Palmer Luckey apologises for Nimble America fallout

Oculus founder responds to criticism from developers.

[zeal0us]

This whole brouhaha needs to be put to rest.

[BrianOBlivion]

Luckey is free to do whatever he wants. I am glad for it. I am also glad to be one step closer to deciding which VR system I'll be opting for.

[PsylentKiller]

Let me help you decide on which VR to get. Get the one that minimizes the risk of putting a hole in your TV. Lol. Just kidding, I love my vive. In fact, I just upgraded to a 1080 specifically for VR. I was not joking about my TV though. Sadly, it could not withstand the knock out blow of a Htc Vive controller. Damn you, Budget Cuts!

Please be careful, whichever one you choose. You really do lose yourself in VR. It is quite easy to forget where you are standing or which direction you are facing. Even with a busted TV, thank god it wasn't my living room TV, I stil highly recommend the Vive if you have or can make the space. I have not tried the Rift but the PSVR is awesome. I was amazed that he screen door effect seemed better than the Vive. The headset was extremely comfortable and the games looked crazy good if a little less detailed than its PC counterpart.

[Perjoss]

I agree 100% that people should be free to believe in whatever they want or vote for whoever they want. But everyone else is also totally free to not support them if they don't agree with what they stand for.

[SynestheticRoar]

Luckey not so lucky?

[ger2396]

Having to apologize for your political views is bs. What do his views have to do with oculus?

[freshslicepizza]

people dont like to be associated with hate and he funded a campaign that did hate speech. i know it has nothing to do with oculus but thats how things are

[Mystogan]

Having political views is one thing. Supporting hate-speech is another. Devs are completely in the right for this.

[Pintheshadows]

People need to stop apologising for everything. For once I would like to see someone with a backbone say, 'I will not apologise for my political views'. And the fact that you are now punished for holding certain views, and shamed in public for it, is nothing short of Orwellian.

I don't even agree with much of what Palmer believes, but it is his right to believe it.

[GrubsterBeater]

I agree 100 percent. I am so sick of SJWs ruining this country with their fascism on our views and speech. Nobody can say anything anymore without having to apologize. It is making our country look weak, and our citizens are actually becoming weak.

It is very hard to actually offend me.

[Goldby]

hes nopt apologizing for his political views, hes apologizing that personal decisions and choices he has is affecting the business

[lodossrage]

Finally, someone that gets it.

[lodossrage]

@Cobra951-

Yeah, we're going to have to agree to disagree on that one.

I don't see thuggery here. What people don't seem to understand is free speech works BOTH ways. Luckey has the right to whatever views he wishes. But at the same time, people have the right to work with whomever they wish. But the views aren't what's in questions here. It's the action

[Pintheshadows]

His personal decisions and choices related to political allegiance. He did not make any statements under the Oculus name, and the idea that he could be removed from the company based on his political views, and personal decisions and choices, is absurd to me. As far as I am aware Palmer has broken no laws to warrant such a backlash. Apart from he was unlucky enough to hold and enact them in the retarded boiling pot that is 2016.

The developers are free to work with whomever they wish, but bullying a company into making changes due to one persons political allegiance rubbing you the wrong way is ridiculous. You are basically holding the company to ransom. If I were Oculus I would just let the developers leave at this point. They aren't worth the hassle. I could understand their point of view had he, say, denied the holocaust, but in this case it seems like the typical childlike reaction of the silicon valley liberals. They just threw all of their toys out of the pram in an attempt to get their own way.

[Goldby]

@Pintheshadows.

Unfortunetly the position Rift is in, the power is in the developers hands, yes Oculus could say hey good on you for making a decisions, don't come back to us to sell your game, but when the Rift and Vive have almost stalled when it comes to purchases it means people are waiting most likely for PSVR and that puts rift in a bad position. being more expensive then the competition with less content, sounds similar to the PS4/X1 release. for all we know, Sony has already approached the devs who pulled support to being their games to psvr.

The devs can survive and continue makign games for other vr head sets, rift needs the games to have reasosn to buy one. power is in the developers hand right now

[Angeljuice]

Believe what you like, but when you fund and support a movement, you will be tarnished with the same brush.

People with opposing views won't want to contribute financially to a cause they stand against.

[Angeljuice]

@cobra951
It doesn't matter what you think, it's what your customers think about what you think.
I have no opinion on Nimble America at all, but by contributing to it he will upset people who don't agree with his views. That is just how the world works.

Nobody would care if he contributed to an animal welfare charity, but politics is divisive and people don't want to contribute towards the "enemies" campaign.

