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Facebook and virtual reality
臉譜網與虛擬現實
A game of goggles
一場頭戴式3D眼鏡的賭博
The social network makes another expensive bet on the future
社交網絡又向未來押了一筆高昂賭注
AT SXSW, a techie festival that took place inTexasearlier this month, some lucky attenders were able briefly to immerse themselves in HBO's fantasy television series, “Game of Thrones”.
在本月初，影視音樂互動大會上，一個技術展在德克薩斯州拉開帷幕，一些幸運的參加者能短暫的將自己沉浸在HBO的奇幻電視劇《權利的游戲》中。
By donning virtual-reality goggles made by Oculus VR, people could see how the world looked from the top of the 700-foot-tall Wall that protects the Seven Kingdoms from enemies that lurk beyond.
戴上由Oculus VR公司制造的虛擬現實眼鏡，人們可以看見從700英尺高的城墻頂端俯瞰的世界，而這城墻保衛著七大王國免受潛伏在城墻外敵人的侵擾。
The digital rendition was so lifelike that gazing down from the Wall gave some folk vertigo.
其細節重現栩栩如生以至于從城墻上俯瞰時會使人眩暈。
Such a compelling experience explains why Oculus Rift, the company's virtual-reality headset, has captivated keen gamers.
如此令人信服的體驗解釋了該公司的虛擬現實耳機Oculus Rift俘獲了狂熱游戲迷的原因。
It has also caught the attention of Facebook, which announced on March 25th that it had bought Oculus VR for around 2 billion.
這也引起了Facebook公司的注意，在3月25日，其宣布已用約20億美元收購了Oculus VR公司。
This deal, which comprises 400m in cash and the rest in Facebook stock, comes not long after the social network's purchase of WhatsApp, a messaging app, for 19 billion.
這筆交易包括4億美元的現金交易，其余部分以Facebook公司股票交易。且這就發生在Facebook公司以190億美元收購信息傳送應用程序WhatsApp的不久之后。
WhatsApp at least has more than 450m users.
WhatsApp應用程序至少有超過4.5億用戶。
Oculus VR, a startup that is less than two years old, has so far only sold its headsets to game developers.
Oculus VR這一新創辦不超過兩年的公司，目前只向游戲開發者賣出了它的虛擬現實耳機。
So why is Facebook paying so much for it?
那么為什么Facebook公司為購買它付出了這么多？
And why is it betting on a much-hyped technology that has so far failed to live up to its promise?
且這一大量炒作的技術，迄今仍未兌現其承諾，Facebook公司為什么在這一技術上押注？
Part of the answer is that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's boss, and his colleagues think advances in areas such as graphics processing power and thin, high-resolution screens mean that virtual-reality headsets are at last ready for mass consumption.
部分原因是Facebook公司的老板Mark Zuckerberg以及他的同僚們認為，例如圖形處理能力，薄而分辨率高的顯示器等領域的發展進步，意味著虛擬現實耳機終于為大眾消費做好了準備。
David Ebersman, the firm's finance chief, reckons the potential to mint money in gaming alone justifies Oculus's price tag.
公司的首席財務官David Ebersman認為Oculus僅在游戲上賺錢的潛力就證明它的價簽是合理的。
Other firms spy the same opportunity.
其它公司偵尋著同樣的機會。
Sony recently unveiled a prototype virtual-reality headset for its PlayStation 4 game console and Microsoft is rumoured to be developing one for its Xbox console.
索尼公司最近公布了一款為其PlayStation 4游戲平臺打造的虛擬現實耳機的原型機，且有傳言稱微軟正為其Xbox游戲平臺研發一款虛擬現實耳機。
But some gaming veterans reckon the headsets will appeal only to hard-core gamers.
但是一些游戲老手認為這種耳機將只會吸引狂熱的游戲玩家。
And Facebook's purchase of Oculus has infuriated some of those.
