7 ms·

Oculus Rift exclusivity protection leads to a VR piracy arms race

44 points by parenthephobia 10y ago

angersock 10y ago
At the time, Oculus said the update wasn't targeted at the workaround, and was instead trying "to curb piracy and protect games and apps that developers have worked so hard to make. Curbing piracy is not their fucking job. Their job is to provide a piece of hardware that I, a developer, can talk to over APIs to show the user running my code stuff. Their job is making hardware at a price point that covers their staff growth and innovation while shipping as many units as possible. Their job is making sure that users don't get sick using their hardware. This kind of shitty heavy-handed behavior is what is slowing down AR and VR tremendously. This nascent industry needs to return to its hobbyist roots--there isn't even a golden goose worth killing yet. Jesus fuck.
- serge2k 10y ago
  Nah, that want to have their app store and exclusives and all that shiny software money. Which is why I won't buy an Oculus.
  - emp_zealoth 10y ago
    I haven't tried either Oculus nor Vive, but Vive seems soooo much better from what ive seen so far ...
    - pen2l 10y ago
      I don't have a horse in this race, but, is there any reason to believe Vive won't have DRM too? I mean... Steam is like the biggest DRM software ever made (although they've made it work well).
      - emp_zealoth 10y ago
        To me Steam is the antithesis of DRM, to be honest (I am quite a bit of a fanboi though) It does so much things for me. I no longer have to worry about CD's or whatever. All my games are in one place, install pretty much as soon as I want (50mbit fiber), are always up to date, I never have to fiddle with goddamn keys - click install, wait a few minutes, click play and that's it! Some games have Steam Cloud, so my saves are there, my settings might be there too. And don't start me on Steam Overlay! I've got a few hundred friends, clock (THIS IS SO RIDDICULOUSLY NICE TO HAVE), a web browser. It does streaming. It does screenshots. It does remote desktop. Guides. It takes my issues and solves them for me. Maybe that is some Stockholm Syndrome. It's been years since I had any issues with Steam-as-DRM (Or just Steam, really) But fucking hell, look at uplay or origin or any other cancerware corporate trash that does nothing but fuck with you. I don't really see Steam/Volvo locking down VR. It appears that they provide an API for other hardware to work. (At least thats what cursory googling says!)
        SquareWheel 10y ago
        Keep in mind that those value-added features (friends list, save syncing, etc) are all doable without the actual DRM component. In fact some games choose not to bundle SteamWorks DRM so their exes are not encrypted. GOG Galaxy[1] is an example of a client that is completely DRM-free, but still offers many of those features. I use Steam a lot and buy quite a lot of games from it, though I'd not consider it the antithesis of DRM. They do still use DRM - they just make it a better experience. [1] https://www.gog.com/galaxy https://www.gog.com/galaxy
      - middle334 10y ago
        The Vive APIs are open. They're not connected to any Steam DRM (which I believe is optional -- and in any event, Valve doesn't nail developers down to exclusives; you're free to sell your games elsewhere, if you want). My guess is that Facebook's big advantage boils down to the sheer number of bodies they have available to make a platform, while Valve consists of a small team and a bunch of developers. Valve's non-management culture makes long-term focus hard. Facebook can mandate focus through their heirarchy. Also, the people at Facebook are not stupid; this is fixable if they take the right steps. They probably don't even have to do anything at all now; just ignore the issue and it will sink below the community's outrage threshold. But if I was a company stuck with an exclusive on the Oculus, I'd be screaming at Facebook for a pile of cash right about now. [I have the sense that the Oculus DRM change was decided by some PM-like person at Facebook with little experience in security, or PCs as a gaming platform, or the market in general. I'll bet there's an internal shitstorm at Facebook that's resulting in new orifices being drilled into certain persons. If they decide to double-down on the DRM or try shut down the software shim in question through legal posturing, then I will make popcorn].
    - fryguy 10y ago
      Most people say the Oculus Rift headset is much better than the Vive headset, but that the controllers for the Vive are much better since Oculus hasn't released Touch yet. Although people who have tried both have indicated the Touch controllers are better, at least for certain applications.
