you from using any other VR HMD to play Oculus exclusive content. Following harsh criticism, the company has removed the check.

Oculus Backpedals From Heavy-Handed DRM Policies, Headset Check Removed From Latest Runtime : Read more

 

[jkflipflop98]

I really wanted to back Oculus in this race because Palmer was the one that jump started this entire industry. But everything that Oculus has done since the Facebook acquisition has been cheap, greedy, sleazeball tactics. Paying developers for "exclusives" is obviously the worst thing possible. They delayed my day1 preorder to july so they could ship units to BestBuy stores.

I cancelled my preorder and purchased a Vive and I couldn't be happier.

 

[kcarbotte]

I really wanted to back Oculus in this race because Palmer was the one that jump started this entire industry. But everything that Oculus has done since the Facebook acquisition has been cheap, greedy, sleazeball tactics. Paying developers for "exclusives" is obviously the worst thing possible. They delayed my day1 preorder to july so they could ship units to BestBuy stores.

I cancelled my preorder and purchased a Vive and I couldn't be happier.

Paying developers who otherwise wouldn't be able to survive and release a game at all, and asking for limited time exclusivity is not the worst thing possible.
It's not the best possible outcome either, but there are far worse possibilities, such as the games not being made at all, or complete locked down exclusivity.

Oculus definitely hasn't been winning itself many fans with its tactics though.

 

[eklipz330]

i've already wrote off the rift as an option... vive is the way to go. besides, it can do everything the rift can, and more.

 

[Jeff Fx]

Good move Oculus. I have a Vive, and planned to get a Rift a little later, but I gave up on the Rift because of the DRM lock-in. If things stay this way, I'll reconsider getting a Rift when their Touch controllers are fully available.

 

[surphninja]

Looks like someone at Oculus has some common sense. Like Gabe newell once said, "Piracy is almost always a service problem..."

The harder you try to implement DRM, the more you enable piracy and encourage the creation of tools that will spread it like wildfire. It's probably good for Oculus that they came to their senses so quickly, instead of fighting a drawn out battle that they would've lost.

 

[hfitch]

Not all of us have the space for a vive unit. I would like the option of having to sit at a desk or living room and playing vr games like Eve or other without having to stand up and move. I just dont have the space for Vive.

 

[Honis]

Not all of us have the space for a vive unit. I would like the option of having to sit at a desk or living room and playing vr games like Eve or other without having to stand up and move. I just dont have the space for Vive.

The Vive doesn't require a standing experience to function. All of the sitting games the Rift supports are still sitting experiences on the Vive (if it runs on the Vive which is the whole reason for this article.) It's just a more expensive option for the sitting experience since it comes with the hand controllers. On Steam, there is an icon indicating the type of experiences the game can support.

I own the Rift. I look forward to the Touch release so I can expand my library to include more room scale games, even if I only have standing room to play atm.

 

[chicofehr]

Was it Facebook or Palmer that ruined the rift? I haven't heard anything about that. It was supposed to be open at the start so I'm leaning toward Facebook but I could be wrong.

 

[Titanimus]

People can make mountains from mole hills all day long about the options Oculus is providing the VR community but I see a company that is making an excellent product, distribution channel, and improved experiences. Love my Rifts (Gear and CV1) and love the entertainment they provide. I am not going pretend that wearing a bulky, heavy, and more clumsy headset is even in the same ballpark as my HMD.

 

[dalauder]

GOG has already proven that DRM isn't necessary to a business model. I don't see why anyone bothers with it when it is often easier to circumvent than use legally. There are many products that I own legally, but use DRM cracks instead of legal activation because it's significantly easier.

+1 to Gabe Newell's, "Piracy is almost always a service problem..."

 

[spectrewind]

I saw this coming back at the kickstarter. Hear me out:
We live in an age where the EULA you agree to basically say something along the lines of ... "Yes, you bought some hardware from us, but we own the software ... and we can do whatever we want to it, including REMOVE the features you paid for..."
... for whatever reasons we come up with. You agreed to this when you blindly clicked [ACCEPT] on the EULA. ... STUPID CONSUMER.

