Facebook is testing ads inside of Oculus VR headsets proving everything is truly terrible

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For all of its nostalgia-powered kitsch, Ready Player One was surprisingly prescient. No longer content to just take your data by making you sign in with a Facebook account, Facebook is going to be injecting advertising into some VR titles on its Oculus Virtual Reality platform.

Can we just let out a collective “Ewwww” for this move? Thanks, that was appreciated. It’s bad enough that the Oculus mobile app had advertising added back in May. Now, you can’t even escape into a virtual world without real-life advertising following you like a lost puppy – if that puppy was trying to sell you hair growth products or ecommerce classes.

Okay, sure Facebook isn’t going to be injecting those kinds of ads at first. The adverts are going to be more like in-game billboards that you can click on to watch mini-video clips or save website links for later use.

You know the spam adverts are coming though, as every other corner of anything connected to the internet already is infested by off-brand Viagra or shady get-rich-quick schemes.

Sure, Facebook says Oculus ads will follow its advertising principles, which supposedly means “build for people first.” We didn’t see much evidence of that during any of the recent elections though, so we’re reserving judgment on the new Oculus in-content advertising until we see how it works after a few months.

Facebook does say that in-game advertising could be another revenue stream for developers, but let’s get real – with 97% of Facebook’s income coming from advertising, it’s really to pad its own bank account.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.