The second you create your new Meta account instead of a Facebook account, they'll instantly be linking it to your Facebook account behind the scenes anyway -- even if you don't opt in.
If you don't officially have a Facebook account, they'll link it to your shadow profile where they keep everything other people post about you.
This is everything to do with branding and NOTHING to do with privacy.
Nothing to do with privacy, certainly. It does offer some value, though. If your FB account was banned for whatever reason you would previously be unable to use your Oculus VR headset. Now, in theory, that isn't a concern.
Someone please update the title to include the new Meta account requirement. Its too misleading like this, it Could lead people to believe it doesnt require registering with Facebook (or whatever they renamed themselves to this week) at all….
The option for an account that is not a faceboof one goes beyond your believes about privacy or what you feel about Meta as a company in general.
For instance the Meta account doesn't have a real ID policy, you won't get banned because your name doesn't look authentic.
You also won't be subject to the whole legacy of restrictions and issues that were bound to facebook accounts. People who linked their real facebook to the quest of fear of getting flagged can also now isolate their accounts (even if behind the scene there is still a link, they won't be appearing in Horizon with their main account at least.
And I'm just scratching the surface. Yes this move matters, even if it's not what everyone dreamed of.
That's because Meta is currently just a hardware company. They aspire to be a platform company in a social metaverse. It won't take long, provided they actually manage to launch the product.
The same way Instagram doesn't get all the Facebook rules injected into them, I'd expect Meta accounts and new services to keep different rules and different moderation.
Like Instagram it might be gross on the backend and privacy data etc., but that ship has sailed the day Meta/Facebook bought Oculus. Nobody buying a Quest at this point should expect puppies and rainbows on that front.
As a former Oculus device owner, I refused to upgrade as long as anything Facebook was required. I don't have a Facebook account and I never plan to get one. Same goes for Meta.
It's a significantly different segment than the Quest or Valve Index-- somewhere in between a Varjo and a Valve Index.
With better economies of scale, we would be able to drop the price more/introduce more segmentation. As is we just have too many NRE costs that drive the price up.
I haven't used my oculus cv1 since they added a non-oculus account requirement. A shame, really. Computers are finally getting to a point where driving a cv1 is a pleasant experience.
Driving a CV1 hasn't been difficult since the GTX 970 came out. Getting the damn cameras and play area to work for more than one session, now that's an unpleasant experience. Trying to use a CV1 anywhere other than directing in front of your desktop monitor is an experience I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.
I had a great experience by mounting three cameras on the walls with some 3D printed holders + paint safe double sided tape.
However my 4790k struggles to keep any kind of GPU fed in most games. It's not that it couldn't, in theory, but it does. Recent doom games being a notable exception.
Also, just as graphics hardware has gotten more powerful games have become more demanding. Filling a high pixel clock with no stutters and <90 Hz 99.9% of the time isn't a task that can just be hand waved away. It isn't happening with cutting edge hardware and software today.
Not an experience I've shared. I set up my office almost 4 years ago, even with a 5 month stretch of not using my Rift at all, and I've had no issue with the setup or cameras.
Yes, I feel the buzz they got when just randomly announcing they'd do something about the account situation gave them way too much leeway to take their sweet sweet time to actually deliver. It's been like 6 months since the first mention.
And I returned mine after learning that all the press about it not requiring a Facebook account wasn't actually accurate until today. Kind of a coincidence that the price went up $100 right before this went through.
If you don't officially have a Facebook account, they'll link it to your shadow profile where they keep everything other people post about you.
This is everything to do with branding and NOTHING to do with privacy.