且Facebook公司收購Oculus公司這一舉動已經將他們中的一些人激怒。
After the deal was announced, Markus Persson, a prominent game developer, tweeted that he had just cancelled a plan to bring a game to Oculus.
在交易宣布后，一個著名的游戲開發商Markus Persson就在推特上說他剛剛取消了一個想交由Oculus公司研發游戲的計劃。
“Facebook creeps me out,” he added.
“Facebook公司嚇到我了，”他補充道。
That is unlikely to bother the social network, whose decision to buy Oculus was also motivated by a broader strategic concern.
那不太可能擾亂Facebook社交網絡公司，其收購Oculus公司的決策也是出于一個更加廣泛的戰略要求。
Facebook grew up in an era dominated by personal computers.
Facebook公司是在個人電腦主宰的時代發展起來的。
It failed miserably to spot that computing was shifting fast to new mobile “platforms” such as smartphones.
可悲的是它過去沒能發現電腦正迅速向智能手機等移動平臺轉移。
It has since raced to catch up in the world of apps and is now keen not to miss the next generation of big platforms.
此后它迅速去追趕全世界應用程序的發展，而現在不希望錯過下一代的大平臺。
Mr Zuckerberg thinks virtual reality could be one of these and foresees people putting on Oculus's goggles in their homes to, say, attend virtual classes or see their doctors.
Zuckerberg先生認為虛擬現實可能是這些平臺的其中之一。他說他預見人們戴上Oculus公司的虛擬現實眼鏡在家里參加虛擬課程或看醫生。
But experiments in marrying entertainment with headgear, like 3D televisions that require viewers to wear special glasses, have been disappointing.
但就像觀看3D電視需要佩戴特殊眼鏡一樣，將娛樂設備設計成頭戴式的效果一直不盡如人意。
“Two billion dollars seems like a significant amount of money to pay for something that has yet to emerge,” says Brian Wieser of Pivotal, a research firm.
研發公司Pivotal的Brian Wieser說：“對于一些尚未實現的東西來說，20億美元似乎是一筆大投資。”
True, but unlike Google, which spends lots of money on futuristic projects in its secretive “Google X” lab, Facebook is willing to let startups try riskier stuff, and then pay princely sums to acquire them.
確實如此，谷歌公司在神秘的“Google X”實驗室進行的未來項目中投入大量資金，然而與谷歌公司不同，Facebook公司寧愿讓新創業的公司試驗風險較高的事物，然后支付天價收購它們。
Other firms have also been buying talent and technology: according to Thomson Reuters, an information provider, the Oculus purchase took the total spent on technology M&A worldwide since the start of 2014 to 65.2 billion—the highest amount for the equivalent period since 2000.
其他公司也正在購買人才和技術，據信息提供者Thomson Reuters透露，自2014年初以來，Oculus公司在世界范圍內的技術并購中，總共花費了625億美元，這是自2000年以來同期最高值。
The Oculus deal also represents a twist in the tech industry's very own Game of Thrones, an epic of incessant plotting and warfare.
科技行業自身的權力游戲是一篇永不停歇的陰謀和戰爭的史詩，在這場游戲中，Oculus公司的交易也代表著一個轉變。
Google wants its Glass smart specs to be a new mass-computing platform and this week said Luxottica, a seller of high-end eyewear, would help it make them look nicer.
谷歌公司希望其智能眼鏡設備能夠成為新一代的集群計算平臺，與此同時，一家高端眼鏡設備銷售商Luxottica也表示將全力幫助該產品優化外觀。
Google's vision of the future involves complementing the real world seen through its specs with a visual feed from its search engine and other services.
谷歌眼鏡可以通過其搜索引擎和其他服務實現信息視覺化展示，谷歌公司對未來的愿景包含透過谷歌眼鏡實現對真實世界的補充。
Facebook's is of people immersed in lifelike digital worlds.
而Facebook公司的愿景是人們可以沉浸在逼真的數字世界。
Their rivalry should be a real spectacle.
他們的競爭應該是場真正的奇觀。
