Perhaps this shouldn't surprise us, but it is disappointing. Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Luckey has revealed that their employees and their families received harrassment, even death threats, in the fallout of the Facebook deal.
Luckey explained that they knew coming into the deal that they would be receiving a lot of criticism for it, considering Facebook has acquired a poor reputation for itself, they did not anticipate fans, and perhaps some of their backers, crossing the line. He ends by saying that they intend to prove themselves with their actions, but here and now, this sort of reaction was unwarranted.
While a lot of people have legitimate grievances with the deal, including Notch, one of the project's biggest backers and a developer in his own right, there should be no question that harrassment, on any level, is not the appropriate reaction.
Recently, Adam Orth, famous for the Xbox One always online controversy, chimed in on being exposed to this kind of abuse. As he put it in a GDC talk, "Most developers don't even raise an eyebrow at this because this is the new normal."
You can read Luckey's full statement below.
We expected a negative reaction from people in the short term, we did not expect to be getting so many death threats and harassing phone calls that extended to our families.We know we will prove ourselves with actions and not words, but that kind of shit is unwarranted, especially since it is impacting people who have nothing to do with Oculus.
