[rjd]

Sony was about to steam roll them? and Microsoft in the next year as well?

The Sony morpheus system is already better than oculus feature wise, with better position tracking, and accessory tracking as well. And don't under estimate that, I've read some pretty strong "never again" comments from people using VR headsets and loosing grip of the controls and floundering and/or having to take the headset off to get the controls back into there grips again... even just moving your hand on the keyboard is apparently quite annoying.

Essentially without backing they will loose all market capabilities and be relegated to experimental hardware and not a mass market device.

Being brought out by other companies probably wouldn't of been a reality. MS probably have there own tech and wouldn't gain much more than branding... and xbox is a stronger brand anyway... and Valve would no doubt have chosen to partner rather than buy out... so waving $2bil in your face and the guarantee of ongoing funding and launch platform... its a no brainer.

[tomelders]

It's hard to knock that logic. Initially I was disappointed that the Occulus team made this move, but against the backdrop you paint, it's hard to see it as anything other than a smart move. My only criticism would be... surely there's someone better than Facebook to do this deal with. But most likely there isn't.

[neolefty]

Excellent analysis. So many companies are promising until they get swamped by far larger competitors, and all their fans are caught off guard. Then they disappear and become "remember when" stories. Oculus surely saw the writing on the wall.