3 ms·

Step 1 - drive competitors from the market by selling massively subsidised hardware below cost. Step 2 - announce advertising is necessary because the "ecosyst

by zmmmmm 5y ago

Step 1 - drive competitors from the market by selling massively subsidised hardware below cost. Step 2 - announce advertising is necessary because the "ecosystem" is unsustainable. I don't know how this is not attracting the attention of competition regulators. Coming in 10 years from now after the damage is done will be way too late.

Tijdreiziger 5y ago
You're missing something here - they're also simply selling a product that nobody else on the market is selling. The Quest is on it's 2nd generation, yet I can't go out and buy an equivalent standalone, wireless VR headset from e.g. HTC, HP or Sony. For me, this is a reason to hold off on VR despite being eager to use it - for others, it may not be. edit: huh, this disucssion prompted me to look at HTC's website again and it seems they do have a wireless headset: Vive Focus for Business. Even though it's aimed at business, I wonder if you could get it to work with SteamVR?
- zmmmmm 5y ago
  re: HTC - yep. And if you look even harder, you will find they are not selling it to consumers at all, and somewhere there is an interview where they actually explicitly saying they are specifically not selling it in the consumer market because of Facebook subsidising the Quest.
  - Tijdreiziger 5y ago
    interesting - it looks like their website will let me add the Focus to my cart, but not the Focus Plus (the difference seemingly being the controllers?). It allows me to add a pre-order for the Focus 3 to my cart, but that's €1451 - a bit expensive! Someone else in this thread said that Facebook will sell businesses an accountless Quest for $699 - I wonder if you could buy that one as a consumer (I'm guessing not).
xg15 5y ago
Isn't this basically the classic Silicon Valley playbook? 1) growth at any cost, even if you're burning money left and right 2) find clever ways to "monetize" your product and strip everything that made your product attractive in the process.

by zmmmmm 5y ago

Tijdreiziger 5y ago

You're missing something here - they're also simply selling a product that nobody else on the market is selling. The Quest is on it's 2nd generation, yet I can't go out and buy an equivalent standalone, wireless VR headset from e.g. HTC, HP or Sony. For me, this is a reason to hold off on VR despite being eager to use it - for others, it may not be. edit: huh, this disucssion prompted me to look at HTC's website again and it seems they do have a wireless headset: Vive Focus for Business. Even though it's aimed at business, I wonder if you could get it to work with SteamVR?

zmmmmm 5y ago
re: HTC - yep. And if you look even harder, you will find they are not selling it to consumers at all, and somewhere there is an interview where they actually explicitly saying they are specifically not selling it in the consumer market because of Facebook subsidising the Quest.
- Tijdreiziger 5y ago
  interesting - it looks like their website will let me add the Focus to my cart, but not the Focus Plus (the difference seemingly being the controllers?). It allows me to add a pre-order for the Focus 3 to my cart, but that's €1451 - a bit expensive! Someone else in this thread said that Facebook will sell businesses an accountless Quest for $699 - I wonder if you could buy that one as a consumer (I'm guessing not).

xg15 5y ago

Isn't this basically the classic Silicon Valley playbook? 1) growth at any cost, even if you're burning money left and right 2) find clever ways to "monetize" your product and strip everything that made your product attractive in the process.