After The Daily Beast revealed that Oculus founder Palmer Luckey had financially backed a Donald Trump supporting organisation that goes by the name of Nimble America, there had been some eyebrows raised.
The organisation specialises in the delightful practice of "shitposting" and is focused on creating anti-Clinton memes. That in itself isn't illegal in any way (a bit tasteless perhaps, but not illegal), however it became newsworthy when VR developers started distancing themselves from Oculus, and some have apparently refused to support the headset until Luckey has stepped down from his position at the company.
"Insomniac Games condemns all forms of hate speech," the studio said to Motherboard. "While everyone has a right to express his or her political opinion, the behavior and sentiments reported do not reflect the values of our company. We are also confident that this behavior and sentiment does not reflect the values of the many Oculus employees we work with on a daily basis."
As reported by the same site, Fez developers Polytron are also among those putting distance between themselves and Facebook-owned Oculus. While Luckey's political leanings are fairly public, his support of Nimble America has clearly proved to be much more divisive, especially with tensions high due to the looming Presidential election.
What it means for Oculus and their VR headset isn't clear. At the time of writing the number of developers actively protesting against Luckey's affiliation with the meme makers is still relatively small. Might their numbers grow as the election draws closer, or will this all blow over sooner rather than later? Time will tell, but we'll certainly keep an eye on events as they unfold.