Oculus Rift CEO Brendan Iribe didn't except the negative backlash from their Kickstarter backers or potential business partners when Facebook announced their $2 billion deal.
In an interview with Game Informer, Iribe explained why Oculus decided to partner with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg, which he described as "happened over night." For Oculus, the Facebook deal meant more spending money and less time having to raise the funds they needed to make their Oculus Rift virtual reality headset ready for store shelves.
"[Zuckerburg and I] put our heads together and it made too much sense," Iribe told Game Informer. "If you actually understand [Facebook's] vision of letting us be who we're going to be, just like they wanted to let Instagram be who they are. They want to set a precedent of leaving companies alone, but integrating and being able to allow that company to leverage the momentum and strength and size of Facebook."
Though the company was expecting some negativity around the Facebook deal, Oculus Vice President of Product Nate Mitchell couldn't believe how much backlash they received.
"We assumed that the reaction would be negative, especially from our core community," Mitchell told Game Informer. "Beyond our core community, we expected it would be positive. I don't think we expected it to be so negative. As people begin to digest it a bit and think about it, you can see that Twitter and Reddit is swinging back the opposite direction. The onus is on us to educate people, and we want to share everything we're doing."
Iribe explained the company wants to take the next step and make their Oculus VR customizable to make for a more optimized gaming experience. Oculus' deal with Facebook allows the company to expand.
"What if we can take that technology a step further and make custom versions that was specifically designed for VR and make the very best experience?" he explained to Game Informer. "Let's call those companies up and get them to make those custom parts."
