Facebook has announced discontinuity with Oculus Go, its most affordable virtual reality headset yet. A Facebook executive on Tuesday acknowledged that there is a "trust deficit" between advertisers who planned on boycotting the platform, and the social media company, CNN reported.
Just two years after its launch, Facebook is dropping this virtual reality headset. Its 2017 launch was a major development for CEO Mark Zuckerberg's team. It was offered at $199, with the Oculus Go being a replacement to the Samsung Gear VR that also went through the same fate.
This product was then meant to hook customers and introduce them to the concept of virtual reality, convincing them to upgrade. However, the opportunity was small to encourage developers who were more hooked and interested in platforms such as the Quest and Rift S.
Last year, Facebook unveiled the Oculus Quest at $399, and soon after, it was the product that fulfilled the ambitions of Oculus's consumers.
No longer in the market
This year, Oculus Go will be pulled out from the market, and there will be no more Go titles as of December 18, 2020. However, Oculus will keep driving bug fixes and security patches for the devices in 2022.
According to Tech Crunch, Facebook has had a difficult time resolving the issues on demand for its headsets with Rift S, Go, and Quest, since these products have been sold out many times in the past. Now that the social media company decides to drop Oculus Go, there are more changes lined up.
Oculus Quest
The Quest has been heavily curated when it comes to opening it up for apps, and developers are eager to discover new ideas.
Facebook has also announced that Oculus Quest will be able to load apps beyond the Oculus Store beginning in 2021. The Quest may be used to sideload these apps, but it seems that Facebook is trying out a better option.
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Here's the official statement from the company:
"In early 2021 we'll offer a new way to distribute your work in the Quest ecosystem, allowing you to share your apps to anyone with a Quest, without having to be accepted into the Oculus Store and without sideloading. While we expect many developers will want to share their apps as broadly as possible, we also see this new channel as a way to test early-stage applications and distribute to specific users. The Oculus Platform policies will apply to all apps we distribute, and developers will still need to meet the obligations of our Oculus Content Policy. However, apps distributed through this new channel won't be held to the same technical standards as official Oculus Store apps."
'Trust deficit'
Meanwhile, a Facebook executive admitted there are "trust deficits" now with the company since the advertisers who want to boycott the platform are increasing.
Neil Potts, the head of trust and safety, went on a call with about 200 advertisers on Tuesday, and said, "There is a trust deficit. You try to make a decision, and people disagree, and maybe that builds that deficit even deeper."