Facebook’s latest VR headset, Oculus Quest 2, isn’t jailbroken yet, however one developer is offering up $5,000 to anyone capable of freeing the device from Facebook services. Now, Oculus founder and ex-Facebook exec Palmer Luckey says he’ll be throwing $5,000 in the hat too in effort to attract would-be jailbreakers.

Update (October 19th, 2020): Palmer Luckey tweeted late last week that he’d match Robert Long’s $5,000 bounty, an unusual turn of events for the driving force behind Oculus and employee at Facebook after its acquisition in 2014.

Luckey, who was ousted from Facebook in 2017, has also personally backed projects such as Revive, which lets you play Oculus exclusives on other SteamVR headsets, and SideQuest, the unofficial library of games and apps for the Quest platform.

Long reckons there’s more out there looking to donate to the cause, and says he’s researching on how best to start a crowdfunding campaign. We’ll be following this closely, so check back soon for more as the story develops.

Original Article (October 15th, 2020): Facebook’s walled garden approach to its Quest app store has already been subverted somewhat by projects like SideQuest, an unofficial library for Quest games and apps. There’s still no getting around Oculus services or the need for a valid Facebook account to use Quest 2 though, which is why Robert Long, a senior software engineer at Mozilla working on WebXR, is offering up $5,000 to anyone who can successfully jailbreak Facebook’s latest standalone headset.

Long, who currently works on WebXR tools at Mozilla and previously at AltspaceVR, initially offered the $5,000 to anyone who could jailbreak the original Oculus Quest, but nobody was able to get root access and implement custom firmware on the now out-of-production device.

With the entrance of Quest 2, and now obligatory Facebook account requirement for all new users, he’s transferred that reward money to the new device.

“I will no longer be working on VR projects for the Oculus platform. Including Oculus Browser specific WebXR features,” Long said back when Facebook first announced the policy change in August. “If a Facebook account will be required for me to develop on Oculus’ platform then I’m not interested in supporting them further.”

Long wants to see root access, something he says will allow users to replace and modify Oculus Home, remove the Facebook login requirement, and allow for unofficial stores like SideQuest to take the place of the Oculus Store—essentially the same level of access granted to basically any Android device.

“Modifying background services to remove any FB telemetry would be nice as well,” he continues.

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With its recent change in account policy, Facebook now has the power to ban and suspend users based on individual behavior, platform-wide, both in and outside of the headset. This is very likely the reason behind why you can’t buy Oculus products in Germany, although the company hasn’t said such officially.

Whether for ill or good, if you don’t play nice, or aren’t able to provide your identity to the satisfaction of the company, you risk losing not only access to your library of games, but also possibly the functionality of the entire headset—including its ability to be used as a PC VR headset via Link on Steam, effectively making it a very interesting paper weight.

In terms of smartphones, in many countries jailbreaking isn’t illegal, although large platform holders like Facebook can easily give you the cold shoulder on future support should you decide to do so. Whatever the case, as more users come to VR there’s bound to be an ever growing talent pool of prospective jailbreakers interested in mucking around where Facebook simply doesn’t want them to.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • polysix

    Stupid. Facebook politics aside all this would do is lessen money to devs (piracy), make it less viable and harm VR as a whole. If this guy can build something as impressive as the quest 2 and sell it for 299 lets see if he’d be so open about it then.

    FTR my FB account is only used for this and there’s nothing they’ll be tracking that everyone else doesn’t already track.

    • Johnatan Blogins

      in the phone space, I think jailbreaking and gaining root access, actually contributed a lot to the growth and improvements of the Android ecosystem, it allowed old hardware to gain longevity, and some great skins and mods came about; and some controversial use. Tinkerers want to tinker, and often, “for the good”.
      There’s no denying FB’s track record of poor accountability and customer service!

      • Ad

        It’s almost comical how much more useful my iphone was with a jailbreak. Not to mention we caught a lot of nonsense apple was doing over and over because we had total access to our devices.

    • Dragon Marble

      If this makes someone who otherwise doesn’t want a Quest buy one, it helps FB make money. It’s just like modders donate their free time to help the original game developers make money. So if this guy is doing this simply because he doesn’t like FB, it IS quite stupid.

      FB is the only major company pushing for VR. I am not convinced that Valve is still committed to VR. I am not convinced that Sony is still committed to VR. I welcome Reverb G2 but game developers who want to make a living are moving away from PC VR to standalone (like Onward), or moving away from VR altogether (like Superhot). VR enthusiasts need to accept the reality and learn to live with FB.