[LamerTamer]

Yeah but his views were very racist. Racism should not be rewarded. He is free to do it but then devs are free not to support him too.

[medman]

R.I.P. Palmer Lucky. It won't be long until he's out, and rightfully so. Freedom of speech DOES NOT MEAN freedom from consequence. As a CEO, owner, corporate president, chief financial officer, whatever the title may be, in whatever business you may be in, you have an obligation to your shareholders, if you work for a publicly traded company. Palmer Lucky has hurt the business, and that's the bottom line. You're out. It's economics, and it's very simple. You think Facebook wants this crap to deal with? They didn't drop a few billion for this nonsense. Far easier to get rid of the controversy and troublemaking Lucky in one fell swoop. It's a certainty the lawyers are working on the exit strategy as we speak.

[miyamoto]

But he has no backbone

[solderman]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/r...
http://www.gamespot.com/for...

[amiga-man]

What a strange thing to say, more and more companies are investing in VR, with literally billions being poured into it's development.

[amiga-man]

Solderman, you edited your comment and replaced it with two meaningless links, you are basing your opinion it appears on sales of the Vive and Oculus.

If you did the research you would realise VR goes far beyond those two devices, VR has a road to travel but is here to stay.

[SniperControl]

lol, the VR scene is about to explode with the imminent release of PSVR in a couple of weeks.

Sales have stalled on Vive and Rift due to the fact that casuals will not spend £600 plus on a VR headset, only the hardcore PC gamers bought those VR units.

The PSVR is an affordable entry into VR for most gamers, while not at the same spec level as it's bigger brothers, it still packs quite a punch and has been getting rave reviews from media outlets and gamers who have had a chance to try it.

[solderman]

Anyone who has been following the latest information and current financials on VR development will see many companies and investors have already been looking for an "out" on the VR business as a whole, this incident just gave them a further cause to do so and I don't blame them either way.

[Perjoss]

IMO they went a bit too cutting edge, both Oculus and Valve created products that were way too expensive for a product that is trying to reach a mass audience. The first iterations should not have tried to go high resolution, to get their foot in the door so to speak they should have stuck with something closer to the development kits in terms of cost and fidelity.

[amiga-man]

Solderman, you are talking nonsense.

[Goldby]

so is that why there are more and more VR games announced on a nearly daily basis.

[lodossrage]

@solderman

I won't debate right or wrong here. But do you have any links/ proof to those claims?

[bouzebbal]

not so lucky on this one

[Rooted_Dust]

A lack of ability to work with people who think differently than they do is probably why they're Indie Devs.

[lodossrage]

Telling from the comments, most people don't seem to understand he's not apologizing for his views. He's apologizing for his actions. There IS a difference.

He has EVERY right to his views/opinions as any other American countryman/woman does. HOWEVER, people also have the right to pick and choose WHO they work with. If they don't want to work with Luckey, that IS their right regardless of his political views and choices.

As a businessman, I wouldn't want to be attached to Luckey either. Nimble America is a group that tries to spread hate and has a history of bigotry. That right there alone will push partners away.

The REAL problem here is in his apology he says he wasn't the one behind NimbleRichAmerica on reddit. But emails have been found stating/showing otherwise. So it comes off as even when he tried to make amends, he lied.

And the most damning thing of all here is Oculus itself. VR tech is literally in its infancy. The sales of both Oculus and Vive have already stalled to a literal halt. This is the WORSE time to lose support. That alone might force Facebook's hand and make him step down.

[Pintheshadows]

The thing is though, his actions are inextricably tied to his views. He did something he believed in, something he wanted to do, and he did it as an individual. And now not only developers, but people as well, are throwing their toys out of the pram. Xenophobe, racist, sexist. I wonder what else Luckey will get called over the coming months.

Simply because there was an idea of an anti Hilary Clinton billboard campaign which was designed to engage younger voters who felt left on the fringe of politics with no way to express their voice. And this gets equated to hate speech? I mean for crying out loud, just earlier today 'Pepe' was officially recognised as a symbol of hate by the anti defamation league. The fact is the narrative around Nimble Rich America has been entirely shaped by the crazed, extreme left leaning, gaming and tech media. And make no mistake, it was the usual suspects.

It wouldn't be the first time that has happened.

As Cobra951 said below, I have yet to find any evidence of 'hatespeech' on the subreddit, but if enough websites tell the lie for long enough it will become the truth.

[ccgr]

Hopefully he won't have to resign for this

[medman]

Palmer Lucky bears a striking resemblance to a ninja turtle.

[CrimsonWing69]

I got a Palmer Luckey in an alley the other day for .5 cents