CCP to stick with Oculus Rift for Eve: Valkyrie
Oculus creator, John Carmack respond to concern over Facebook deal.
Notch might not be happy with Facebook's purchase of Oculus - but that doesn't mean all developers are.
CCP told Eurogamer it still plans to launch space combat game Eve: Valkyrie for the consumer version of Oculus Rift, whenever that comes out.
"We're very excited for our friends and colleagues at Oculus," CCP said.
"We share their vision about the future of VR and gaming and are looking forward to participating in the consumer launch of the Oculus Rift with Eve: Valkyrie."
Last night, after Facebook announced they had bought Oculus for $2bn, Markus "Notch" Persson canned plans to release a virtual reality-enabled version of Minecraft for the Rift.
"I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook," the mega-rich Minecraft creator said. "Their 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, and that makes them seem creepy to me."
CCP had announced Eve: Valkyrie as an Oculus Rift launch title to be co-published by Oculus. It's also due out on Sony's rival VR headset Project Morpheus. Eve: Valkyrie is, as the name suggests, a spin-off from spaceship MMO Eve Online, which also spawned console shooter Dust 514 last year for PlayStation 3.
Last night's news sparked much debate, and Oculus inventor Palmer Luckey spent a great deal of time answering questions from concerned users on r/oculus.
In a series of posts Luckey moved to reassure those worried about Facebook's impact on the exciting new technology. "You will not need a Facebook account to use or develop for the Rift," he said.
Then, in response to the question: "If I ever see Facebook branding on anything that's not optional, I'm done," he replied: "Not really reasonable in a literal sense, but I get your drift."
And, in response to the question: "If I ever see ads on anything that I've already paid for, I'm done," Luckey responded: "That is a developer decision, not our decision. If someone wants to sell a game with built-in ads, they will have to deal with the natural consequences."
Elsewhere, Luckey said the Facebook deal meant the price of the Rift will be cheaper than it would have been otherwise. "We promise we won't change," he said. "If anything, our hardware and software will get even more open, and Facebook is onboard with that."
There's also word that Oculus will make "huge investments in content". "More news soon," Luckey said. Perhaps this means we'll soon hear about exclusive Oculus Rift games - or experiences.
"I won't change, and any change at Oculus will be for the better. We have even more freedom than we had under our investment partners because Facebook is making a long term play on the success of VR, not short-term returns.
"A lot of people are upset, and I get that. If you feel the same way a year from now, I would be very surprised."
But what of programming legend John Carmack? On Twitter last night the former id Software executive Tweeted in response to the news, saying the Facebook deal would "avoid several embarrassing scaling crisis for VR".