      - Qworg 10y ago
        Uhm, anecdotes != data. I've heard that most people say the Vive is better than the Oculus by far.
        frio 10y ago
        That remains an anecdote, as (anecdotally) I've heard the exact opposite ;).
        ux-app 10y ago
        > Uhm, anecdotes != data. Which you then go on to counter with your own anecdote.
  - SeanBoocock 10y ago
    Oculus is funding game development through their publishing arm to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. I could sympathize with a desire to keep some of that software catalog exclusive to their hardware as a way of promoting the hardware and recouping that development investment. They might also feel this is a longer term, platform play and don't want to cede control of the VR store front experience (and revenue) to Valve. I don't know that I agree with Oculus's move here but I think there are defensible reasons why Oculus might want to preserve hardware exclusivity on some or all of their titles.
    - serge2k 10y ago
      VR Doesn't need a special storefront or any of that bullshit. Just sell the god damn hardware. I'm so sick of companies trying to carve out their walled gardens. Fuck them all.
      - SeanBoocock 10y ago
        I suspect the hardware is very low margin; Palmer Luckey has publicly said as much. I doubt that Facebook would have been interested in owning a low margin hardware business that at least for the first few years will sell to a (very) niche audience if there wasn't a plan for additional revenue channels. A storefront provides such a revenue source as well as a curated experience when and if VR breaks into the mainstream.
    - mixedCase 10y ago
      >Oculus is funding game development through their publishing arm to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. To build a walled garden that only hurts the user. Fuck. Occulus.
- SquareWheel 10y ago
  Not that I'm very happy with Oculus right now, but: >Curbing piracy is not their fucking job. Of course it is. Oculus Home is a storefront. They sell games and piracy cuts into that business. It's no different than Steam using DRM. >This kind of shitty heavy-handed behavior is what is slowing down AR and VR tremendously. Maybe, but VR wouldn't be here in 2016 if Oculus hadn't kicked off the whole thing. They hired the talent, drummed up the interest, and set the best practices. But now we have three strong competitors (Oculus, Valve and Sony) releasing VR headsets. That's far better than the alternative. I'm not trying to be an apologist here, but you need to keep perspective on this.
  - kotarou 10y ago
    They really did do a spectacular job in bring VR back into the public conciousness after the... failures of the 90's, and full kudos for that. As a researcher (visual discomfort / simulator sickness), sometimes I just want to replicate an issue I am seeing in one application on another headset: controlling applications to only work on your HMD is a serious impediment to this and makes my work way harder than it needs be! Curbing piracy is fine, but with heavier solutions like this, everyone loses in the end.
    - SquareWheel 10y ago
      I don't disagree! I was disappointed by the Facebook buyout, but this update really hurt my opinion of Oculus as a company. I hope they rectify it.
  - stcredzero 10y ago
    It's no different than Steam using DRM. It's hugely different at this point. For VR, the issue isn't piracy and profits. For VR, the issue is mindshare. If you're prioritizing lost profits due to piracy at this point, you're putting the cart before the horse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBaOpfSL2YQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBaOpfSL2YQ Steam is already a mature ecosystem in a mature medium, dealing with mature ecosystem problems. VR is definitely not there yet!
  - angersock 10y ago
- angrow 10y ago
  I think they see their job as encouraging investment. I share your perspective, but some people are reassured when they see effort put into making a platform more hostile to license-infringement.
TrevorJ 10y ago
Sure didn't take Facebook long to exert it's walled-garden protectionism on Occulus. VR is a format not a platform. This move by Occulus is really shortsighted.
- stcredzero 10y ago
  It's even more inclusive than a format. It's a new medium!
- nathanasmith 10y ago
  Pardon me but I see it as a glorified monitor/input device. I do realize there is a qualitative difference but the point is, neither the monitor or the mouse I currently use have any exclusive titles and I would be hard pressed to pay $600 for the privilege. So, Vive it is, assuming they don't pull this mess.
