When Palmer Luckey announced that Rift would not block VR sex apps, users rejoiced:
The rift is an open platform. We don’t control what software can run on it, and that’s a big deal.
At a recent pre-E3 press conference, Oculus unveiled the final consumer version of the Rift – but they also briefly showed a new VR storefront for demoing and purchasing VR content. It’s here where the contention lies, as Facebook clarified that apps with sexual content would not be permitted on the store.
New outlets quickly jumped on this statement to claim porn would no longer be allowed on the Rift, thereby dashing the dreams of thousands of perverts around the globe.
Oculus only distributes developer content that meets their terms of service, which forbid pornographic content from being a part of the Oculus Store,
Only problem is – the reporting of all this no VR Sex Apps is largely bullshit. We already knew that adult experiences probably wouldn’t be allowed on any official Rift game store, just as they aren’t currently permitted on Oculus Share, or on Oculus’ Gear VR content store, or on Steam. This isn’t news. Oculus won’t distribute your porn or virtual sex games, but it’s certainly in no position to “block” them from displaying on the device – at least not in it’s current form. That’s like saying Samsung has somehow blocked pornography from being played back on its TVs. In order to do that, the Rift would need to be an entirely closed ecosystem, similar to iOS, which only runs apps from the Oculus approved app store. They’d also presumably ban video players, since those can be used to playback dirty movies.
The Oculus Rift is a display device. If and when that fundamentally changes to being a closed consumer product, you can be damn sure their potential customer base will drop to a fraction of what is now. Until then, I humbly ask media outlets to stop spreading lies – and if you see someone republishing nonsense, call them out on their bullshit.