      • sebrk

        Yeah that is why Superhot made more money in VR than PC (https://www.pcgamesn.com/superhot-vr/superhot-vr-sales). Just because some developer decides to go a certain way doesn’t mean PCVR is shrinking. There are more experiences coming and more announced every month. If anything it creates new space for new developers. A healthy ecosystem has experiences for all kinds of devices. PCVR will end only when standalone devices can do what a PCVR setup would be able to do. Just like there are cheap cars and expensive ones.

      • Ad

        It’s a hostile takeover. Why are you talking about this like facebook is just making the nicest toys? The costs to a facebook monopoly over XR are massive and affect everyone negatively. Don’t be a child, we have a responsibility to stand up to this as the people who were in this space first. Valve is committed anyway. Onward also sold out its entire community from the early adopters, to the modders, to the esports players, and sold out other developers who had equally ready products but weren’t allowed to launch.

      • GunnyNinja

        I don’t really care about mobile VR. Most of my use is in sims. FB turned their back on me, I’m not supporting that.

        • shadow9d9

          Do you called the Nintendo Switch a mobile console?

          • GunnyNinja

            I don’t care one bit about the Switch, VR or not.

    • sebrk

      This statement is false and ignorant to how these things work. And the argument that they already know everything they need to is lacking intelligence in every sense.

      • silvaring

        Im getting suspicious of these facebook defense teams online, you can tell they are unoriginal and probably fake by the way they always argue in the same way (1. Facebook knows everything, 2. every big company already tracks the same and 3. Facebook loves vr more than Microsoft or other players). Why would someone defend facebook with consistently similar talking points if they were not a paid shill / have some kind of undisclosed horse in the race? Their arguments sound alluring, but are complete bullshit when you dig into them just a tiny bit. These people will also probably say you are not the product for facebook, and again, if facebook can outright lie about that fact these shills will also take the same stance.

    • Ad

      Piracy is already possible, a jailbreak would do nothing to make that work better.

    • FrankB

      imagine they could track your eye movements and an algorithm determined you have a high probability of developing Parkinson’s disease. They could sell that data to every insurance provider. Your premium would go up forever, regardless of whether you ever contracted the condition, and you would never be told the reason why. This scenario is not as science fiction as you may think.

  • 3872Orcs

    Now this would make me buy a Quest! Though I think we’re gonna see competition in the standalone headset market eventually.

    • dk

      valve has to make the exact same headset based on the qualcomm reference design …but $100 more than q2 and no fb account and hdmi optional connection …just steam account :P

      • h4rr4r

        Why?
        If it was the same design for $100 it would never sell. Most people use facebook already.

        • dk

          what ….a lot of people hate facebook ….if it’s 100 more with optional wired pc connection ……and by valve themselves ….it will sell very closely to the quest sales …..I personally don’t care about the fb account

          • h4rr4r

            Basically no one is willing to pay $100 to avoid facebook.

            You would get 100s or 1000s of buyers for that reason. This is targeted at huge volume sales.

          • dk

            lol have u never seen the comments under quest 2 articles …..basically everyone using steam will be interested in it…. I’m not saying no one will buy the quest if there is an option like that

          • h4rr4r

            Yeah, it’s the same 100 or less nerds raging.

            You can’t sell just to that tiny market. 50% don’t have any headset as they lack the money or keep waiting for the holodeck.

          • dk

            what tiny market I’m talking about a standalone (with optional hdmi pc connection) most likely also based on android so the developers will port over the same games they already have made for the quest….it’s literally the same market plus people that hate facebook and plus steam users
            and I’m saying $100 more because other companies most likely won’t be willing to taka a big hit on the hardware like fb

        • Ad

          The Vive was more expensive than the Rift but sold incredibly well with worse controllers.

          • h4rr4r

            How many units?

          • Ad

            It was the largest headset on steam a month ago.

          • mirak

            It was more expensive until Oculus added touch controlers and 1 more camera to have roomscale.
            Then Oculus had to kill the price to regain market shares, because the Vive had all the momentum.

            And I think the touchpad is better than joysticks, that’s why I am not entirely satisfied with the Knuckles controllers.

          • Ad

            The Rift with controllers and 2 sensors was 400 when I got into VR and Vive was 500. I was told the Rift was better but the Vive tracking was better roomscale.

