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Minecraft Creator Halts Plans For Oculus Version Following Facebook Acquisition

Posted by Unknown on from the rash-decisions dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Not one hour after the announcement of the the acquisition of Oculus Rift by Facebook yesterday, Markus 'Notch' Persson has announced that he has ceased all discussions about bringing it to Oculus Rift. 'I don't want to work with social, I want to work with games. ... Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts. Facebook is not a game tech company. Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers, and nothing but building user numbers. People have made games for Facebook platforms before, and while it worked great for a while, they were stuck in a very unfortunate position when Facebook eventually changed the platform to better fit the social experience they were trying to build.' Persson has stated that he made this decision despite initially investing $10,000 in Oculus' Kickstarter."

12 of 300 comments (clear)

  1. "What?" yelled Occulus founders by NotDrWho · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We can't hear you through all of the cash."

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re:"What?" yelled Occulus founders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Obligatory Penny Arcade: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/10/23/

      "Would you like to stay for dinner? I think we're having MONEY!"

  2. Unsurprising ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The ownership by Facebook of any technology immediately puts the taint of a rich douchebag who wants to monetize everything, invade your privacy, and sell your information.

    Fuck the Zuck.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Unsurprising ... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm starting to wonder if he's just buying shit so no-one else can have it.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    2. Re:Unsurprising ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is why we can't have nice things.

      My immediate reaction to seeing Facebook was buying it was "well, there goes some promising technology". Instead, it will be used to check in with your friends on Facebook and to ensure they're monetizing everything you can do with it.

      To hell with that. I strongly suspect that's what's at play here.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    3. Re:Unsurprising ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      John Carmack has being know to be someone uncompromising when it comes to tech.

      That, he may well be.

      But depending on just how many zeroes are at the end of anything he'd get ... he may well have just said "oh, fuck it, for that much money I'm in".

      And, as has already been pointed out, if it's the difference between making a huge stack and living with the 'golden handcuffs', or getting nothing ... a lot of people might do the exact same thing.

      Start getting into 8 figures, and I might blow Ballmer in the MS boardroom. Make it 9 figures, and we can bloody well livestream it and I'll throw in Gates. ;-)

      You can buy back a lot of self respect (and mouthwash) for that kinda money.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  3. Thank you, Notch. by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This was a wise move, and really the only way forward. Oculus now comes with the most obvious trojan in history.

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
  4. Re:Outrageous. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Zuck. You have billions for promises, that is fine. But Notch got a product I enjoy and never haunt me across the internet for likes. Therefore his opinion carry weight not yours.

  5. From the Oculus VR Forums on Markus by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the Oculus VR Forums (which you should really read some of to get a better balanced view of how the actual developers feel).

    spire8989 writes:

    "Hi, I'm a developer and am very happy with this news. Also, Markus is a pretty well-known hipster, this is very expected from him. For someone who seems so anti-Facebook he should really stop having an active Facebook account that he constantly updates though. If you actually read this article you'll see where he says that this will have a positive impact on social VR experiences, but he doesn't want to work with them "because he doesn't know their intentions".

    I guess you get to be picky and complain when you have an extremely popular game."

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  6. Re:Outrageous. by phrostie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Notch sells a product.

    Facebook sells you.

  7. What Carmack does next will be very telling by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Carmack works on what he finds interesting. Right now VR is something that he is really passionate about. This deal almost gives him infinite resources to do that work. He doesn't need the money or the job and he will stay exactly as long as he is interested in the tech. I think he cares little how the tech is used just as long as he in on the cutting edge of developing it.

  8. Re:Kickstarter skeptics eat your heart out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You seem to be operating under the assumption facebook will continue to develop the oculus rift as intended and is not buying it simply to obtain some piece of IP they want to bastardize and use in some way to monetize its existing user base further.

    I strongly suspect the only oculus rift gaming devices to ever see market, are the ones that are already in the hands of developers and kickstarter backers we should expect this to more likely appear in some other form of social tool that in no way appeals to the original audience of oculus