"Minecraft" for Oculus Rift Scrapped After Facebook Acquisition

Markus 'Notch' Persson has cancelled plans to bring the world building game to the VR headset.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Minecraft  creator Markus 'Notch' Persson has scrapped a potential deal that would have seen his massively popular world-building game head to the Oculus Rift.

After Facebook's $2 billion acquisition of the Oculus Rift, Notch took to Twitter to sound off on the end of the project.

We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus. I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out.

The Minecraft creator then took to his personal blog to clarify his decision.

"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."

"Don’t get me wrong, VR is not bad for social. In fact, I think social could become one of the biggest applications of VR. Being able to sit in a virtual living room and see your friend’s avatar? Business meetings? Virtual cinemas where you feel like you’re actually watching the movie with your friend who is seven time zones away? But I don’t want to work with social, I want to work with games."

Notch was one of the earliest, and most vocal, supporters of the Oculus; donating serious money to the nascent Kickstarter project. Notch was none too pleased when he discovered how that seed money was being used,

"And I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition."

Notch's sentiments seem to fall in line with many other game developers who view the Facebook get as marginalizing the spirit of the VR project.

A Minecraft in virtual reality is still a possibility, it just won't be virtual reality on the Oculus.

RELATED: The Internet Reacts to Facebook's $2 Billion Oculus Rift Acquisition

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