      • wheeler

        Valve just needs a low latency wireless adapter with minimal (if any) compression artifacts. PC gamers will buy it and enjoy the benefits of standalone without the downsides.

        But Valve is absolutey not going to try and jump start a whole new console ecosystem on mobile hardware targeted at the low end that they need to babysit/curate and take a loss on over many years (perhaps a decade)–like FB is current doing. Valve already has a very profitable platform on the PC with a market that suits their more “hands off” business model. OTOH Facebook pretty much has to take on this massive loss leading undertaking if they want any chance at being one of the major platforms for future XR tech.

        Look to Sony (and, perhaps some day, Microsoft and Nintendo) for wireless console VR that is competitive with the Quest. For the hundreds of millions that will already be buying these consoles for flat gaming, a wireless VR headset will have the major benefits of standalone without the downsides. Apple is the only company that I can see making a truly standalone console competitor to FB’s Quest in the near term. Maybe Samsung will try as well but I have less confidence in their ability to maintain such an ecosystem.

        • dk

          index users might need $200-$400 wireless adapter ……what the vr community actually needs is $400 stand alone with optional pc connection by valve ….and wifi6e compatible would be nice too

          • mirak

            With OLED.

          • dk

            unless the oled option has the same resolution and rgb stripe pixel matrix(like psvr) and similar price to an ips option ….the oled colors r completely useless to me since vr still far off from 20/20 human vision
            if u could get 1830×1920 rgb oled panel for similar price as an ips option that would be great

        • mirak

          Oculus would get killed by Nintendo, if Nintendo did a VR portable console with games like mario and zelda.

    • Ad

      Price is too low.

  • Till Eulenspiegel

    This is funny, buying Quest 2 is like selling your soul to the devil. Will you succumb to the temptation of the hardware and sell your soul to Facebook?

    • sfmike

      It has just convinced me not to participate in the Facebook site much as not to be again banned for posting an innocuous comment or picture that offends the fragile sensibilities of right wing Christians, the Trump Death Cult or man hating feminists. I’ll just use FB for Oculus. I have wasted way to much time on social media anyway.

      • THIS@That.com

        wtf are you smoking you left pussies are the ones banning peoplewith you cancel culture,

        • Thomas Hall

          I read the comment as applicable to both groups of opposing political extremists.

        • shadow9d9

          If you are referring to the US, there is no “left.” Just right wing democrats(further right than right wing parties in europe) and the off the cliff right Republicans. It is truly amazing that if you repeat nonsense enough times, people will believe it as truth. A left..ahahaha!

          “Cancel culture”-Buzzword parroting…Drink!

    • OkinKun

      Because they’re the only player in the market right now, doing proper standalone VR. And because it’s a new untested market, which other companies won’t risk competing in, until Facebook proves the market is big enough to make it worth it.

      • Jet Trevor

        Because they’re the only player in the market right now as well as there is only 1 devil!

        • Andrew Jakobs

          But then again, a lot of people are selling their souls to another devil, Apple…….

          • Dick Massive

            Andrew Jakobs, everyone. Paid Facebook shill.

          • Ad

            Apple has a locked down platform, a too high cut, and overpriced hardware. That is a sinner, not the devil.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            Well the devil makes you believe he’s the good guy……..

          • crim3

            Appropriated language for a company that bases its success in religious cult-like marketing techniques.

          • kontis

            The biggest mafias in history of this planet never had the control (TOS) and reach in commerce of “subcontractors” (developers) that Apple has.

            Frogs are being boiled. Enjoy.

          • Ad

            I definitely hope they lose the Epic case, but we’re looking at new heights of BS with facebookXR.

          • FrankB

            To be fair though, Apple aren’t selling your data, nor are they tracking you. For all Apples faults their privacy policies are second to none.

          • UberNorman

            That’s BS

          • TechPassion

            Apple not tracking you? Are you naive 5 year old child?

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          • kontis

            nor are they tracking you

            This is false. I experienced unethical data theft and reuse from Apple.

            When I bought first Apple product without GPS I was shocked it could show me my location with almost GPS precision, that is impossible with just IP database. It was fascinating so I researched how they did it.

            And it turned out they used GPS data from my friend who visited me 2 years earlier and matched it using the SSID names of WiFi of my and my neighbor’s routers.

            They have this in EULA, but nobody reads it so nobody knows how much data they actually track.

