Oculus fans, supporters upset over Facebook acquisition

By Salvador Rodriguez

March 26, 2014 11 AM PT

Oculus may be happy about its $2-billion deal to be acquired by Facebook, but the virtual reality start-up’s supporters are definitely not.

The Irvine company gained a strong following in the worlds of tech and gaming after taking to Kickstarter in 2012 to raise money for the Rift, a head-mounted device that lets users play video games in virtual reality.

But when Oculus announced its agreement to be bought by Facebook in a blog post Tuesday, many of the company’s fans left comments voicing their concern and displeasure over the deal.

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“DO NOT WANT,” says the blog post’s top comment, which has received more than 600 “likes” from other users.

Another unhappy commenter wrote: “The community who have served Oculus so well, never mind provided all the initial cash to make everything happen have just been burnt,” he said.

The comments weren’t limited to Oculus’ blog post. Markus Persson, the creator of popular video game Minecraft, weighed in with a blog post on his website.

“I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook,” he said. “Their motives are too unclear and shifting, and they haven’t historically been a stable platform. There’s nothing about their history that makes me trust them, and that makes them seem creepy to me.”

Comments were also left on Oculus’ Kickstarter page by many users who pledged money to the startup in 2012.

“I supported this because it’s something that I’ve wanted to see become a reality since I read my first William Gibson novel. Now I find out that I might as well have handed my money right to Facebook and I feel a little sick,” Brodie Hannibal said. “Enjoy your payday I guess.”

“You selling out to Facebook is a disgrace. It damages not only your reputation, but the whole of crowdfunding,” another user said. “I cannot put into words how betrayed I feel by this.”

And the criticism continued on Twitter:

Any interest I had in Oculus just went out the window.— Dustin Hansen (@DustinHansen) March 26, 2014

Wow... goodbye @oculus I was really excited for this thing but now im just glad sony has an alternative, and i hate sony. Hate facebook more— terminalinsanity (@terminsane) March 26, 2014