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They also renamed the entire corporation from "Facebook" to "Meta" to prove how serious they were about it.

tavavex 7mo ago
While simultaneously renaming the VR headsets to also use Meta branding instead of Oculus, even though Oculus was a great brand and the most recognizable name in the VR industry. What made it worse is that by that point they'd produced lots of headsets with Oculus branding, including an Oculus button on one of the controllers. So, they had to change that button to also have a different logo and name, and have the software presumably recognize which revision you had to draw the correct controller model in the VR view. It's insane how far they went in pursuit of what they saw as the next NFTs.
- actualwitch 7mo ago
  IIRC the reason they abandoned Oculus brand was that Palmer Luckey sold the company with condition the Oculus headsets would not need a facebook account to use it. Later they renamed the company and headset, and would you look at that — it requires meta account now.
  - tavavex 7mo ago
    I think the Oculus Quest 2 was the first one to release with a Facebook requirement, but it was still Oculus-branded. It was this headset that they swapped out the branding on when they renamed themselves to Meta. Earlier models still have the Oculus logo on them and the controllers, despite being as locked-down as all the others. The rebrand came much later than the account requirement.
  - eclipxe 7mo ago
    This isn't correct
- vrganj 7mo ago
  Funnily enough, it did end up as the next NFTs, just not in the way they hoped
- Nevermark 7mo ago
  Oculus had pizzaz and nice branding separation from Facebook. Which was a good thing. Meta does not feel like a different brand from Facebook, given it is its umbrella. As brands they both speak "surveillance", "advertising", "scams", "AI slop", "manipulating your experience", "child harms" and "doom scroll regret". They should rebrand the headsets back to Oculus, put them in a separate division, remove any dependencies. And never speak of Meta This or Facebook That or Zuckavatraphila again.
- max8539 7mo ago
  Well, NFTs in 2026 are also not so popular
  - tavavex 7mo ago
    That's not what I meant. I wasn't talking about replicating the popularity (that never materialized), but about getting on the hype train of selling people nothing for something.
- topranks 7mo ago
  C’mon it was worth a shot. Remember how amazing the original NFTs were?
SchemaLoad 7mo ago
Now they have to rebrand the company again to be about some AI hype spy glasses. The Metaverse was a flop.
- vablings 7mo ago
  The corporate metaverse was a huge flop. There are plenty of VR games and communities that are still thriving off the backs of the Corpo metaverse technology.
  - SchemaLoad 7mo ago
    They have different goals. VR gaming has always been targeting small scale hardcore gamers. Meta was promoting the Metaverse as something the average person would use daily for work and shopping. That never happened and no company has achieved it.
onlyrealcuzzo 7mo ago
Don't worry, they'll rename themselves LLaMeBook next, and this time will be different!
- max8539 7mo ago
  Moltbook, they bought this recently
giantrobot 7mo ago
They changed the name of the company to distance themselves from a number of scandals including Cambridge Analytica, COVID vaccine misinformation, and sitting on studies about teen mental health and social media use.[0] [0] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59083601 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59083601
- aurareturn 7mo ago
  Not sure why you're downvoted but I absolutely do think that they changed their name for better branding. I also think they were involved in a number of antitrust lawsuits so renaming their company to Meta says "see, we're the underdog in this new big VR industry, we're not a monopoly".
asdff 7mo ago
Thank god Mark Zuckerberg is not self aware in the least bit because we can keep getting hilarious gems like this for probably the rest of his days. The guy probably lives as close to the Truman Show experience as one can realistically get.
- netsharc 7mo ago
  Hah, you made me think of the future with regards to this fool. Why do I see a future where amongst all the chaos and destruction of a big climate-induced disaster, the headline "Mark Zuckerberg and his family have reportedly retreated into his doomsday bunker" will appear... I thought the bunker is only a rumor, but DDGing it, it's "rumor" that's been covered in many news outlets, so, I'm guessing it's real although the news outlets might have some details wrong.
  - actionfromafar 7mo ago
    Now, that might just be the decoy bunker. :)
- deleted 7mo ago
  [deleted]
ncr100 7mo ago
Wild musing: Did Zuckerberg invent Facebook.com or copy it from another person, during college? I forget where history landed on that one. And so I wonder if this corporate decision relates to that inventiveness of lack of.
- ethbr1 7mo ago
  In initial form, there wasn't anything to invent: it was implementing a digital phone book. That idea was brought to him by the Winklevoss brothers. He then built it (allegedly, and having to pay $65m to settle a claim about, while lying to his partners) and scaled the company into what is now Facebook.
  - ncr100 7mo ago
    :-) this is really a great explanation. Thank you for filling me in ...
tsoukase 7mo ago
The rename was successful. The failure of Meta brand didn't directly impact the Facebook one.

