Tens of Thousands of Oculus Controllers Include Secret Messages

Oculus Co-Founder Nate Mitchell said that the messages were limited to non-consumer units.

Facebook’s Oculus VR headset early buyers might get hidden messages in their motion controller. Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell confirmed the development in a tweet, indicating that four phrases - “This Space For Rent”, “The Masons Were Here”, “Big Brother is Watching” and “Hi Fixit! We See You!” made their way accidentally into the internal hardware of tens of thousands of Touch controllers.

The messages on final production hardware say “This Space For Rent” & “👁The Masons Were Here.👁” A few dev kits shipped with “👁Big Brother is Watching👁” and “Hi iFixit! We See You!👁” but those were limited to non-consumer units. [2/3] pic.twitter.com/po1qyQ10Um

— Nate Mitchell (@natemitchell) April 12, 2019

Mitchell further said that these messages were inappropriate and should have been removed. He said that this did not hamper with the product’s integrity and functionality and the issue has been fixed in order to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.

While I appreciate easter eggs, these were inappropriate and should have been removed. The integrity and functionality of the hardware were not compromised, and we've fixed our process so this won't happen again. [3/3]

— Nate Mitchell (@natemitchell) April 12, 2019

With Facebook fighting spying accusations and people losing their trust in the company when it comes to their data, such mix-ups from the company will make the situation worse for the company.

The Verge reported that a Facebook spokesperson confirmed that he’s talking about controllers of the upcoming Oculus Rift S and Quest, not the original Touch controllers that were shipped in 2016.

(With inputs from The Verge)