Oculus claims exclusive games are good for the VR industry
Many have argued — including our own Sean Buckley — that the steady stream of platform-exclusive virtual reality games is a bad thing. Oculus has been by the far the most aggressive in pursuing such deals, but its head of content Jason Rubin claims that this is a good thing for the industry.
In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, Rubin made an argument focused on the growth of the industry. He compared the VR industry to PC gaming in the ’80s, noting that the market is similar in size. The problem, he asserted, is one of expectation. “The average gamer is now aware of $100 million games. And while we certainly cannot build a $100 million game that takes four years, in the year we’ve had dev kits, we can try to get closer to that by funding significant leaps beyond the financial certainty that a developer would need to have to do it on their own.”
VR needs these big-budget games now, not in two years when there’s the market to sustain them. By investing heavily in big games with larger budgets, Oculus is likely to make a loss on its gamble in the immediate future, but that investment will attract more people to virtual reality. Luckily, Oculus is owned by Facebook, which can definitely afford to pump money in on a gamble. With the industry growing, when it comes to the second or third game they create for VR, developers will be able to put in the money required without worrying about whether they’ll see a return, Rubin said.
This is apparently a short-term policy for the long-term health of the industry. “In no case are we asking to have control of the intellectual property in the long-term,” Rubin added. Exclusive games like Crytek’s The Climb, might only come to Oculus, but Crytek still owns that title, and its sequel, and any other games it makes, can “come out on any console, any PC, any anything, anywhere. We don’t own that.”
For smaller titles, such as Superhot, Oculus has helped fund porting to VR, and has often managed to secure a timed exclusive in return. Rubin said there are also indie games the company has put money into that are sold through Steam and not the Oculus store, “so the idea that we’re not doing good for the industry I find completely failing.”
Rubin’s arguments, whether you agree with them or not, are nuanced, and difficult to disregard offhand. There will still be, of course, those that feel that exclusives are never good for gamers, especially in a nascent industry.
The full interview with Rubin — which covers a lot more than exclusive games — is available at gamesindustry.biz.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
American Express teams up with Facebook to offer Amex Bot
If you’re an avid Facebook user and American Express customer, you might want to pay attention. American Express has announced Amex Bot, the product of a collaboration with Facebook to offer its card members special ways to keep up with their finances and purchases.
The Amex Bot, as it’s called, will allow American Express cardholders to receive real-time notifications about their balances, card benefits and services related to recent purchases and more. All of these notifications will come down via Facebook Messenger, allowing for real-time information to pass through with helpful information.
These messages could include special restaurant recommendations paired with a hotel reservation, how to access special Centurion Lounge privileges or a number of various other bits of information to ensure customers get the most they can out of being American Express cardholders.
The Amex Bot is expected to launch in the next few months for eligible U.S. Consumer and OPEN customers who opt-in to give it a try.
Source: American Express
Facebook Live will be able to stream Masquerade face swaps
Facebook Live is rolling out a handful of nice update these coming weeks, starting with the ability to broadcast straight from MSQRD (Masquerade). Fidji Simo, the social network’s director of product, has announced at VidCon that you’ll be able to choose the audience you want to show your face-swapping shenanigans to within the app itself. For instance, you could only make a video visible to close friends rather than to everyone. You’ll also be able to choose your first mask before going live and to keep changing it throughout the show.
MSQRD, if you’re not familiar, is a Snapchat-like video app with live filters that the social network snapped up in March after face-swapping skyrocketed in popularity. Simo said iOS users around the globe will be able to take advantage of Facebook Live integration these next few weeks. Unfortunately, he didn’t say when the feature will come out for Android users.
Simo has also revealed that viewers will be able to join a broadcast that’s already airing, so you can go live with friends or fans to host talk shows, debates and discussions. Finally, when you schedule a video, viewers will be given the choice to be notified when it starts airing or to join a lobby where they can chat with other fans. The bad news is that only Verified Pages will get both these features in the near future, though Facebook plans to eventually make them widely available.
House sit-in shows the power and potential of livestreaming
Forget the final few minutes of the NBA Finals. Forget BuzzFeed tying rubberbands around a watermelon until it exploded. Forget a woman trying on a Chewbacca mask in a car. Sure, these are all moments that have been livestreamed, sometimes to millions of viewers. But it’s events like the sit-in by House Democrats that have truly shown the power and potential of live internet video.