            Apple is a bit less evil and a bit more respectful to privacy than Facebook and Google, but that doesn’t make them good.
            Their TOS destroying thousands and thousands of small businesses is also evil. In Japan were they are almost a monopoly in mobiles there is even a special organisation helping small devs who were removed from app store to fight with Apple.

          • Nads

            Exactly correct, Apple is the only company that i would trust thanks to all their privacy policies. Facebook is the complete opposite, same as google! 2 of the worst companies in the world to trust with your data!

          • shadow9d9

            Policies to protect you? Ahahaha. And look what Apple did to the Hong Kong protestors. And of course, the creator of apple was a sociopath that made illegal gentleman’s agreements.

    • Ace of Spades

      If it had Full tethered mode, without pixelazation, full resolution and FPS [I dont care about standalone mode] then yes, i pre-ordered it and canceled in favor of HP G2

  • Nicholas

    No thanks. Reverb G2 all the way. I can’t stand compression.

    • h4rr4r

      No thanks, I can’t stand wires.

      • sebrk

        But you do love your masters at Facebook

        • h4rr4r

          Not really, but I am smart enough to understand what they are doing.

          Many of those blocked admit to using VPNs. Which to any security system will look like suddenly moving faster than the speed of sound or login from another person in another location. Even my employer would lock my account for that kind of thing.

          • Caven

            If my employer tried geolocation-based restrictions like that, nobody would be able to get any work done. A lot of the services we used can be access regardless of whether the company VPN is currently being used, and for most users, connecting to the corporate VPN makes their computer suddenly look like it’s in a different state. Also, for jobs like mine, I routinely have to login to services while remoted into other computers.

          • h4rr4r

            Your home would be expected. Another continent, wouldn’t.

            The VPN itself checks that at login.

          • Caven

            That’s still a problem because some of my userbase travels internationally, so occasionally I do have to use my login on computers in different continents. And when those same people travel, they may find themselves logging into computers physically located on a different continent. And given that I occasionally perform remote support while I’m traveling, there have been situations where one login location is going to appear at some public place such as a hotel or coffee shop, and the other login will be some random stretch of freeway between cities.

            Using MFA to prevent unauthorized logins makes far more sense than wasting a bunch of effort trying to track down “impossible” travel situations. After all, geolocation-based restrictions won’t detect a nosey employee with someone else’s password trying to login to another computer in the same office, but MFA will prevent that login attempt from succeeding.

          • h4rr4r

            Rules are per user.
            So for them it would be expected for others not so much.

            Security is an onion you use every tool at your disposal.
            Geolocation isn’t going to catch a malicious local user, but the MFA and device verification will. You use them all.

            MFA won’t stop spear fishing. They ask the user for the token during the fake login process. Since a machine fills in the real login at the same time they then can login.

          • Caven

            Now, the bulk of this conversation has been about corporate users and the limitations of geolocation-based restrictions. I’d argue that the stakes are generally considered higher for the breach of a corporate user account than for the breach of someone’s personal Facebook account. If geolocation-base restrictions aren’t a perfect solution for corporate use, how are they going to be useful for protecting a personal social media account without causing lots of false positives? After all, VPN need not be involved at all for this to be an issue.

            All it really takes for geolocation-based security to breakdown is for the user to have a reason to be logged into an account on multiple computers at the same time. My computer at home is on all the time. If I login to an online service while at work or on vacation, I’m going to look like I’m in two places at once. Between desktop computers, laptops, smartphone, and tablets, it’s really easy for that scenario to occur, no VPN required. And if someone did decide to check Facebook from their work laptop, their location could easily appear to bounce around depending on whether or not VPN was enabled at the time.

            I seriously doubt Facebook would want to deal with the sheer amount of false positives they’d end up with by trying to enforce those sorts of restrictions.

          • h4rr4r

            Because they only need to be better than the alternative.
            False positives are more acceptable for facebook than corporate use. Users of facebook pay them nothing and are not employees.

          • Herbert Werters

            You are not smart. Smart is to say no.

          • TechPassion

            You have a mentalitty of a slave.

      • mirak

        my Vive doesn’t have wires

        • h4rr4r

          For how much?
          Include pc, wireless setup and headset

      • TechPassion

        Quest 2 works good only with wires and tons of heavy and uncomfortable extra cost accesories like headband and separate aftermarket headphones.

        • h4rr4r

          “works good” If you can’t even manage basic English no one will listen to you.