My first warning as to where the consumer tech/gaming industry was going when Sony removed Linux support from the PS3 through an update. Their answer a resounding "FUCK YOU" to me.. the stupid consumer. Lawsuits started to fly, Sony bought the courts, and won.

-Note to self: A fool and their money are soon parted.

Moving forward: Facebook (Fuckerberg) did a gigantically inflated IPO in May 2012... to which many investors saw a 'get rich scheme'... and lost horribly, resulting in over 40-million lawsuits that went nowhere.

-Note to self: A fool and their money are soon parted.

Enter a Kickstarter for this set of ski-goggles with a smart phone sitting outside. This 'Rift'. Gets popular. Lamer Fucky (spell check) takes all the kick starter fund and sells out to Fuckerberg... We're not going to have DRM (quoted several times in interviews, cited in several websites...)... Of course, seeing dollar signs ... ENTER THE DRM. Hangs the kick starters out to dry. Moreover, for you day 1 purchasers of the consumer edition. Palmer Lucky's team of merry men will rather stick demo product in to retail Best Buy and Game Stop stores before sending you what you paid for.
Palmer says this thing is supposed to be an open platform. Then goes DRM with it. Gets horrific reviews from several consumer-tech websites citing that he lied. Palmer had his motley crew quietly reverse course without a word.
(To Be Continued...) ... They will just do it again, folks.

This is how consumer-end PC/tech works. It's in the EULA. Stop being so myopic and read all 2000+ pages of it. I'm sure you gave them rights to your liver and spleen in there somewhere when you hit the [AGREE] button.

-Note to self: A fool and their money are soon parted.

I will not be opening my wallet to any of this.

 

[Crystalizer]

"A fool and their money are soon parted"
Or just a person who votes with his/her wallet, but since you are such a genius and definitely not a troll you already knew that, didn't you? Everybody has their right for their opinion and their view of their world. You just seem to live too much on your own.

When it comes to owning things. You can never truly own anything. The Universe owns you.

 

[jasonelmore]

i have to say, i own a rift, and i couldnt be happier. the quality of the titles and the "it just works" aspect of Oculus home really make it feel like a polished experience. i now prefer to buy my VR games on Oculus home, rather than steam, even if it locks me into their platform. Steam VR is cumbersome, i have to take the headset off multiple times to launch steam vr, and then launch the game. with oculus home, i just put on the headset and boom, i'm playing games.

Oculus definitely deserved to get some bad press, but they have made a amazing product with even more amazing games. Somehow they beat valve at games, and tbo thats what made me buy a rift over the vive. The launch titles. And my bet has continued to pay off because i'm getting all of the latest titles with the condition i have to wait till fall to use roomscale. i'm fine with that.

 

[spectrewind]

"A fool and their money are soon parted"
Or just a person who votes with his/her wallet, but since you are such a genius and definitely not a troll you already knew that, didn't you? Everybody has their right for their opinion and their view of their world. You just seem to live too much on your own.

When it comes to owning things. You can never truly own anything. The Universe owns you.

Yep. On my own ... definitely... TROLL? Sure...
Wanna compare CV?

 

[Crystalizer]

"A fool and their money are soon parted"
Or just a person who votes with his/her wallet, but since you are such a genius and definitely not a troll you already knew that, didn't you? Everybody has their right for their opinion and their view of their world. You just seem to live too much on your own.

When it comes to owning things. You can never truly own anything. The Universe owns you.

Yep. On my own ... definitely... TROLL? Sure...
Wanna compare CV?

haha. Nice try! Like I would trust anyone from internet posting a CV with out id and even the id can be copied.
Hey I was just commenting about you generalization and narrow minded behavior. For what I know you could be a very smart person with a bad day. In any case have nice day!

 

[Kimonajane]

Oculus = Facebook, no thanks FB keep your crap.

 

[cats_Paw]

I wonder if these companies will ever learn...
Perhaps when their revenue drops like a stone... in a black hole...

 

[problematiq]

i have to say, i own a rift, and i couldnt be happier. the quality of the titles and the "it just works" aspect of Oculus home really make it feel like a polished experience. i now prefer to buy my VR games on Oculus home, rather than steam, even if it locks me into their platform. Steam VR is cumbersome, i have to take the headset off multiple times to launch steam vr, and then launch the game. with oculus home, i just put on the headset and boom, i'm playing games.

