In a short press release today the California-based company Facebook Inc. announced that they have bought the BURP rendering platform including all assets for $21 billion. "Facebook Chairman and CEO, Mark Sugarbird" wrote: I'm excited to announce that we've agreed to acquire BURP, the leader in BOINC-based online rendering technology using Blender. Facebook's mission is to make the world more open and connected. This has mostly meant building mobile apps that help you share with the people you care about, but at this point we feel we're in a position where we can start focusing on what will come next to enable even more useful, entertaining and personal experiences. BURP's mission is to enable you to experience the impossible. Together the technologies open up the possibility of completely new kinds of experiences!
The buyout is just one in a series of large technology investments made recently, but the price tag completely dwarfs that of the Oculus Rift. As a consequence of this merger there is going to be some changes in the near future:
- All accounts will be merged with existing Facebook accounts and will be automatically converted to use your real name and personal picture (regardless of your security settings)
- We're adding support for playing mini-games while uploading sessions. You can add credit card information in the user account settings to make in-game purchases easier.
- Random delays of around 3-5 seconds will be added to the website from time to time for no apparent reason. If a session contains references to known living persons it will automatically post a link to their wall through WhatsApp with Instagrammed 3D previews from the rendered animation, easily browsable with any attached Oculus Rift.
The PR department has yet to come up with a good name for the new platform but has revealed that to honor the legacy of both parties it will be some combination of the words "face" and "burp".
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