There are a number of reasons to love Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook, for instance, allows us to connect with our loved-ones and meet our long-lost friends. We even use the social networking site to send messages and call people for free. Zuckerberg, on the other hand, was named the top philanthropist in the U.S. in 2013 after he and his wife Priscilla Chan donated over $970 million worth of Facebook stocks to charity.
What's not to love about the social media giant and its CEO then? For backers and fans of the Oculus VR, a technology company that created the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset primarily developed for gaming, it's the fact that Facebook has just bought Oculus VR.
Much of Oculus' success is attributed to a 2012 Kickstarter campaign that raised the company $2,437,429 out of its $250,000 goal. On March, 25, the company was acquired by Facebook for approximately $2 billion in cash and Facebook shares.
Early backers are particularly against the acquisition saying that Facebook will likely destroy Oculus's vision to its cutting-edge product. Some are also concerned about privacy issues as Facebook may collect their data and bombard them with advertisements.
Gaming & social media culture journalist Leigh Alexander enumerated reasons why Facebook could have a negative effect on Oculus Rift. "Facebook is distraction-ware, and Oculus Rift is definitely not distraction-ware; it requires the application of a device to your face, and it's arresting, and it's immersive," Alexander said. "Facebook promised that it was going to be a viable platform for game developers before, and there's a lot of reasons why that hasn't gone so well, or why that fad was particularly short-lived."
Concerns of backers and fans of Oculus Rift are pretty much summed up by Minecraft creator Markus Persson in his blog where he wrote that he will no longer push through with an Oculus Rift version of his game.
"Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts. Facebook is not a game tech company," Persson wrote. "I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook. 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."
