Shacknews did not interview any Oculus executives at Oculus Connect 3. As the company has grown to be a part of Facebook it has become increasingly difficult to secure interviews with Nate Mitchell, VP of Product, as well as Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe. They are usually busy giving interviews to much larger companies who don't even focus on gaming and for the most part think virtual reality is a fad that is dead on arrival. This trend continued at the subdued Oculus Connect 3 event earlier this month in San Jose, CA.
To our credit, Shacknews secured interviews with almost every developer at the event. Sadly, I felt like I did not do enough for Shacknews. There was something missing. There was clearly an elephant in the room at Oculus Connect 3. Palmer Luckey was not in attendance. As the show came to a close and it became abundantly clear that I would not be able to secure an interview with any of the key personnel at the company, I decided to set my sights on the 24 year old multimillionaire founder of Oculus VR who has been off the grid since publicly apologizing on Facebook for his investment in Nimble America. I had to find him. I had to do it for Shacknews.
I began to pound the pavement all throughout Silicon Valley. I engaged in the most intense investigative games journalism in the history of my 15 year career. An anonymous source let me know that the Oculus founder was in exile in his native Orange County, California. I hopped on a plane and headed to Irvine, California. After hitting up multiple PokeStops around the University California Irvine, and a quick bite at In-N-Out Burger, I was given another lead by a Pokemaster who said he saw Palmer battling people there earlier that day. Apparently, he was holed up in an ocean view villa in Newport Coast. Finally, the break that i needed! After repeatedly direct messaging "Palmer" on social media, he agreed to sit down and chat with me about his absense from Oculus Connect 3, the Nimble America scandal, and his collection of dank memes.
Please take a look.
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Asif Khan posted a new article, Exclusive Interview with the Elephant in the Room at Oculus Connect 3