        • Ace of Spades

          Quest 2 DOESNT work good with wires, it doesn’t work good at all.
          With wire its pixelated sun resolution compressed trash.
          WHEN and IF they fix this i might consider it

          • NoTMucH

            Obviously oblivious to virtual desktop streaming over Wifi which at the moment far exceeds the visual quality of the Link cable.
            Coming from a Rift S there is no perceivable difference at all when its setup right.
            90hz Wire free HL:Alyx is an absolute joy.

      • GunnyNinja

        Without the wire the Quest is just mediocre. It’s the ability to tether it that made the original hard to find and drive prices up. Same here, especially since FB decided to do away with PCVR.

        • h4rr4r

          Without the wire it is great, wired headsets are for a tiny tiny niche market of nerds who can’t support their own bodies for longer than the walk to the fridge.

          • GunnyNinja

            I’ll keep that in mind when I’m flying that I should be standing up, you know, like pilots do…

          • h4rr4r

            No, you should build a cockpit with a bunch of panels.
            The FOV would be way better. With eye tracking you can even get 3d.

          • GunnyNinja

            Looking through a toilet paper tube would give me better FOV. Try harder.

    • Jim P

      Don’t think for a second I would not buy a G2 or any other nonFB product. Again the only problem is FB is the only one with an ecosystem and backs it up wit at least two games a year.

  • I hope someone does it soon, because I can’t even use the f’n thing as Facebook won’t let me sign into the Oculus App using my now mandatory Facebook account, so the device is just a paperweight on my desk until they either fix the issue or tell me I’m locked out permanently or some other crap like that.

  • Yeshaya

    I asked two friends who are curious about getting into VR but facebook-skeptical if this would make them pull the trigger on the Quest 2. Neither would definitely do it but they both said it would make them a lot more likely to get one. So there’s your conclusive scientific polling data on the subject.

  • Timothy Bank

    A Quest 2 isn’t an Android phone. It is a very specialized piece of hardware that is tuned to operate in a very specific manner. Everything is tuned to maximize performance and balance with stability. By letting people jail break this device, you are only asking for tech support nightmares.
    If you want to hack this device, buy something else and hack it. Facebook is probably losing money on each unit and needs to make it back through their store…just like every other console that is out there.

    • OkinKun

      Naw, I like Oculus, but there’s no reason people can’t do this, if they really want too.. It shouldn’t mess up the way the headset performs, although future bug fixes would likely also have to be patched for the hack.. This isn’t something most users would do.. Just technical gamers that really want to ditch FB.
      Since the headset can run side-loaded software, there’s no reason to keep Facebook’s login stuff in there, if you only use want to use it for those things. Especially if it still works as a PC headset.
      Sure it voids warranty, but that happens anytime you jailbreak anything.. People who do that are usually aware of that.
      Tho I certainly wouldn’t bother jailbreaking, until the headset was nearing the end of it’s life cycle anyway.. lol I’m fine with the FB thing for now.

    • sebrk

      What an utterly stupid comment

      • Andrew Jakobs

        What an utterly stupid comment

      • Timothy Bank

        Maybe you missed my point. It is a console, like a Playstation or an Xbox. The manufacturer is selling it at a loss because the model is to make the money back through software sales.
        I was saying that if you want to use it outside of these parameters, you should pay more for it to cover the actual cost of the device.
        Having developed hardware and software for a few decades, it honestly pisses me off when people want to hack what I have done to either pirate my software or hack my hardware to circumvent paying for a service.
        If you are a developer who wants to avoid the 30% fee for selling in the Oculus store, then make your own VR headset and have at it.
        BTW, ALL the online stores (Google, Steam, Apple, Oculus) charge a 30% fee. Many of us have benefited from this and paid the 30% for marketing and distribution.

        If you disagree with me, then try and actually form a few sentences to give your opinion.

        • Ad

          There’s always one. You realize you can buy a steamVR headset and use only Epic Store software? How do you have a negative conception of basic consumer rights? Oh I’m sure, this megacorporation with more power than governments is just like you in your basement making art software, they deserve all the implied revenue the user never agreed to.

        • Caven

          You don’t know for sure that they’re selling it at a loss, but even if they are, they don’t actually give anyone the option to buy it at a higher price in exchange for more freedom of access. It’s not the walled garden I have a problem with anyway, it’s the need for a Facebook account. If I had the option of paying extra for a Quest 2 that forever exempted me from needing a Facebook account I’d happily use their store.

