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Parody Facebook Oculus Rift concept by Brandsumo.com

Facebook and Oculus have come out denying a New York Times article claiming that Facebook plans to slather its branding and interface on the Oculus Rift.

It almost sounded like a joke, and perhaps for good reason. Citing a “person involved in the [Facebook / Oculus deal] who was not allowed to speak publicly because he was not authorized by either company,”  a recent New York Times article reported that “Facebook eventually plans to redesign the Oculus hardware and rebrand it with a Facebook interface and logo.”

Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey told Road to VR that the claim is “total BS.” A Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch that the claim is “not true and not in the spirit of our relationship [with Oculus].”

The Times articles was written by Nick Wingfield and Vindu Goel, with additional reporting by Nick Bilton.

The claim isn’t likely to have gotten any attention except for the fact that it was written in such a well regarded publication. I would have expected the Times to make sure a quote like that was well vetted before publishing it. Who would have made such a claim? Maybe the authors of the article mistook the source to be talking about the Rift when they were actually talking about something else? Seems rather dubious… I’m just glad to know that it isn’t true.

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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."
  • Alkapwn

    I think it’s hilarious that people even believed it for a second, regardless of source. I’m fairly certain Facebook is aware of the reputation they have with a segment of the population. They’re not naive. Why would they they spend money on something they’ve admitted they don’t know much about, but like the direction, and mess with it. It’s like Zynga buying Mercedes and making every vehicle random bright colors and removing the basic ones like black, silver etc. If you buy something to make a profit off it, but don’t know much about it, you don’t mess with it. You watch, learn, and then make a gameplan from there.

  • Curtrock

    LMFAO :)
    Re: Face-U-Lus, Occu-Book, Facebook-Ulus, Occu-Face, etc, etc, etc……looking fwd to when this sort of stupidity gets tired….( oops, it’s already tired ) yawn.

  • Digital Sailor

    Most of the people are saying that Oculus Rift and the Luckey team sold their soul to the devil…

    When I first heard about the deal with oculus and Facebook, I was surprised, because as many people I always had a bad feeling about facebook.

    But that feeling has changed now.

    It is mostly due to that deal, I trust Palmer Luckey, cause he’s a successfull little genius with a vision, he’s honest, sincere and clearly not motivated by money.
    So If he has given his trust to Zuckerberg, then I believe people should change their views on Zuckerberg and facebook rather than changing their view on Palmer Luckey.and Oculus.

  • snake0

    Is everyone forgetting that Zuckerberg himself said it during the conference call?

    Talk about flipflopping

  • Christoher

    If any one needs a rebranding its the Facebook name itself

    if there going to the leaders in the VR metavers they need a name that suits there new goles and such outside of the social media focus.

    • snake0

      Exactly, the best way for them to play this is to be a silent partner and not do anything to screw up Oculus’ momentum