Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson has shed additional light on why Minecraft will no longer be developed for the Oculus Rift, following Facebook’s acquisition of developer Oculus VR earlier today.
Following the announcement, Notch tweeted that plans for a Minecraft version of Oculus had been cancelled as a result of the deal.
Writing on notch.net, the developer states, “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.”
He maintains that while virtual reality can be a suitable platform for social media, he “[does not] want to work with social,” nor with Facebook, stating that “their motives are too unclear and shifting”.
Notch himself contributed $10,000 to the Oculus Rift kickstarter project in 2012, an investment he says he did not make “to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition.”
For more on the impact of Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus VR, check out GameSpot’s feature.
A version of Minecraft for the Oculus Rift is still available on the Oculus website, renamed “Minecrift.”
Zorine Te is an associate editor at GameSpot, and you can follow her on Twitter @ztharli |
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