Facebook’s surprise acquisition of Oculus for $2 billion of cash and stock is a sudden turn in the story of retail virtual reality, and this move will have far-reaching implications in the world of consumer electronics, communication, and gaming. We reached out to a number of developers already working in virtual reality for their take on the news.

"I guess it makes me kind of curious. It’s not two things that you imagine putting in the same pot," Robin Arnott, the creator of Soundself, told Polygon. "Someone thinks these two things belong in the same pot and thinks strongly enough to spend $2 billion on it. I think this means that there’s going to be some very interesting uses of VR in the very near future. It’s very surprising, but I’m only excited about what that could be. I’m pretty it’s not going to mean stupid free-to-play Facebook games on VR. That doesn’t seem real to me."

"Could it be the dawn of a truly virtual alternative social reality? These are the questions that come to my mind," he continued.

"As far as being a developer for VR is concerned, the only way this affects me is that there are some social aspects in Soundself that we didn’t really explore because it didn’t seem like a good use of our development time. It makes me wonder if those things are worth exploring. I really don’t know. I’m more excited than anything, to be honest."

Virtual reality has a bright future

Dejobaan’s Ichiro Lambe, who saw the company’s skydiving title AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAa come to the Rift via Owlchemy labs, is also excited.

"…Everything that's come about in the past few weeks — from this to Sony's announcement to the half dozen VR-related things I saw on the GDC floor — gets me psyched about it," he told Polygon, "For Oculus, how can Facebook be aiming for anything less than Neal Stephenson's Metaverse — finally an actual, honest-to-goodness virtual world?"

"The fact that Sony and Valve are interested in it means that someone up high thinks there's some excellent gaming potential. The fact that Facebook is interested in it means that Zuckerberg thinks it's for everyone. That is phenomenally exciting," he stated.

"What's my place in all of it? I'm not sure, anymore — all these companies are doing big, tangible things, and it probably means that we'll benefit from thinking about huge, nontraditional things."

Mojang's Notch was more direct in a tweet. "We were in talks about maybe bringing a version of Minecraft to Oculus," he said. "I just cancelled that deal. Facebook creeps me out."

We reached out for further comment, and he clarified his position. "Well, VR has huge potential in many fields, including social. I can see why Facebook would want to get in to this," he told Polygon. "As a game developer, however, I don't ever want to get stuck trying to target a platform not focused on games. People have made this mistake before."

Justin Moravetz is the developer of Proton Pulse, one of the best early experiences on the Oculus Rift, and he's also a bit nervous.

"My two concerns are how this fractures the end user perspective and how this effects developers," he said. "Social media is polarized almost like politics. I think you'll find many users with an instant gut reaction to the news. The public image will need some work if they plan to shake any negative association with FaceBook."