It happened with Instagram in 2012, it happened again last month with WhatsApp, and it happened yet again Tuesday with the $2 billion deal for the virtual reality gurus at Oculus VR. The question now is: why would Facebook buy a video game hardware company?  By now, we know that the reaction to a major Facebook acquisition among the chattering technorati follows a pretty simple script. A couple of weeks ago, they reminded me that I still hadn’t visited their office, one of the rewards from the kickstarter. Come to think of it, I'd even put a small wager on Carmack taking over Facebook from within. That's just not how the future happens. People have made games for Facebook platforms before, and while it worked great for a while, they were stuck in a very unfortunate position when Facebook eventually changed the platform to better fit the social experience they were trying to build. Because if it doesn't happen, Zuckerberg won't be able to convince the next hot startup that he wants to buy that he isn't just blowing smoke when he says they'll be independent.
– Facebook has bought pioneering virtual-reality headset maker Oculus for $2 billion, and Mark Zuckerberg is pretty excited about it. The startup's immersive headset for video game developers has been a big hit, but Facebook appears ready to take virtual reality beyond gaming, Business Insider finds. "After games, we're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences," Zuckerberg writes in a Facebook post. "Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face—just by putting on goggles in your home. " The headset is "different from anything I've ever experienced in my life," Zuckerberg said during a conference call following the announcement. "Today's acquisition is a long-term bet on the future of computing." But while Facebook is enthusiastic about the buy, game makers are less than thrilled about the company's move into virtual reality, Time and AdWeek report. Soon after the announcement, Minecraft creator Markus Persson said he had canceled plans for an Oculus version of the game because Facebook "creeps him out." Facebook is "not a game tech company," he explained in a blog post. It cares "about building user numbers, and nothing but building user numbers." But over at Mashable, Chris Taylor urges everyone to put their freakout on hold: "Facebook has a history of funding its big purchases well and letting them run themselves independently." So any Matrix-esque scenario "is as unreal and unlikely as anything you'd see in VR."