It’s not any different from how other companies operate.
What you need to know
- When deactivating or deleting a Facebook account, users are warned that their purchased Oculus content is also affected.
- Since users have to log into an Oculus device with a Facebook account, purchased apps and games would also be inaccessible.
- Other companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have the same policies for deleted accounts.
Beginning October 1, 2020, Facebook required all new Oculus users and all Oculus Quest 2 users to log in with a Facebook account before using their Oculus headset. Existing Oculus users are able to merge their Oculus account with their Facebook account, thus bringing all existing purchases over to their Facebook around. As a result, deactivating or deleting a Facebook account with Oculus purchases makes it impossible to access those purchases. This appears to be a similar result as having your Facebook account banned.
Twitter was all atwitter today when folks realized that, indeed deactivating their Facebook account would cause players to lose access to their content. A significant number of folks tweeting about the situation were incensed or otherwise affronted by the idea that deleting a person’s Facebook account could result in losing access to content. It seems, from the wording, that deactivating your account just makes your content inaccessible until it is active again.
On the other hand, deleting your linked Facebook account makes it impossible to get a refund for purchased items, and also deletes any store credit you might have had. It’s not clear at this time whether or not it’s possible to recover access or transfer purchases. We reached out to Facebook and here’s what a Facebook spokesperson had to say:
If a user with a merged Facebook and Oculus account decides to delete their Facebook account, they also delete their Oculus content. This is similar to how deleting an Oculus account previously worked. The Facebook deletion process explicitly calls this out to make sure the person is aware before they delete their Facebook account.
In the event that someone accidentally deletes their account or changes their mind, they can cancel the account deletion if it’s been less than 30 days — this would also allow them to restore their Oculus content. To cancel an account deletion, simply log into your Facebook account within 30 days and click “Cancel Deletion.”
Facebook Spokesperson
So, while deletion is a permanent thing, users have 30 days to reverse the process. In addition to this, Facebook says that it’s working on multi-user logins for the Quest family. That’s fantastic news for anyone who might share their Oculus Quest with other folks, either in their homes or otherwise.
It’s not currently possible to transfer or share Oculus purchases to another Facebook account, but as indicated in our Help Center FAQ, we’re working on multi-user login and will share more details on this later.
Facebook Spokesperson
Looking around at the rest of the gaming industry, however, reveals that this is a common practice. But it’s not just the gaming industry that follows this logic though — it’s any company that generally deals in digital purchases handled through a digital account. See, your digital account is your digital identity. Without an identity to verify your, well, identity, it’s impossible for a company to grant you access to a purchased digital library. Reading the terms of service on Xbox accounts from Microsoft, PlayStation accounts from Sony, or Nintendo accounts will also yield similar language to what Facebook uses on the deactivation page.
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