          If they weren’t so insistent on invasive privacy violations, there wouldn’t be so much demand for a jailbreak. Why does Facebook need to know everything about me and my social circle to sell me VR games? No other company needs that much information about me–not even banks. Just let me use an alias plus an approved form of payment, and done. That’s how it used to be, and that’s how it should remain.

        • FrankB

          The model is to make money through selling your personal data. FB don’t really care about software sales. Software is just the bait on the hook to get you into their ecosystem.

    • knuckles625

      Quest 2 is nothing more than a console based on an Android OS, and many consoles have had some sort of hack available to load custom fw going back to the original xbox (although they sometimes required opening the devices up). I see no reason the quest wouldn’t continue that trend

    • Dick Massive

      The headset is owned by the person who purchased it, NOT Facebook, they just own the software and drivers. If the owner wished to hack their headset there is nothing Facebook can do about it. And besides, anyone hacking their headset won’t be going to Facebook for tech support – I thought this was pretty obvious, but not with people like you. No, people like you just post crap on the internet, and defend this shit.

      • Timothy Bank

        Technically you do own the hardware, so if you want to hack it then be my guest. What many people do not understand is the effort it takes to bring a system like that up and make it run stably. The Oculus ecosystem is not just an OS or a player, it is much more. By hacking it and bypassing certain interlocks, you are using their software and drivers (as you said) and that is what I disagree with.
        If I created a picture and you took that picture and edited it slightly then used it for your benefit, is it my picture still or yours? Did you take something that I spent a large amount of time on and then you used it as if you had made it?

        I defend this shit because it pisses me off when people think it is OK to steal what others have worked so hard to build.

        And yes, when people trash their OS while trying to jailbreak their Quest 2, they will contact Oculus to try and get it back to working order again.

        • Ad

          Why are you anthropomorphizing a multi billion dollar company with a history of exacerbating genocides and destabilizing democracies like it’s a starving artist? The law and basic common sense are not on your side. It is an OS, it is like SteamVR, how could you be so blind in a situation like this that Facebook are somehow the victim as people desperately try and regain some control as they launch a hostile takeover of the industry.

          • silvaring

            He thinks that facebook is in the console business model to make money from software. In other words he is either willingly or unwillingly representing the reality of the situation, that Facebook is in the data business first and foremost and THAT is their business model. So yeah i wouldnt even engage with him tbh as he needs to accept the situation first since his foundational premise of faceboculus is all wrong.

          • Ad

            Even simple math, they would assuming every unit will sell 300-450 dollars of software for them to break even. That’s nonsense.

        • Dick Massive

          Steal ? What, exactly, are they stealing ?
          You do realise Facebook will make money from the USER, they are the product.
          You know what pisses ME off ? Idiots like you who know fuck all of the law, and just spread bullshit on the internet.
          You should change your username to Hyperbole Bank, that is all you are posting.

          • Timothy Bank

            Nice, I did not call you names or insult you. Now let me give you a little insight. Having actually worked at Facebook / Oculus and actually worked on the Quest 2, I have a little bit more understanding of why they decided to do this. In fact, I even did research on parts of it. So what I know and have to say is actually not fantasy or hyperbole (good word DM).

            Imagine you have an Oculus account and a Facebook account (hard to stomach for some). As an Oculus user, you are looking to play with your friends, but that would mean reconstructing your friend network through emails or screen names (not an easy task). By having you link your Facebook account to your Oculus account they are giving you access to this database of friends that you can link to your heart’s content. It also allows you to share your experiences on your FB feed, invite people to join you, brag about a new high score on Beat Saber, etc.

            Another thing that Oculus is very serious about is that “out of the box experience” where people can just open the box and go. I remember the 45 minutes it took me to set up my Vive years ago and if I was not tech savvy then I would have been very frustrated. Note all the attention to details that make this New User Experience (NUX) really good. By forcing you to link to your FB account, they are enabling you to connect to your friends that you might want to link up with in VR. Honestly this is targeted at the average user so people who are a bit more tech savvy might feel this is a bit of overkill. By having you link the accounts right out of the box, you will be connected and not confused as to why you can’t find your friends.

            Facebook’s mission is to bring everyone together and this helps bring the VR community that is on Oculus together. That was what they were striving for. If you dislike the parent company or people within it, then so be it. I still love my Quest 2.