  - TrevorJ 10y ago
    That's also a fantastic point.
joeevans1000 10y ago
I am definitely holding out for HTC Vive, just on principle. It became much easier a decision when I checked out their amazing demo. I'm pretty sure Oculus will fall far behind in the race after an initial and short lived period of appearing to win the VR race. Facebook isn't a VR company. No VR product will do well with something like Facebook trying to contort and leverage it to a completely different purpose.
- vertis 10y ago
  The Vive is crazy amazing. We've been working with the Dev version and the Pre for months now, and I have nothing but good things to say about it.
- onewaystreet 10y ago
  What's the purpose of a "VR company" supposed to be? It's social apps, not games, that will propel VR into the mainstream. And that's Facebook's specialty.
  - emp_zealoth 10y ago
    Right, because people will spend hundreds of dollars on specialty hardware to do "social apps"
    - onewaystreet 10y ago
      The most popular apps for the iPhone are social (three of which are owned by Facebook).
      - emp_zealoth 10y ago
        How are they going to benefit from VR headsets? (Remember, not only you need rather expensive headset itself, but the computing power too!)
- api 10y ago
  What? You don't want advertising "dark patterns" piped directly into your cerebral cortex by way of a completely immersive interface?
dreamsofdragons 10y ago
I was really struggling, trying to figure out which headset to get. They just decided for me.
- qrendel 10y ago
  Same. Just canceled my preorder, though this was less of a factor than Facebook's invasive privacy policy and the shipping delays that favored retailers over day-one (even hour-one) preorder customers. Straw that finally broke the camel's back. I know it's somewhat naive to say in the days of Windows 10 and such, but if they're going to make money selling hardware, sell hardware. I'm not paying $600 to be some digital serf while they track my eyeball movements and sell the data to anyone willing to pay. But even then, had they just shipped without a 3+ month delay, they'd already have my money, rather than my enmity.
kotarou 10y ago
The lab I am working in has a Vive instead of a Oculus, and I am glad for it now. The headset is better, the demos are better and I don't have to deal with constant interoperability issues.
Jach 10y ago
Any bets on whether Carmack will stick around much longer? Will he finish and release his Racket code before leaving? Will he go back to id, start a new company, or take up Musk's offer to work on rockets again? I can't imagine this sits well with him...
- cm3 10y ago
  If John hasn't changed and Oculus is true to their intention of why and how they brought him onboard (or how the public has been told), I sure hope John's voice would be instrumental in resolving this debacle quickly.
userbinator 10y ago
potentially opening VR software up to piracy as well as hardware freedom. You can clearly see the bias in this phrasing, because it could also be written with more emphasis on the freedom part: "opening VR software up to hardware freedom as well as potentially piracy"
- djrogers 10y ago
  To be fair, the potential for piracy is the news part of this story, as the previous hacks already provided hardware freedom. It's entirely legitimate for Ars to phrase it the way they did without any bias being present.
vanattab 10y ago
Does anyone have experience with open source vr (OSVR)? I think it is being developed by the gaming peripheral company Razer. It's $299 and I was wondering how it stacked up to the other offerings. http://www.osvr.org/ http://www.osvr.org/
andymoe 10y ago
I'm not saying it's the right thing but I'm also not shocked they have done this. If you read (even the summary) of the OVR SDK they are super super clear about them not wanting you to use it on Non-Oculus hardware.
Animats 10y ago
"The majority of these games would not even exist were we (Oculus) not funding them." Bad sign. Usually, game platform vendors don't have to pay developers to use their platform. When they do, it usually means the platform is in trouble. Microsoft tried paying developers to develop for their phone, but it didn't help.[1] [1] http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-pay-out-100000-get-developers-coding-windows-phone http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-pay-out-100000-get-d...
- theresistor 10y ago
  Not true at all. Both MS and Sony pay developers to target their console platforms, especially for launch titles.
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    Unless they publish them they don't pay them directly, they do give them very favorable terms.

