They invested in this project to get it started? They should be happy to say "we helped this project"

If Facebook had bought it for $500,000 I bet none of them would be complaining! They see the $2 billion everywhere and they want a piece of that pie!!

They can still use there oculus as they did 2 weeks ago? What's changed? Oh yeah they want "compensation" hint hint - a nice cheque, they want there "share" of the "profits"

I can't wait to use oculus rift for facebook. I want to be able to interact with my friends through a virtual reality device and be surrounded by a wall where I can see everyone posts.

There will now be full 3d body profiles instead of profile pics lmao

they technically are stakeholders if they invested in it so they do have a say. But shit happens

Well, this is why Kickstarter is a scam.

There was a way to invest in companies and help them get off the ground before Kickstarter. It was called buying stock. And the whole point was if the company did well the value of the stock increased and all the investors make money.

Kickstarter is a scam to get people to take all the risk with basically zero reward. While the the holders of said project get all the rewards with zero risk.

without the kickstarter there wouldn't have been an oculus rift. It got started because people funded it and believe in the vision for GAMING. The fact that they think it was ok to sell it is a slap in the face to the people that support it for the vision they had at that time. I would be fuming too. especially if I don't get anything out of the 2 billion $ that they got for something that was funded by the public.

I hate how some in the media report on these things. They make it sound like all Oculus Kickstarter backers feel the same way, when that is plainly not true.

I'm an Oculus Kickstarter backer and I don't feel betrayed. This is the best shot we realistically had at getting the Rift and VR to succeed.

How can we feel betrayed? When you fund a kickstarter project it doesn't mean that you get equity in the company. You are essentially donating your money in the hopes that the project will get off the ground. You usually get something in return, such as the DK1 Oculus Rift most backers got in this case.

So let's put this in perspective. Those of us that pledged $300 or more were given the DK1 and the hope that Oculus could get the product off the ground and eventually launch a superior consumer version with good software support. The first thing already happened: we got our dev kits. The second thing has not happened yet, but there is no evidence that it won't happen. Oculus is trying to get there the best way they know how, and I believe they are sincere.

Some people are jumping to absurd conclusions before they have all the facts and they are likely going to end up looking like idiots.

But you know what? Even if Oculus failed and was never able to launch the consumer Rift, it still wouldn't mean that backers would have a right to sue or get something else from the company.

When you fund a kickstarter project there is no guarantee that the product will come out and be everything that YOU personally think it should be. That's completely unrealistic and isn't how things work.

Agreed! Kickstarting is like investing in stocks- just because you invest doesn't mean you are guaranteed to be successful.. They should've expected and known the risks- tough luck...

About the only one of these comments from the article that made me feel any sympathy towards the backer was the one that didn't seem to want to back anything that Facebook was part of.

Whether a person has good reasons or not, the fact remains that some people do not support Facebook due to whatever reason.

Doesn't mean they had any real say in how OR proceeded so long as the kickstarter delivered on it's promises of a Dev1 Kit. But I can understand how a person would feel if something they were looking forward to got sold to a company that I truly disliked(not saying I dislike FB).

I would want my money back too. Hopefully you understand that other people have feelings that may differ from yours.

They got paid 2 billion why would they care about their 2 million now lol.

this would be equivalent to giving a homeless person money on the street, and then being upset that they didn't spend your money the way you wanted them to.

once you hand that cash over (voluntarily) thats it end of transaction. you have no say in how it's spent

What I will add (I agree with Doge) like it or not, the rift would have faded into utter obscurity once Sony released their own VR set, now at-least with the backing of FB tthey have a chance to maintain dominance in the VR market even if it's not solely game orientated.

But at the end of the day I really question if VR is actually commercially viable, sure as a hardcore gamer it would be awesome but WE are the minority and getting the casual consumer to buy such a product is a very hard sell IMO.

Good luck to all concerned parties.

@Doge
I do agree with what you say, however it would have done wonders for Oculus, Facebook and the whole kickstarter concept if they'd given a little 'golden thank you' to the 'little people' who's faith and contributions created the company in the first place.
It wouldn't need to be much, just a little gift to show appreciation (maybe free future VR software, or a heavily subsidised/free upgrade to the final retail version of the hardware).

That kind of PR is priceless and would have quashed most of the resentment expressed on the internet.