          • FrankB

            All fair reasons for linking Oculus account to Facebook but its the mandatory aspect of it that are rubbing people up the wrong way. Many VR enthusiasts simply don’t trust Facebook and FB over the years have given people many reason to justify this distrust. I was certainly keen to buy a Quest 2, even though I knew Oculus was owned by Facebook but knowing that I would now have to reactivate a long discarded FB account has put me right off.

          • Timothy Bank

            That is very true. I would say just create a new dummy FB account and chalk it up to part of the process. I actually had a bit of a bleak opinion of FB before I started working there and seriously considered not taking the job. I decided to give it a go and worst case I would learn more about Oculus. I was shocked at how nice the company (Menlo Park campus) was and all the people working there. Free food and free amenities aside, it was truly a great place to work.

          • Ad

            You should be deeply ashamed of your work there. Like legit not be able to sleep at night. I know the people who work there are really really fed this weird ideology where they think they’re incapable of fault but it’s depressing what a disaster Facebook is for the world, how many awful things they do, and their absolutely insane sense of self importance. This is a company that exacerbated a genocide in Myanmar and refused to shut anything down, refused to take any serious actions for months and then it was comically insufficient, and now still won’t cooperate with the international community. They ban antifa, suppress progressive publications, and allow white nationalist militias to organize on facebook. And that is the company that is expected to take complete control of XR and integrate it with their horrific platform? People like you will watch Terminator 2, but not see the blatant mirror it shows of you. And now these disgusting attacks on even the idea of jailbreaking is just pathetic. Legitimately, how do you sleep at night?

            https://time.com/5880118/myanmar-rohingya-genocide-facebook-gambia/

          • Dick Massive

            Sure. Some random idiot on the internet thinks he worked for Oculus and on the Quest ?
            Yeah, and I am the King of Spain.

          • Timothy Bank

            Sadly you are wrong. Look me up on LinkedIn. Not only did I do a lot of UX research on the Quest, but I also worked with the Quest 2 and its NUX. I also did a lot of work on Horizon, which is another reason they are linking your FB account.

          • Ad

            Eating donuts while you burn the world, sounds great.

            https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54161344

          • beeaey
        • Cl

          I just want to use the headset without a Facebook account. Just like you can with the original quest. I don’t think that’s stealing anything or causing tech support nightmares.

    • Ad

      No duh jailbreaking means the community has to do its own troubleshooting. But saying the price means they deserve anything is just word vomit. You can buy any console and use it with only used games, but the Quest is not a small gaming PC, it’s a general use XR device that makes its money back not through software anyway but through killing the competition and data collection. They deserve nothing and if their terrible bet goes bust that’s on them.

  • Sounds good to me, people will need that tool in the future. Not only for account FUBAR’s, but when they decide to stop supporting the product a few years down the line, and just yank their ability to function entirely.

  • VR is still too niche. Expect that it becomes popular like a PlayStation… in that moment the good hackers will come and break any kind of protection

    • Ad

      We need people who are angry at facebook, people who root niche android phones, and people who like futurism but hate dystopia. There are always those random geniuses who can do stuff like this for fun.

  • 144Hz

    We need something like LineageOS on the Quest 2.

  • brubble

    Whats a facebook?

    • gothicvillas

      When you want to snooze a bit in a bright daylight. You put a book on your face to cover your eyes.

      • brubble

        Word.

  • Andrew Jakobs

    As much as I hate the coupling with facebook, this is nothing different from what Apple does with it’s iDevices, they lock you into their platform…
    But in this case it’s not really a problem for me as I already have a Facebook account for many years (even though I’m aware of the tracking ‘problems’).

    • Dick Massive

      You can use a iPhone without a Apple account, and even if you made one you can use a fake username and Apple won’t and can’t stop you using your iPhone.
      So no, Apple and Facebook are not the same.

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Yes you can use an iPhone without an Apple account, but only for calling, if you want to do anything else you’ll need an Apple account.

        • Dick Massive

          This is pure nonsense. Your CARRIER determines whether you can call, or how you use your phone, not Apple. If Apple stopped users using their phones there would be mass uproar, and lawsuits a plenty. Stop with your silly pathetic anti-apple crap.

          • Andrew Jakobs

            Let me guess, you own an iPhone/iPad?
            Apple does block accounts, and in that case you cannot use any of your apps and have to create a new account but loose everything you had on your other account. AND Apple CAN block you complete iPhone if they need/want to.. Stop being so naive..