While simultaneously renaming the VR headsets to also use Meta branding instead of Oculus, even though Oculus was a great brand and the most recognizable name in the VR industry. What made it worse is that by that point they'd produced lots of headsets with Oculus branding, including an Oculus button on one of the controllers. So, they had to change that button to also have a different logo and name, and have the software presumably recognize which revision you had to draw the correct controller model in the VR view. It's insane how far they went in pursuit of what they saw as the next NFTs.

actualwitch 7mo ago
IIRC the reason they abandoned Oculus brand was that Palmer Luckey sold the company with condition the Oculus headsets would not need a facebook account to use it. Later they renamed the company and headset, and would you look at that — it requires meta account now.
- tavavex 7mo ago
  I think the Oculus Quest 2 was the first one to release with a Facebook requirement, but it was still Oculus-branded. It was this headset that they swapped out the branding on when they renamed themselves to Meta. Earlier models still have the Oculus logo on them and the controllers, despite being as locked-down as all the others. The rebrand came much later than the account requirement.
- eclipxe 7mo ago
  This isn't correct
vrganj 7mo ago
Funnily enough, it did end up as the next NFTs, just not in the way they hoped
Nevermark 7mo ago
Oculus had pizzaz and nice branding separation from Facebook. Which was a good thing. Meta does not feel like a different brand from Facebook, given it is its umbrella. As brands they both speak "surveillance", "advertising", "scams", "AI slop", "manipulating your experience", "child harms" and "doom scroll regret". They should rebrand the headsets back to Oculus, put them in a separate division, remove any dependencies. And never speak of Meta This or Facebook That or Zuckavatraphila again.
max8539 7mo ago
Well, NFTs in 2026 are also not so popular
- tavavex 7mo ago
  That's not what I meant. I wasn't talking about replicating the popularity (that never materialized), but about getting on the hype train of selling people nothing for something.
topranks 7mo ago
C’mon it was worth a shot. Remember how amazing the original NFTs were?

SchemaLoad 7mo ago

Now they have to rebrand the company again to be about some AI hype spy glasses. The Metaverse was a flop.

vablings 7mo ago
The corporate metaverse was a huge flop. There are plenty of VR games and communities that are still thriving off the backs of the Corpo metaverse technology.
- SchemaLoad 7mo ago
  They have different goals. VR gaming has always been targeting small scale hardcore gamers. Meta was promoting the Metaverse as something the average person would use daily for work and shopping. That never happened and no company has achieved it.

onlyrealcuzzo 7mo ago

Don't worry, they'll rename themselves LLaMeBook next, and this time will be different!

max8539 7mo ago
Moltbook, they bought this recently

giantrobot 7mo ago

They changed the name of the company to distance themselves from a number of scandals including Cambridge Analytica, COVID vaccine misinformation, and sitting on studies about teen mental health and social media use.[0] [0] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59083601 https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59083601

aurareturn 7mo ago
Not sure why you're downvoted but I absolutely do think that they changed their name for better branding. I also think they were involved in a number of antitrust lawsuits so renaming their company to Meta says "see, we're the underdog in this new big VR industry, we're not a monopoly".

asdff 7mo ago

Thank god Mark Zuckerberg is not self aware in the least bit because we can keep getting hilarious gems like this for probably the rest of his days. The guy probably lives as close to the Truman Show experience as one can realistically get.

netsharc 7mo ago
Hah, you made me think of the future with regards to this fool. Why do I see a future where amongst all the chaos and destruction of a big climate-induced disaster, the headline "Mark Zuckerberg and his family have reportedly retreated into his doomsday bunker" will appear... I thought the bunker is only a rumor, but DDGing it, it's "rumor" that's been covered in many news outlets, so, I'm guessing it's real although the news outlets might have some details wrong.
- actionfromafar 7mo ago
  Now, that might just be the decoy bunker. :)
deleted 7mo ago
[deleted]

ncr100 7mo ago

Wild musing: Did Zuckerberg invent Facebook.com or copy it from another person, during college? I forget where history landed on that one. And so I wonder if this corporate decision relates to that inventiveness of lack of.

ethbr1 7mo ago
In initial form, there wasn't anything to invent: it was implementing a digital phone book. That idea was brought to him by the Winklevoss brothers. He then built it (allegedly, and having to pay $65m to settle a claim about, while lying to his partners) and scaled the company into what is now Facebook.
- ncr100 7mo ago
  :-) this is really a great explanation. Thank you for filling me in ...

tsoukase 7mo ago

The rename was successful. The failure of Meta brand didn't directly impact the Facebook one.