Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus VR, and subsequently the Oculus Rift device, has no doubt left a lot of players, as well as the device’s initial Kickstarter backers, more than a little perturbed. Even Markus “Notch” Persson cancelled a deal with Oculus VR to develop Minecraft for the virtual reality device, expressing that Facebook creeps him out–because he doesn’t entirely trust the company with the Oculus Rift, but he does give the Oculus Rift credit for what it could bring to social platforms.
In response to a claim given from the New York Times about the company planning to eventually rebrand the Oculus Rift with its own interface and logo, a Facebook representative has proclaimed that such a thing won’t be happening. In a statement given to TechCrunch , Facebook refutes that what the New York Times said was “not true and not in the spirit of our relationship [with Oculus VR].”
Oculus VR founder Palmer Lucky has emphasized to The Verge that the company will remain independent despite Facebook’s acquisition, saying, “[Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg] does believe in our vision of virtual reality, and we’re going to continue operating independently, delivering what we’ve always wanted to deliver.”
Unlike Notch’s discontent regarding Oculus VR’s acquisition, CCP Games is excited for its colleagues at the company, and the developer still plans on releasing EVE: Valkyrie , CCP Games’ virtual reality dogfighting game set within the EVE Online universe, for the Oculus Rift once a commercial model is released.
“We’re very excited for our friends and colleagues at Oculus,” CCP told Eurogamer following Oculus’ acquisition. “We share their vision about the future of VR and gaming and are looking forward to participating in the consumer launch of the Oculus Rift with EVE: Valkyrie .”
EVE: Valkyrie is also being developed for Sony’s Project Morpheus, the company’s own virtual reality headset.