          • ad

            yupp but there is no apple social media platform where people share social ideas and if apple disagrees you get banned..

    • Caven

      Needing an account to use a service is one thing. Needing an account that not only knows exactly who I am, but also knows exactly who all my friends and family are is a requirement that not even governments and financial institutions demand of me.

    • FrankB

      its very different. Apples privacy policies are rock solid. Facebook sell every think they know about you to any corporation that can use it.

    • Ad

      You can use an iPhone without an Apple ID

      • Andrew Jakobs

        Yeah, only for calling, if you want any extra apps on it you have to have an Apple-ID…. And if all you’re doing with your iPhone is calling, you wouldn’t buy an expensive iPhone…

        • Ad

          All the built in apps work as well, the camera, anything running in the web, etc. There are also tiers of accounts in terms of how much info you give. And come on, an apple ID is not a tenth as invasive as a facebook account, it’s a device centric account only. A facebook account is an entirely separate product.

  • ShaneMcGrath

    If it wasn’t for forced Facebook log in I would buy this headset straight away.
    I’m hoping a future Samsung Odyssey headset saves the day.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Well, it’s still very quiet on the Samsung side, even though they said in may 2019 they would show new VR/AR hardware in a couple of months.. 1.5 years later and it’s still quiet…..

  • MadridiCooL

    5K is all you can offer, No, but no thanks.

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    • Does it also make my dong grow? If so…insta buy.

  • Chris

    For 3 years prior to Rift deployment I followed development and Lucky with zeal and while I do not agree with Lucky on a few things I wish the FB deal had not taken place. Social Media has pretty much ruined the online world. I support the jailbreak attempt as I placed my Rift gear back in the box the day they announced FB would be “required” to login. Jailbreak will be the only way I buy their gear again and even that may not be enough. We need other solid wireless options before I jump in again.

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Why did you put the rift back in the box if you can still use it for 2 years without the FB requirement?
      And there are other solid wireless options already, Pico Neo 2 for instance, the controllers are even tracked behind your back and out of the camera range..

      • Chris

        Lucky was building it for gamers… That was his dream. FB expanded beyond gaming and gamers seemed to lose priority as “days” passed by. Race to the bottom concept. Get $1.00 from a billion people instead of $10.00 from a million. That was what Lucky wanted, quality not quantity, and I signed up for. Putting my gear up was a silent protest I can afford.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Quality? No, he always said he wanted to bring VR to the masses at affordable costs, and that’s exactly what Facebook does. And the Quest is FAR from ‘race to the bottom’, it’s a very affordable VR headset with great features (yes, it could have been a bit better, like more positions for the IPD, or actual DP over USB-C, so it really could be used as a native PCVR headset). Don’t even underestimate the Quest, with it’s $100 million in store sales.
          I think they are going in the right direction, hardware wise, ofcourse the FB account part is the wrong way. I don’t think a $1000 PCVR headset would have been the right direction for a company like Facebook. Let’s not forget the more people are experiencing VR, the more developers will create content, and the Quest is just the best platform at the moment for consumers.. Highend VR is really a niche, as it requires expensive GPU’s and headsets, but over time the price will come down..

        • shadow9d9

          He sold out on his dream though..that’s what happens when you sell.

  • Jim P

    Like Palmer. He is a cool guy.

  • Rose Mountford

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  • Captain Comedy

    jesus this comments section is just “with us or against us”.

    I have a quest 2 and already had a facebook account – I really don’t give a flying fuck.

    Likewise, quest 2 without PC is a pile of mobile gaming shit. so people saying “waaah g2 is so much more expensive” stfu kid and get a job.

    the whole vr industry has to mature and show market viability, and until it does, facebook won’t be getting rid of steam and vice versa.

  • blobface

    I really want someone to step in and challenge Oculus/Facebook, but right now, they’re the only player in the game when it comes to competent mobile VR, and as someone who will buy the Reverb G2, owns the Samsung Odyssey, owned the Vive which was replaced by the Index. For certain applications (especially in the realm of design and visualisation, where showing clients things is involved), the lack of wire, the portability, and the ease of use with hand tracking, simply blows any PC system out of the water. Given the stupidly low price of the Quest 2, it’s pretty obvious that the whole thing is subsidised with Facebook’s cash, which is even more worrying given this means that chances of other companies (even ones with cash to burn like Microsoft, Google or Valve) is slimmer and slimmer.

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