Palmer Luckey was absent from today’s Oculus Connect 3 press conference, following the controversy surrounding the Oculus founder as a result of the revelation that he had supported a pro-Trump online campaign.
Luckey was embroiled in a controversy last month after the Daily Beast revealed that he had financially supported a Donald Trump internet campaign, with him having collaborated with alt-right journalist Milo Yiannopoulos, a notorious internet troll who was suspended from Twitter earlier this year following the racist abuse received by comedian Leslie Jones. According to the Daily Beast, Luckey had been posting to the divisive subreddit r/The_Donald in order to garner initial funding for the pro-Trump online campaign Nimble America, with him reportedly doing so under the username NimbleRichMan. Though Luckey admitted he had made a donation to the campaign, he refuted the claim that he was responsible for NimbleRichMan’s posts, though emails released by the news story’s author revealed exchanges between himself and Luckey that validated his report.
Luckey’s affiliation with the seedier portion of Trump’s online supporters led to a huge backlash against the Oculus founder, with various VR developers stating that they would no longer provide their games with support for the Rift as a result. As a result, eyes were on today’s Oculus Connect 3 event in order to see whether or not Luckey would make an appearance, or if those who did take to the stage would address this PR nightmare. On both accounts, the answer was no.
Though Luckey has been the face of the Oculus Rift as well as its founder, appearing on the infamous front cover of Time magazine’s editorial on virtual reality and being a pivotal figure in all of Oculus’ press events, it seems that this recent controversy forced him into the background of the latest Oculus event. Despite it being the first Oculus press conference since the Rift became a commercial product, Luckey wasn’t even mentioned throughout the duration of the presentation, with the likes of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Oculus co-founders Brendan Iribe and Nate Mitchell appearing in his place.
Luckey remained the elephant in the room during the event, and while many expected that his co-workers may address the reasoning behind his absence, they instead chose to refrain from mentioning him throughout its duration. Luckey apologized for his actions following the Daily Beast’s report, saying that he was “deeply sorry” that he had harmed Oculus’ reputation. However, it seems that his apology hasn’t led to Oculus allowing him to move from the naughty step just yet.
