The Biggest Fears About Facebook's Acquisition of Oculus Are Coming True - Gizmodo

Setting aside the early boom of third-party games like Farmville, which were built on top of the Facebook platform, Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus positioned the company at the forefront of a brand new category.

The first change took place in August, when Facebook mandated that any first-time Oculus users will need to sign into their devices using a Facebook account.

Beginning in 2023, all Oculus devices will require a Facebook account to log in, meaning that any existing users who choose not to merge their Oculus account and their Facebook account will be effectively locked out of their own headsets.

For folks who dove into virtual reality and snagged Oculus devices because they felt like these headsets were the future of gaming, this change feels like a betrayal, with many pointing back to old posts from Oculus founder Palmer Luckey saying that people wouldn’t need to log into their Facebook accounts to use the Oculus Rift.

(Though, technically, I must point out that Luckey only referenced the original Oculus Rift, which has already been put out to pasture, and not all future Oculus devices.) And with Facebook having previously introduced a number of social features and data collection techniques that were tied to the use of a Facebook account, many feel like Facebook’s social media-driven policies are invading Oculus VR.

For anyone concerned about digital privacy, Facebook’s increased push for data collection across its various platforms may push away gamers who might otherwise be interested in new games or Oculus VR devices.