Mojang Founder Markus ‘Notch’ Persson isn’t happy about Oculus being bought out by Facebook. Apparently any hope for Minecraft for the Oculus Rift has just been lost.

Notch takes a quick and strong stand against Facebook, tweeting his message less than two hours after the announcement hit the web.

oculus rift creeper minecraft

This is a complete 180 for the founder of Mojang who supported the Oculus Rift Kickstarter with $10,000 back in August, 2012. Earlier this month Notch had big praise for Oculus after traveling from Sweden to the company’s headquarters in Irvine, California, saying, “Yeah, I need to get back into Oculus Rift development. These are passionate people, and they’re changing the gaming world.”

But now Notch, who said “Facebook creeps me out,” has “cancelled [the] deal” regarding a version of Minecraft for the Oculus Rift.

He expanded his tweet into a full blog post on his personal blog:

Facebook is not a company of grass-roots tech enthusiasts. Facebook is not a game tech company. Facebook has a history of caring about building user numbers, and nothing but building user numbers. People have made games for Facebook platforms before, and while it worked great for a while, they were stuck in a very unfortunate position when Facebook eventually changed the platform to better fit the social experience they were trying to build.

Don’t get me wrong, VR is not bad for social. In fact, I think social could become one of the biggest applications of VR. Being able to sit in a virtual living room and see your friend’s avatar? Business meetings? Virtual cinemas where you feel like you’re actually watching the movie with your friend who is seven time zones away?

But I don’t want to work with social, I want to work with games.

Fortunately, the rise of Oculus coincided with competitors emerging. None of them are perfect, but competition is a very good thing. If this means there will be more competition, and VR keeps getting better, I am going to be a very happy boy. I definitely want to be a part of VR, but I will not work with Facebook. 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.

And I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition.

I have the greatest respect for the talented engineers and developers are Oculus. It’s been a long time since I met a more dedicated and talented group of people. I understand this is purely a business deal, and I’d like to congratulate both Facebook and the Oculus owners. But this is where we part ways.

Thankfully, Minecraft fans can turn to the excellent third-party Minecrift mod which already offers Oculus Rift support.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Chris Given

    He can back out if he wants… I think it’s really childish but it’s his choice plus somebody will probably make a similar game but with better graphics for VR anyway!! No big loss!!

    • Mageoftheyear

      I agree, all he’s really doing is ensuring that Minecraft will not be the CAD app to set the bar for world building VR. Instead on shaping the future he’s surrendering it to someone else. A bad strategy for gaining influence.

      I’ll be watching the Rift kickstarters I’ve backed closely – if they back out of integration now I will not let that go quietly.

  • raptureoh9

    That is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. That’s like saying “Oh, I really wanted to make my game for the Xbox One…but then I heard it’s owned by Microsoft, and they’re an Operating System company. I mean, operating systems are cool…but I want to work with GAMES”

    Lost some respect for him. Maybe he’s just upset that Minecrift has better implementation than what he was working on.

  • nathanimator

    Yeah, I always hate seeing so many knee jerk reactions with stuff like this. If he doesn’t feel comfortable with it there’s certainly nothing wrong with pulling out. His reaction not actually as bad as what i’m seeing around the rest of the net. It’s a business guys, and if Facebook is smart they’ll let oculus do their thing. Could facebook do something to screw it up? Sure. But so far it’s just a big shot in the arm and a big boost in public profile for VR, and until there’s actually something to complain about, calm down.

  • Crimson Chicken

    Pfft please. Notch was practically fishing for an excuse not to bother the moment the idea was suggested for official VR support. The guy couldn’t finish his VR space sim despite pouring money and time into it. I doubt we’ll ever see him carry a successful project post-Minecraft.

  • Grillo

    And the Oscar for “Best Drama Queen” goes to …..

  • Miller

    He is probably upset because Everquest Landmark is moving to Beta today. Its going to be in direct competition with Minecraft. Graphics are spectacular compared to Minecraft. Oh and they will be offering Oculus Rift support. I think they are the first MMORPG to do so.

  • Jeremy Tang

    I’m very disappointed in Notch, this excuse seems like a really lame cop-out.

    Minecraft lends itself very well to VR, it is too bad it will be left behind. In the end his personal vendetta against Facebook will cost his users, and ultimately his own company as VR takes hold and Minecraft becomes more and more irrelevant.

  • Druss

    This is a guy with morals that can not be swayed by monetary gain. Notch is a good guy by my standards. Facebook is the Devil, taking advantage of people’s animalistic voyeuristic and exebistionistic tendencies to trick them out of their data. No wonder he doesn’t want to do buisiness with them! I really admire his strength of will.

    • Druss

      exhibitionistic*

  • Jeremy Tang

    Given his view’s on steam this isn’t in anyway surprising. Notch isn’t a “good guy”, he’s just Mr. Anti-establishment.

  • Digital Sailor

    This guy is such a bullshit !

    If he doesn’t want to port his game to Oculus, then someone else will do it, and he’ll die.

    What does he think ? that people will continu to play on flat screen ?

    The guy had ONE good idea : minecraft (thank you for that !), but when it comes to have a vision, he’s nothing but a child with an half brain.

    I remember what he said about Euclideon and the Infinite details, it was ridiculed.

    It seems that this guy likes to be humiliated.

    • Amur El Bey

      Likes to be humiliated? Notch has more money then you and your family will ever make. He’s considered one of the most brilliant game developers of our generation.