Oculus definitely deserved to get some bad press, but they have made a amazing product with even more amazing games. Somehow they beat valve at games, and tbo thats what made me buy a rift over the vive. The launch titles. And my bet has continued to pay off because i'm getting all of the latest titles with the condition i have to wait till fall to use roomscale. i'm fine with that.

Not sure if Hardcore fanboy or company rep.

 

[Crystalizer]

People can make mountains from mole hills all day long about the options Oculus is providing the VR community but I see a company that is making an excellent product, distribution channel, and improved experiences. Love my Rifts (Gear and CV1) and love the entertainment they provide. I am not going pretend that wearing a bulky, heavy, and more clumsy headset is even in the same ballpark as my HMD.

And I'm definitely not going to use hmd while sitting in front of the computer while I can stand and play around in more advanced environment. I have dota and dev tools for that. It's just a next step form stereoscopic glasses and I rather wear those glasses. They weight only a fraction of Oculus. When it comes to adult entertainment the sitting is not that bad with gear since no cables and controller. Vive is not that bulky in my opinion.

 

[Crystalizer]

i have to say, i own a rift, and i couldnt be happier. the quality of the titles and the "it just works" aspect of Oculus home really make it feel like a polished experience. i now prefer to buy my VR games on Oculus home, rather than steam, even if it locks me into their platform. Steam VR is cumbersome, i have to take the headset off multiple times to launch steam vr, and then launch the game. with oculus home, i just put on the headset and boom, i'm playing games.

Oculus definitely deserved to get some bad press, but they have made a amazing product with even more amazing games. Somehow they beat valve at games, and tbo thats what made me buy a rift over the vive. The launch titles. And my bet has continued to pay off because i'm getting all of the latest titles with the condition i have to wait till fall to use roomscale. i'm fine with that.

They haven't beaten Valve in games. That's the biggest joke I have heard in a while. Valve already has the best games and you don't need hmd to play them. The gamer's are not going for hmd and abandoning e-sport games like dota and cs go. They will use that money to get a better gpu, mouse, keyboard, headphones or a monitor with higher refresh rates. All the the friends I know aren't that interested in vr anyways either they don't have the coins or the time. They like games, but they still see vr games as tech demos and unfinished products. They have heard about the nausea. They know that when you use controller to move it causes nausea to most of the people. Me too included. I have no such problems when in room scale and using teleportation as movement tool.

When I tell about Vive and the things you can do with it to people I meet. To people who don't play video games. They wouldn't wan't to come over to play if they would have to do it sitting in front of my computer. Vive is like advanced kinect and Oculus combined. I have tried hmd only games with no room scale support and I'm goin to stick with dota 2. Kodon and tilt brush are really fun and creative software. It's the best use for vr I have found. Then there is holopoint like games which provide really good exercise and fun. Vanishing realms was an eye opener for me in terms of adventuring. Although it's simple. It still better in my opinion than any sit around hmd games out there.

 

[edhem]

Perhaps Oculus finally realized that when your closest competitor has a product that can be bought and shipped today, which is better than the product Oculus has (which is hard to get a hold of), at least they can make some money from their store.

 

[problematiq]

I really wanted to back Oculus in this race because Palmer was the one that jump started this entire industry. But everything that Oculus has done since the Facebook acquisition has been cheap, greedy, sleazeball tactics. Paying developers for "exclusives" is obviously the worst thing possible. They delayed my day1 preorder to july so they could ship units to BestBuy stores.

I cancelled my preorder and purchased a Vive and I couldn't be happier.

Paying developers who otherwise wouldn't be able to survive and release a game at all, and asking for limited time exclusivity is not the worst thing possible.
It's not the best possible outcome either, but there are far worse possibilities, such as the games not being made at all, or complete locked down exclusivity.

Oculus definitely hasn't been winning itself many fans with its tactics though.

Is that why Vive has so few games for it because it doesn't pay it's developers for exclusive rights? ..Wait which HMD has more games for it?