At the time, Oculus said the update wasn't targeted at the workaround, and was instead trying "to curb piracy and protect games and apps that developers have worked so hard to make. Curbing piracy is not their fucking job. Their job is to provide a piece of hardware that I, a developer, can talk to over APIs to show the user running my code stuff. Their job is making hardware at a price point that covers their staff growth and innovation while shipping as many units as possible. Their job is making sure that users don't get sick using their hardware. This kind of shitty heavy-handed behavior is what is slowing down AR and VR tremendously. This nascent industry needs to return to its hobbyist roots--there isn't even a golden goose worth killing yet. Jesus fuck.

serge2k 10y ago
Nah, that want to have their app store and exclusives and all that shiny software money. Which is why I won't buy an Oculus.
- emp_zealoth 10y ago
  I haven't tried either Oculus nor Vive, but Vive seems soooo much better from what ive seen so far ...
  - pen2l 10y ago
    I don't have a horse in this race, but, is there any reason to believe Vive won't have DRM too? I mean... Steam is like the biggest DRM software ever made (although they've made it work well).
    - emp_zealoth 10y ago
      To me Steam is the antithesis of DRM, to be honest (I am quite a bit of a fanboi though) It does so much things for me. I no longer have to worry about CD's or whatever. All my games are in one place, install pretty much as soon as I want (50mbit fiber), are always up to date, I never have to fiddle with goddamn keys - click install, wait a few minutes, click play and that's it! Some games have Steam Cloud, so my saves are there, my settings might be there too. And don't start me on Steam Overlay! I've got a few hundred friends, clock (THIS IS SO RIDDICULOUSLY NICE TO HAVE), a web browser. It does streaming. It does screenshots. It does remote desktop. Guides. It takes my issues and solves them for me. Maybe that is some Stockholm Syndrome. It's been years since I had any issues with Steam-as-DRM (Or just Steam, really) But fucking hell, look at uplay or origin or any other cancerware corporate trash that does nothing but fuck with you. I don't really see Steam/Volvo locking down VR. It appears that they provide an API for other hardware to work. (At least thats what cursory googling says!)
      - SquareWheel 10y ago
        Keep in mind that those value-added features (friends list, save syncing, etc) are all doable without the actual DRM component. In fact some games choose not to bundle SteamWorks DRM so their exes are not encrypted. GOG Galaxy[1] is an example of a client that is completely DRM-free, but still offers many of those features. I use Steam a lot and buy quite a lot of games from it, though I'd not consider it the antithesis of DRM. They do still use DRM - they just make it a better experience. [1] https://www.gog.com/galaxy https://www.gog.com/galaxy
    - middle334 10y ago
      The Vive APIs are open. They're not connected to any Steam DRM (which I believe is optional -- and in any event, Valve doesn't nail developers down to exclusives; you're free to sell your games elsewhere, if you want). My guess is that Facebook's big advantage boils down to the sheer number of bodies they have available to make a platform, while Valve consists of a small team and a bunch of developers. Valve's non-management culture makes long-term focus hard. Facebook can mandate focus through their heirarchy. Also, the people at Facebook are not stupid; this is fixable if they take the right steps. They probably don't even have to do anything at all now; just ignore the issue and it will sink below the community's outrage threshold. But if I was a company stuck with an exclusive on the Oculus, I'd be screaming at Facebook for a pile of cash right about now. [I have the sense that the Oculus DRM change was decided by some PM-like person at Facebook with little experience in security, or PCs as a gaming platform, or the market in general. I'll bet there's an internal shitstorm at Facebook that's resulting in new orifices being drilled into certain persons. If they decide to double-down on the DRM or try shut down the software shim in question through legal posturing, then I will make popcorn].
  - fryguy 10y ago