When the sit-in protest started, House Republican speaker Paul Ryan called for a recess and turned off the cameras and microphones. That means that C-Span, the network that typically broadcasts congressional sessions, wasn’t able to show the protest in progress. But in the age of smartphones, this wasn’t a deterrent.
Aside from taking to Twitter with the #NoBillNoBreak hashtag, a few representatives opted to livestream the event. In particular, Congressmen Scott Peters and Eric Swalwell broadcasted the sit-in via Periscope, while Congressman Beta O’Rourke did the same over Facebook Live.
Suddenly, not having cameras wasn’t a problem. This was a momentous occasion, and the only way anyone could see it, was through their computers or their smartphones. Soon, C-Span simply changed its feed over to the congressmen’s livestreams, because that was the only source of the news. CNN and MSNBC reported the event with that same broadcast.
LIVE on #Periscope https://t.co/WRxWGI67xH
— Scott Peters (@ScottPetersSD) June 22, 2016
This is the potential of mobile livestreaming realized. As long as you have a smartphone and an internet connection, you can offer a window into a world immediately, no camera crew required. Paul Lewis, a reporter for The Guardian used Periscope to broadcast interviews from the Baltimore riots last year. Christal Hayes from the Orlando Sentinel did the same in the aftermath of the shooting in Orlando.
Of course, livestreams don’t always have such noble purposes. More often than not, livestreaming videos tend to veer toward the trivial, like behind-the-scenes footage of a Jimmy Fallon show or silly antics to promote a particular brand. Most of the time people tend to use it just to broadcast their lives, which certainly could be interesting — perhaps it’s a video of a skydive or a Beyonce concert — but they’re still just using it like a personal vlog. Worse still are those that use livestreaming to broadcast horrific deeds like rape or suicide. It becomes a cry for attention in the worst way possible.
And yet, if it wasn’t for livestreaming, nobody would have seen yesterday’s historical sit-in take place. The same way social media like Twitter and Facebook was crucial to the Arab Spring movement, Periscope and Facebook Live have the potential to be a powerful democratizing force. It’s unclear if livestreaming will be particularly sustainable or profitable going forward, but as the House sit-in demonstrates, it’s important — perhaps even vital — that it exists.
Facebook brings VR Reactions to 360-degree videos
In between shooting up enemy spaceships in Eve:Gunjack and watching your favorite shows in virtual reality, you can also use your Gear VR to browse 360 Videos on Facebook. Now, in addition to viewing them, you can also show what you think about them. Oculus has just made it possible to see and leave reactions — you know, those Like-alternatives that Facebook released earlier this year — right within the smartphone VR viewer. Just look at the Like button long enough, and you’ll trigger a circle of possible Reactions to choose from. And if you’re dying to give a “Wow” emoji to a friend’s 360-degree panorama instead, don’t worry — support for 360 Photos should arrive in the coming weeks.
Source: Facebook
Facebook is paying media companies millions to stream live video
Earlier this year, Facebook went all in on Live Video, placing it in a place of prominence in its app as well as promoting it rather heavily on the web. Now it appears that the company is even going so far as paying media companies and celebrities millions of dollars to create live-streaming content. According to a document received by the Wall Street Journal, almost 140 contracts totaling more than $50 million have already been signed.
Some of the media outlets include CNN, the New York Times, Vox Media, Tastemade, Mashable and the Huffington Post, while celebrities include Kevin Hart, Gordon Ramsay, Deepak Chopra and Russell Wilson. BuzzFeed is the highest-paid publisher on the list, and will apparently receive $3.05 million for its Facebook Live content between March 2016 and March 2017. Right up there is the New York Times, which is slated to receive $3.03 million for its live video efforts.
All of this Live Video focus is paying off too. BuzzFeed’s 45-minute video of two employees putting rubber bands around a watermelon until it exploded was viewed 10.8 million times as of today. But that is nowhere close to the video of Candace Payne trying on a Chewbacca mask — that infamous video has now been viewed over 157 million times.
Source: Facebook
Instagram’s expansion continues as it tops 500 million users
With 1.6 billion users, Facebook is used to big numbers. Even Whatsapp has one billion people using it every month. Instagram, on the other hand, isn’t quite as big as its counterparts, but that doesn’t mean it’s not expanding at a decent clip. In a short blog post today, the photo-sharing service announced that it now has 500 million registered users, adding 100 million accounts in nine months.
