To be fair: You needed an Oculus account to use an Oculus, just like you need a Switch account or a Steam account. Hardware with a digital store requires an account.

A Facebook account is much more restrictive than say a Steam account. Facebook tries to get you to use your real name for example. Who in the world wants to use their real name playing a video game?

You actually don't need a Switch account. You can just play offline and buy physical games. I don't think updates need an account either

> To be fair: You needed an Oculus account to use an Oculus

From the mail we received: you can continue using your Oculus account until January 1, 2023. After this date a Meta account will be required to *continue* using your Meta VR devices.

It's weird to me that I need to create a new account to continue using my device.

That is a sign of a piece of hardware that you do not own.

> Hardware with a digital store requires an account.

Can't you play games without the store? Like streaming games from your PC or side loading games. You shouldn't need an account if you're not going to use the store.

Officially: no, you need an Oculus account to even get a Quest set up to do streaming, and you need to separately make your account a developer account to unlock sideloading.

I have a PlayStation, and play dozens of games, yet Sony doesn't know I exist.

Valve has done the right thing here and made it possible to use the Deck and Index without a Steam account. Granted, they haven't made it easy, but it is possible and they clearly haven't deliberately locked down their hardware.

You don't need a Steam account to use a SteamDeck, only to use the Steam store.

I thought you were kidding until I clicked through. How is this better in any way?

Any digital store or forum requires you to have an account. You are using an account right now to post on Hacker News. So obviously accounts can be less restrictive and have less tracking than a typical Facebook account.

The question is, will a Meta account be different than an FB account? I would argue it has to be because its essentially a game/ media device and they will destroy their market if they try to keep up a policy of not letting people create fake accounts. No one wants to play video games with their real name and address. There had been a problem of Quest 2s getting bricked because kids were using them on a "fake" account. They need kids.

> Any digital store or forum requires you to have an account.

The problem isn’t that one needs an account.

> The question is, will a Meta account be different than an FB account?

This is a marketing rebrand of Facebook accounts. In the short term, Meta will position it as a separate identity system. In the long term, each person will have one Meta account for all Meta services.

> No one wants to play video games with their real name and address.

Meta may allow this, but in every case Meta will know who’s behind each Meta identity.

>Any digital store or forum requires you to have an account

Maybe I'm not a master of the internet like yourself, but I'm able to use crazy technology like "oidc" and "delegation" to prevent the same entity who runs the carnival to also own my identity.

Plenty of forums don't require an account until you want to write a post, if all you wish to do is consume content you're free to read all you want.

Historically this was the default on the web, it's a relatively recent phenomenon for sites like instagram/fb to require login to even read anything.

YouTube manages to deliver plenty of entertainment value without a login to this day, until you try to look at "mature content".

It's not attached to their most toxic brand so more people will be willing to put up with it, instead of shunning their (excellent) devices due to the toxicity of the brand.

It won't convince everyone, but it will convince some.

A "Meta VR" could be created and used just for work stuff, connected to a work email address and disconnected from personal Facebook or Instagram accounts.

one advantage might be that getting kicked or banned from facebook won't brick your VR devices.

And vice versa: getting banned on the Oculus side won't kill your Facebook account