    Most people say the Oculus Rift headset is much better than the Vive headset, but that the controllers for the Vive are much better since Oculus hasn't released Touch yet. Although people who have tried both have indicated the Touch controllers are better, at least for certain applications.
    - Qworg 10y ago
      Uhm, anecdotes != data. I've heard that most people say the Vive is better than the Oculus by far.
      - frio 10y ago
        That remains an anecdote, as (anecdotally) I've heard the exact opposite ;).
      - ux-app 10y ago
        > Uhm, anecdotes != data. Which you then go on to counter with your own anecdote.
- SeanBoocock 10y ago
  Oculus is funding game development through their publishing arm to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. I could sympathize with a desire to keep some of that software catalog exclusive to their hardware as a way of promoting the hardware and recouping that development investment. They might also feel this is a longer term, platform play and don't want to cede control of the VR store front experience (and revenue) to Valve. I don't know that I agree with Oculus's move here but I think there are defensible reasons why Oculus might want to preserve hardware exclusivity on some or all of their titles.
  - serge2k 10y ago
    VR Doesn't need a special storefront or any of that bullshit. Just sell the god damn hardware. I'm so sick of companies trying to carve out their walled gardens. Fuck them all.
    - SeanBoocock 10y ago
      I suspect the hardware is very low margin; Palmer Luckey has publicly said as much. I doubt that Facebook would have been interested in owning a low margin hardware business that at least for the first few years will sell to a (very) niche audience if there wasn't a plan for additional revenue channels. A storefront provides such a revenue source as well as a curated experience when and if VR breaks into the mainstream.
  - mixedCase 10y ago
    >Oculus is funding game development through their publishing arm to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. To build a walled garden that only hurts the user. Fuck. Occulus.
SquareWheel 10y ago
Not that I'm very happy with Oculus right now, but: >Curbing piracy is not their fucking job. Of course it is. Oculus Home is a storefront. They sell games and piracy cuts into that business. It's no different than Steam using DRM. >This kind of shitty heavy-handed behavior is what is slowing down AR and VR tremendously. Maybe, but VR wouldn't be here in 2016 if Oculus hadn't kicked off the whole thing. They hired the talent, drummed up the interest, and set the best practices. But now we have three strong competitors (Oculus, Valve and Sony) releasing VR headsets. That's far better than the alternative. I'm not trying to be an apologist here, but you need to keep perspective on this.
- kotarou 10y ago
  They really did do a spectacular job in bring VR back into the public conciousness after the... failures of the 90's, and full kudos for that. As a researcher (visual discomfort / simulator sickness), sometimes I just want to replicate an issue I am seeing in one application on another headset: controlling applications to only work on your HMD is a serious impediment to this and makes my work way harder than it needs be! Curbing piracy is fine, but with heavier solutions like this, everyone loses in the end.
  - SquareWheel 10y ago
    I don't disagree! I was disappointed by the Facebook buyout, but this update really hurt my opinion of Oculus as a company. I hope they rectify it.
- stcredzero 10y ago
  It's no different than Steam using DRM. It's hugely different at this point. For VR, the issue isn't piracy and profits. For VR, the issue is mindshare. If you're prioritizing lost profits due to piracy at this point, you're putting the cart before the horse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBaOpfSL2YQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBaOpfSL2YQ Steam is already a mature ecosystem in a mature medium, dealing with mature ecosystem problems. VR is definitely not there yet!
- angersock 10y ago
angrow 10y ago
I think they see their job as encouraging investment. I share your perspective, but some people are reassured when they see effort put into making a platform more hostile to license-infringement.

