The Facebook purchase of Oculus Rift is a reality, but still remains a hot button issue with gamers and developers both divided on the matter. For example, Minecraft's Markus "Notch" Persson came down against the deal, citing it as a specific reason for canceling plans to bring the game to the Rift, writing that the social network's 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."
Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey responded to Notch's comments, over Facebook ironically enough, commenting that Notch "had the Rift for a year and had not even tried the Minecraft mod (which is really good), much less done any exploration work. I think Notch is a super cool guy, but it is really easy to 'cancel' a project that was never started as an out."
Similarly, former Epic Games Director and Gears of War developer Cliff Bleszinski recently had his own time in the spotlight to tell gamers that Facebook's deep pockets would help the Rift more than anything, and also address Notch specifically:
"Notch, your cancelling Minecraft makes you look like a pouty kid who is taking his ball and going home. It’s a bratty and petty move and it saddens me greatly."
Notch responded with "Damn straight I am," revealing that the ball in question was "a potential free version of Minecraft designed to promote VR." In the end though, all was well between the two with talk of car crushing dongs and friending wives. Three cheers for Twitter context!
So no Minecraft for Rift, but the game is "very close" to a release on the Xbox One, revealed Microsoft's Phil Spencer to IGN.
"They [4J Studios] feel really good about the progress that they're making," said Spencer. "It's their game, and it'd be Mojang's game. We graciously host it on our platform...They're a full-fledged developer in every sense. They control the release date of that, but I'll tell people that we're getting really close. I talked with Notch last night, and they're really excited about the quality.
