In Wake of Palmer Luckey Report, Multiple Devs Drop Oculus Support

[Jtbrig7390]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/in-...GSS-05-10aaa0b

After news broke of Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey's anti-Clinton funding, game devs are dropping Oculus support.

Last night, a report surfaced that said Oculus founder Palmer Luckey funded a pro-Donald Trump political group that's behind "s**tposting" memes about Hillary Clinton. Now, a number of game developers have started to announce the dropping of Oculus support for their titles.

Fez developer Polytron announced on Twitter that its upcoming PlayStation VR title Superhypercube would not support Oculus.

"In a political climate as fragile and horrifying as this one, we cannot tacitly endorse these actions by supporting Luckey or his platform," Polytron said in a statement. "In light of this, we will not be pursuing Oculus support for our upcoming VR release, Superhypercube."

Scruta Games also tweeted that it's "cancelling Oculus support for" its games (Computer Janitor VR) until Luckey steps down from Oculus. Meanwhile, Tomorrow Today Labs said that its upcoming title NewtonVR would "not be supporting the Oculus Touch" while Luckey is employed by the VR company.

"Palmer Luckey's behavior is unacceptable," Tomorrow Today Labds told GameSpot. "This is the opposite of promoting inclusion in our industry, and the absolute worst way to lead by example. Oculus SDK support for NewtonVR has been shelved, and any VR tools or games we release in the future will not support Oculus products as long as Palmer Luckey is employed at Facebook/Oculus."

Some developers are taking a different approach. A $1000 donation has been made by E McNeil, the developer of the Oculus-exclusive Darknet. McNeil told GameSpot that he's "had a great experience working with Oculus over the years (including working a lot of good people there)."

"I don't think I'm going to boycott the company based on the politics of its founder," he said. "Instead, I gave $1000 to Hillary's campaign in response to the news."

Logan Olson, the creator of Vive-exclusive SoundStage, is another developer throwing support behind Clinton. He's donating all the profits from his game in the next 24 hours to her campaign.

On the other hand, some developers don't feel the same way. Co-founder of Carbon Games, James Green, told tech outlet Motherboard that he doesn't agree with the aforementioned developers, saying the "backlash is nonsense."

"I absolutely support him doing whatever he wants politically if it's legal," he continued. "To take any other position is against American values."

When reached for comment, Job Simulator developer Owlchemy Labs directed us to the following tweet.

We've conacted other VR game developers, including Northway Games (Fantastic Contraption), and will update this article as we hear back from them.

This comes as Oculus is gearing up to release its Touch hand controllers, which are expected to launch by the end of the year. We've reached out to Oculus for comment on the situation and will report back as we receive more information.

[UPDATE] We have added a statement from Tomorrow Today Labs to the above article.

With this and the whole court case going on due to stolen tech, I feel its safe to say RIP Oculus Rift

Really feel sorry for those who bought one.

[lockblock]

If only this also meant the death of facebook.

[bloodrunner]

If only this also meant the death of facebook.

Amen, Brother! Amen! That said tho, I can possibly see using religion over business to choose a partner/platform to develop for, but POLITICS????? That is shooting yourself in the foot to kill ants. What is the world coming to?

[Deleted]

A few indie devs no one gives a shit about drop support and that's the end of Oculus?

I think we're all stupider for reading something that absurd.

[Deleted]

'Computer Janitor VR'

This alone sounds and looks like a title, that would have been a quantum leap for electronic entertainment. Will life go on without it?