TrevorJ 10y ago

Sure didn't take Facebook long to exert it's walled-garden protectionism on Occulus. VR is a format not a platform. This move by Occulus is really shortsighted.

stcredzero 10y ago
It's even more inclusive than a format. It's a new medium!
nathanasmith 10y ago
Pardon me but I see it as a glorified monitor/input device. I do realize there is a qualitative difference but the point is, neither the monitor or the mouse I currently use have any exclusive titles and I would be hard pressed to pay $600 for the privilege. So, Vive it is, assuming they don't pull this mess.
- TrevorJ 10y ago
  That's also a fantastic point.

joeevans1000 10y ago

I am definitely holding out for HTC Vive, just on principle. It became much easier a decision when I checked out their amazing demo. I'm pretty sure Oculus will fall far behind in the race after an initial and short lived period of appearing to win the VR race. Facebook isn't a VR company. No VR product will do well with something like Facebook trying to contort and leverage it to a completely different purpose.

vertis 10y ago
The Vive is crazy amazing. We've been working with the Dev version and the Pre for months now, and I have nothing but good things to say about it.
onewaystreet 10y ago
What's the purpose of a "VR company" supposed to be? It's social apps, not games, that will propel VR into the mainstream. And that's Facebook's specialty.
- emp_zealoth 10y ago
  Right, because people will spend hundreds of dollars on specialty hardware to do "social apps"
  - onewaystreet 10y ago
    The most popular apps for the iPhone are social (three of which are owned by Facebook).
    - emp_zealoth 10y ago
      How are they going to benefit from VR headsets? (Remember, not only you need rather expensive headset itself, but the computing power too!)
api 10y ago
What? You don't want advertising "dark patterns" piped directly into your cerebral cortex by way of a completely immersive interface?

dreamsofdragons 10y ago

I was really struggling, trying to figure out which headset to get. They just decided for me.

qrendel 10y ago
Same. Just canceled my preorder, though this was less of a factor than Facebook's invasive privacy policy and the shipping delays that favored retailers over day-one (even hour-one) preorder customers. Straw that finally broke the camel's back. I know it's somewhat naive to say in the days of Windows 10 and such, but if they're going to make money selling hardware, sell hardware. I'm not paying $600 to be some digital serf while they track my eyeball movements and sell the data to anyone willing to pay. But even then, had they just shipped without a 3+ month delay, they'd already have my money, rather than my enmity.

kotarou 10y ago

The lab I am working in has a Vive instead of a Oculus, and I am glad for it now. The headset is better, the demos are better and I don't have to deal with constant interoperability issues.

Jach 10y ago

Any bets on whether Carmack will stick around much longer? Will he finish and release his Racket code before leaving? Will he go back to id, start a new company, or take up Musk's offer to work on rockets again? I can't imagine this sits well with him...

cm3 10y ago
If John hasn't changed and Oculus is true to their intention of why and how they brought him onboard (or how the public has been told), I sure hope John's voice would be instrumental in resolving this debacle quickly.

userbinator 10y ago

potentially opening VR software up to piracy as well as hardware freedom. You can clearly see the bias in this phrasing, because it could also be written with more emphasis on the freedom part: "opening VR software up to hardware freedom as well as potentially piracy"

djrogers 10y ago
To be fair, the potential for piracy is the news part of this story, as the previous hacks already provided hardware freedom. It's entirely legitimate for Ars to phrase it the way they did without any bias being present.

vanattab 10y ago

Does anyone have experience with open source vr (OSVR)? I think it is being developed by the gaming peripheral company Razer. It's $299 and I was wondering how it stacked up to the other offerings. http://www.osvr.org/ http://www.osvr.org/

andymoe 10y ago

I'm not saying it's the right thing but I'm also not shocked they have done this. If you read (even the summary) of the OVR SDK they are super super clear about them not wanting you to use it on Non-Oculus hardware.

Animats 10y ago

"The majority of these games would not even exist were we (Oculus) not funding them." Bad sign. Usually, game platform vendors don't have to pay developers to use their platform. When they do, it usually means the platform is in trouble. Microsoft tried paying developers to develop for their phone, but it didn't help.[1] [1] http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-pay-out-100000-get-developers-coding-windows-phone http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-pay-out-100000-get-d...

theresistor 10y ago
Not true at all. Both MS and Sony pay developers to target their console platforms, especially for launch titles.
- dogma1138 10y ago
  Unless they publish them they don't pay them directly, they do give them very favorable terms.