It was a surprise to many when the social media giant known as Facebook made the move to purchase a company who develops virtual reality hardware and software. So, what wasn’t a surprise to the company known as Oculus VR? Apparently the way in which Zenimax has been acting as if it were a crazy jealous ex-spouse.
The confrontation that has brought both parties into legalities exists because John Carmack does. ZeniMax Media, owner of id Software, claims that the former employee took intellectual property with him to Oculus and should now have a stake in future projects by Oculus VR. The war of words over the net has been posted by both ends. Here is one such response from Zenimax prior to the official release from Oculus. This all comes about after Facebook obtained the company for a reported $2 billion.
OCULUS RESPONSE
“We are disappointed but not surprised by Zenimax’s actions and we will prove that all of its claims are false.”
If you’ve been living under a rock, you wouldn’t know that the Oculus Rift is probably the most well-known virtual reality headset that actually had developers giving it the nod. What is the nod? Well, after a successful Kickstarter campaign, many started to see various uses for the technology. After personally playing the device at events such as the Game Developer’s Conference and the Indie Games Festival, I can tell you there is more than just fanaticism for the headset. The reality is that it works, and works well. The Oculus VR is light and adds a whole new level of immersion.
Now, if both parties could just figure out this whole legal bout so everyone can go about their gaming business.
Check out the full release here:
OCULUS RESPONSE
We are disappointed but not surprised by Zenimax’s actions and we will prove that all of its claims are false. In the meantime, we would like to clarify a few key points:There is not a line of Zenimax code or any of its technology in any Oculus products.
John Carmack did not take any intellectual property from Zenimax.
Zenimax has misstated the purposes and language of the Zenimax non-disclosure agreement that Palmer Luckey signed.
A key reason that John permanently left Zenimax in August of 2013 was that Zenimax prevented John from working on VR, and stopped investing in VR games across the company.
Zenimax canceled VR support for Doom 3 BFG when Oculus refused Zenimax’s demands for a non-dilutable equity stake in Oculus.
Zenimax did not pursue claims against Oculus for IP or technology, Zenimax has never contributed any IP or technology to Oculus, and only after the Facebook deal was announced has Zenimax now made these claims through its lawyers.
Despite the fact that the full source code for the Oculus SDK is available online (developer.oculusvr.com), Zenimax has never identified any ‘stolen’ code or technology.
Published: May 5, 2014 05:24 pm