It’s been a rough few months for Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey. Having suffered a backlash to the public outing of his support for Nimble America – an initiative that backed Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign by way of memes and similar internet-style advertising – and faced a court order for a considerable amount of finance owed to Zenimax Media, Luckey eventually left Oculus VR, the company he co-founded. However, after several months of silence, the keenly outspoken entrepreneur is back on social media.
Luckey took to both Twitter and Reddit earlier this week, beginning by tweeting about Sword Art Online and creating a Reddit post entitled ‘im back’. It started off innocently enough, but of course people soon started asking questions.
On the matter of Nimble America, Luckey stated: “Some people want founders to keep their politics private and away from their business, others think they should do everything out in the open in a vocal way. You can’t make everyone happy, and there are good arguments on both sides , but it is clear that people who happen to align with opinions held by the majority of the media come out ahead either way.
“When a transsexual teenager with bigoted helicopter parents makes anonymous posts on a local support forum, is it because he feels it is wrong? How about fans of Bernie Sanders in the deep south who want to support their candidate of choice without alienating customers and employees who support Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump? Whistleblowers in general? Those are not perfect comparisons, obviously, but it shows that there are plenty of reasons to do something anonymously in good faith. If you want to take issue with the actions themselves, fine, but trying to stay out of the political spotlight should not be condemned.”
At the time of publishing, Luckey is yet to comment on either the Zenimax Media lawsuit or his departure from Oculus VR. However, those less interested in political agendas and more concerned with the progression of virtual reality (VR) as a medium will be keen to hear that Luckey is still invested in the technology. When asked about the potential of bringing a role-playing game (RPG) to VR, Luckey stated: “Already on it, among other things.”
Whether or not this is Luckey directly involved in the development of a new videogame experience or simply funding a project is not currently known. Of course, VRFocus will keep you updated with any further developments on this potential VR RPG.