Shaking up the gaming headlines today, Facebook has announced that they will purchase Oculus VR, Inc. for an equivalent of 2 billion dollars in cash and stocks. For many gamers the idea of virtual reality has the potential to play games in a whole new way. After Sony’s recent announcement of Project Morpheus at this year’s GDC, the notion of virtual reality seems even more likely to sweep up gamers with a full headset in the next year or so.

Prior to today’s announcement, a VR headset (either Oculus or Morpheus) seemed like a passing fancy that would be cool to have, but not something I would ever see myself rushing out to purchase. However, now that Facebook has stepped in and basically put their money where VR evangelist’s mouths have been, I’m much more likely to believe the hype.

I’m no fan of Facebook, but their purchasing run of third party apps in the last year or so has been smart. Buying Instagram has provided a deep well of stability for the photo sharing app. The ability to tie chat across multiple platforms with WhatsApp beats having to recode their entire infrastructure in order to compete with a product already widely in use. So how does Oculus fit into the grand scheme of Facebook purchases?

Besides the inevitable VR Farmville nonsense, the purchase legitimizes what most would likely consider too geeky to be mainstream. While I spend very little time on Facebook I do enjoy combing through friends’ photos. The PS3 has a pretty cool photo app that even pulls friends’ photos and displays them in a way that beats clicking through on a desktop browser. Imagine being able to interact with photos from friends, and then meet up in a full VR session topping even what Facetime offers. Photos and Facetime are one thing, but the power behind Facebook’s money has the potential to bring gaming to an even wider audience base.

To me this is where things getting really interesting. Sony clearly has a solid product still early in development (when compared to the Rift). By introducing a legitimate mainstream name to Oculus Rift, Sony will need to dig deep to bring Morpheus out of R&D and into the market as close to a similar launch as whenever the Rift is released publicly. While Sony has the wherewithal to provide a seamless consumer level gaming VR system tied to the PS4, Oculus and Facebook have a slight advantage of being able to blanket their offering to anyone and everyone with a PC, laptop or tablet.

Hopefully VR isn’t just a fad like 3D ended up being. If it does, then we will end up with two or three years of companies having a pissing contest over which headset is better instead of devoting money into developing better games. In the grand scheme of things, competition is good and having a much bigger bankroll behind Oculus should spur Sony into getting their gear tweaked and ready to market as quickly as possible.

Are you looking forward to the next advance in interactive entertainment? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.

In anticipation of the company’s upcoming spring game lineup of Gods Eater Burst for PSP, Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury for Xbox Live Arcade, Dream Trigger 3D for Nintendo 3DS and Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon for PS3 and Xbox 360, D3Publisher is hosting the ‘Sweepstakes 4 Gamers’ Facebook promotion to give away a host of sweet prizes provided by Dolby, GameFly, PDP, Logitech, and NOX Audio.

Between now and July 22nd, United States residents can enter the sweepstakes simply by “Liking” any of the four Facebook pages for the aforementioned titles and filling out the provided entry form. Only one entry is needed, but by “Liking” each of the Facebook product pages you can increase your chances with four total submissions. These are the Facebook game page links:

www.facebook.com/GodEaterBurst
www.facebook.com/BangaiO
www.facebook.com/DreamTrigger
www.facebook.com/EarthDefenseForce

Waiting at the end of the sweepstakes is a random drawing with 13 total prize packages up for grabs, including an ultimate grand prize consisting of nearly a thousand dollars worth of tech and gaming goodies (pictured above). Those prize packages include the following:

Grand Prize (1): (1) Onkyo HT-S5300 home theater system featuring Dolby Digital 7.1 surround sound, (1) Logitech Squeezebox Radio, (1) NOX Specialist Bundle, (1) 1-month subscription to GameFly, and (2) Xbox 360 PDP Controllers. (approximate retail value $950)

First Prize (1): (1) 12-month subscription to GameFly, (1) NOX Specialist Bundle, and (2) Xbox 360 PDP Controllers. (approximate retail value $350)

Second Prize (1): (1) Logitech Squeezebox Radio, (1) NOX Specialist Bundle and (2) Xbox 360 PDP Controllers. (approximate retail value $340)

Third Prizes (2): (1) 1-month subscription to GameFly, (1) NOX Specialist Bundle, and (1) PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system PDP Controller. (approximate retail value $140)

Fourth Prizes (3): (1) 1-month subscription to GameFly, (1) pair of NOX Scout Earbuds, and (1) PS3 PDP Controller. (approximate retail value $120)

Fifth Prizes (2): (1) pair of NOX Scout Earbuds. (approximate retail value $80)

Sixth Prize (1): (1) PS3 PDP Controller. (approximate retail value $25)

Seventh Prizes (2): (1) 1-month subscription to GameFly. (approximate retail value $16)

Remember Friday when I told you I had some embargoed Final Fantasy XIII info to pass along on Sunday? Well, it’s Sunday and here I am!

It isn’t much, but Square Enix has announced the launch of its official Final Fantasy XIII Twitter feed and Facebook page. So between now and March 9, 2010 these are the sites you’ll want to follow to keep up on all the latest Final Fantasy XIII news:

Final Fantasy XIII official site: http://finalfantasyxiii.com
Final Fantasy XIII Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FinalFantasyXIII
Final Fantasy XIII Twitter: http://twitter.com/OfficialFFXIII

But wait, there’s more!

…and by more I mean 13 gorgeous new screenshots!