In the past, Instagram hasn’t shared how active its users are, but for this milestone it’s making an exception. Of the 500 million Instagrammers already signed up to the service, 300 million use the app every single day. They’re not all from the US, either, with four out of every five users interacting with the app from outside the country — up five percent from September 2015.
Although Instagram’s growth is pretty uniform — adding 200 million users in the past 18 months — the Facebook-owned app hasn’t yet reached its peak. The service has become home to countless musicians and A-list celebrities, who are often the subject of hilarious brand promotion fails. However, the platform has also become a legitimate place for companies to interact with their followers and sell their wares.
Source: Instagram Blog
Facebook Messenger’s SMS push might break Android app rules
Did you think Facebook was a little too eager to have you using Messenger for SMS on your Android phone? You’re not alone. Concerns are mounting that Facebook’s SMS prompt might violate Google Play’s policies prohibiting deceptive device settings changes. You see, the prompt offering to switch SMS to Messenger offers only a big “OK” button and a tiny “settings” button — there’s no obvious way to decline the change. You can, of course, but it’s buried.
We’ve asked both Facebook and Google for their stances on the app and will let you know what they say. Whatever their reactions, though, it’s not surprising why Facebook would push so hard. The more you use Messenger for your chats, the more likely it is that you’ll use Messenger for purchases and other services that might help Facebook’s bottom line. It’s just a question of whether or not the social network is being completely honest with users who don’t realize that SMS integration is strictly optional.
VERY aggressive prompt by Facebook to add SMS to @messenger. Ain’t no “No” button. A violation of Google Play rules? pic.twitter.com/7tZzAE5MGh
— Amir Efrati (@amir) June 20, 2016
Source: Amir Efrati (Twitter), Google Play
Facebook’s board of directors re-elects Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel, the early Facebook investor and board member who admitted last month to secretly financing multiple lawsuits against Gawker Media, will officially remain on Facebook’s executive board, Mashable reports today. COO Sheryl Sandberg had previously stated that Thiel would keep his position because he “did what he did on his own, not as a Facebook board member,” but Monday’s annual shareholder’s meeting was the last chance for the board to acknowledge that his actions run counter to Facebook’s own mission statement. During the vote, the shareholders voted to keep all board members who are up for re-election, including Thiel. Mark Zuckerberg, who has the overriding vote as founder and majority stakeholder, approved the decision.
By bankrolling Hulk Hogan’s high-profile lawsuit against Gawker, Thiel drove the media company to bankruptcy. Thiel called his actions “one of my greater philanthropic things that I’ve done.” Thiel’s critics on the other hand, have called him a secretive billionaire waging a shadowy war to suppress the free press — or at least the part of the free press that publishes stories he doesn’t like.
“This contradicts the messages [Zuckerberg] has been sending—about Facebook being open, inclusive, and unbiased,” startup advisor and Stanford professor Vivek Wadhwa told Mashable.
Thiel, an ardent Trump supporter, was also part of a group of Facebook representatives who met with members of the conservative media to address accusations of bias in the social network’s Trending Topics section.
Facebook Live death highlights the risks of livestreaming
Facebook Live is great for capturing events as they happen. However, like any other live internet broadcast, it’s becoming clear that there’s also a dark side. Police have confirmed to the New York Times that Chicago man Antonio Perkins was shot to death on June 15th while he was using Facebook Live to share an otherwise normal evening. The incident isn’t strictly unique (there have sadly been other incidents of livestreamed violence before), but it underscores the lack of filters for livestreaming. Unlike similar scenes on live TV, there’s no one to cut away when horror occurs on-camera.
Notably, Facebook isn’t taking the Perkins video down. While it will remove clips that sensationalize violence, it’s leaving this and other footage that it believes will boost awareness of violence and its consequences. There’s a “graphic video” warning before you start watching, but there’s otherwise nothing stopping you.
As it stands, it’s doubtful that Facebook is about to have second thoughts about livestreaming. Any live video service has the potential to show something terrible — and when Facebook has over 1.6 billion active users every month, that potential is stronger than usual. If the company wants to offer livestreaming at all, it’ll have to accept that some videos are likely to be tragic.
Source: New York Times
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