Oculus VR Executives Were "Surprised" by Reaction to Facebook Acquisition

"I don't think we expected it to be so negative."

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The Internet got very angry when reacting to the sale of Kickstarter darling, and great hope of PC gaming, Oculus VR to Facebook for a cool 2 billion clams. In an interview with Game Informer VP of product at Oculus VR Nate Mitchell expressed his surprise to the publication about the general negative reception it received, not only from fans but the public at large.

"We assumed that the reaction would be negative, especially from our core community," Mitchell said. "Beyond our core community, we expected it would be positive. I don't think we expected it to be so negative."

However Mitchell claims that the public displeasure over the sale seems to be shifting. "As people begin to digest it a bit and think about it, you can see that Twitter and Reddit is swinging back the opposite direction," says Mitchell. "The onus is on us to educate people, and we want to share everything we're doing."

Facebook announced its plans to purchase the virtual reality company that was partly founded with the help of Kickstarter and generally loved by the gaming media and public.

"If we can sell hardware at almost no cost, that allows you to pack more quality and components into it," Mitchell added. "The Oculus Rift just became the 'zero compromises' product. It's the best possible thing that can happen."

The best thing that could happen if you're not worried about Facebook ads, being pushed in-app purchases and the constant and relentless hounding by social media. What's your take? Did Oculus “sell out” to Facebook or make a smart move for the future of VR?

In related Oculus news, Mike Abrash has joined Oculus VR. Now most gamers might not know who this very important developer and technical writer is, but if you've enjoyed video games of 3D programming you own a big 'thank you' to this guy. As a coder of some of the earliest PC games he went on later to build the graphics infrastructure of Windows systems only to leave and help create Quake for id Software (along with John Carmack who is also at Oculus VR now). Gabe Newell, big boss at Valve, once famously said that about four times a year he tries to hire Abrash, but to no avail.

Like it or not, Oculus VR is lining up titans to build the future of virtual reality...with Facebook.

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[via Game Informer]

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