Oculus / Aurich Lawson
The next generation of virtual reality headsets remains unclear, but the VR software’s ecosystem has just unleashed a surprising – and potentially unwelcome – requirement for a whole swath of users.
Beginning “this October,” everyone splintering in the Oculus VR ecosystem will be forced to sign in to devices with a Facebook account, instead of signing in and signing in to a separate Oculus-specific account. If you already have an Oculus account (which is free and does not require an Oculus-branded headset), you may continue to use these references for existing and new headsets until January 1, 2023, at which point all affiliated Oculus services ( and brand) -new headset) will not work without a Facebook account.
“Your use of VR and other Facebook products”
While Oculus’ official announcement begins with trumpeting how this change will improve the Oculus VR experience, it connects with the exact kind of information-sharing and tracker-heavy mute that many Facebook critics fear:
When you sign in to Oculus with your Facebook account, Facebook will use information related to your use of VR and other Facebook products to enhance and enhance your experience. This information is also used to view your personal content, including advertisements. For example, we can show you recommendations for Oculus events you may want, ads on Facebook apps and technologies, or developer ads for their VR apps.
Since its massive, Kickstarter-supported launch, Oculus has maintained its own sign-up system, allowing users to manage digital licenses, friend lists, and other VR-specific content. But Facebook, which acquired Oculus in 2014, eventually asked VR users to link their Facebook credentials to their accounts. Although that process has been routinely described as completely optional, Oculus began linking certain content – in particular “social” features like gameplay videos – to FB references.
The change in 2023 includes very little good news for anyone who does not maintain a Facebook account. At the moment, your Oculus-made headset will essentially become an offline device in terms of the Oculus Store, which is bad news for anyone who has purchased the headset and software licenses under the assumption that the devices will be Facebook-free for years can continue to come. In the good news, this move is unlikely to affect Oculus users investing in purchases made through storefronts such as SteamVR or Windows Mixed Reality, as these platforms are open to Oculus headsets (although the same cannot be said for non-Oculus headsets that have access to the Oculus Store, as these still require custom solutions such as Revive).
A link to dyn past
If you enjoyed the “Link” functionality of Oculus Quest, which connects this popular, portable headset to higher end PCs, this will also be affected by the Facebook requirement, as Oculus Link requires on ‘ the headset’s Internet-connected software suite.
Facebook emphasizes that this change is essential for “social features”, but the list does not seem to mention anything that would specifically benefit game development as well as usability. The announcement also makes it very clear that Facebook will access data based on your use of the device and bind this information specifically to your Facebook account, with zero indication that users can tell Facebook to stop tracking things like “your VR activity, such as what apps you use, “as” information about your activity on other Facebook products, such as pages you like and groups you participate in. “
Oculus may get this news ahead of important Facebook-related announcements for the Oculus hardware and software ecosystem, because rumors and device images point to a refresh of the popular Oculus Quest headset that comes sometime in September. We expect that Facebook’s experiments with VR social spaces will also receive an update, which we last saw in 2019 in the form of Facebook Horizon.
