Based on the immediate reaction to Tuesday's surprise announcement that Facebook is buying VR headset maker Oculus, you'd have thought the move was effectively a death sentence for what was previously the most promising virtual reality technology in decades. At the extremes, some particularly vitriolic commenters even felt comfortable enough to suggest the death sentence should extend to the technology's creators and their families.

"We expected a negative reaction from people in the short term, [but] we did not expect to be getting so many death threats and harassing phone calls that extended to our families," Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey said in a reddit post this weekend. "We know we will prove ourselves with actions and not words, but that kind of shit is unwarranted, especially since it is impacting people who have nothing to do with Oculus."

Elsewhere in the reddit thread, Luckey said that the initial reaction wasn't really surprising, but it still obviously felt undeserved from his point-of-view. "We expected a kneejerk reaction from people who don't have all the information we do and will not have it for some time," he wrote. "We expected a negative reaction, that does not mean we think the reaction is warranted. My primary goal is the long term success of VR, not short term warm and fuzzy feelings."

Luckey's statement comes after a Game Informer interview last week in which Oculus VP of Product Nate Mitchell also expressed surprise at the extent of the initial negative reaction. Still, Mitchell added that he thinks opinions are starting to turn around with the passage of time.

"We assumed that the reaction would be negative, especially from our core community," he told the magazine. "Beyond our core community, we expected it would be positive. I don't think we expected it to be so negative. As people begin to digest it a bit and think about it, you can see that Twitter and reddit are swinging back the opposite direction. The onus is on us to educate people, and we want to share everything we’re doing."

All that said, Luckey admitted he might have reacted similarly if he were a VR fan simply following the news from the outside. Responding to a reddit commenter asking "wouldn't you have been pissed," Luckey responded, "Knowing what the public knows, maybe. Knowing what I know, seeing the technology this deal will directly enable? No."

Meanwhile, Id Software co-founder and current Oculus Chief Technology Officer John Carmack took to a Tumblr comment thread to offer his most direct defense yet of what he sees as the benefits of the acquisition:

There is a case to be made for being like Valve and trying to build a new VR ecosystem like Steam from the ground up. This is probably what most of the passionate fans wanted to see. The difference is that, for years, the industry thought Valve was nuts, and they had the field to themselves. Valve deserves all their success for having the vision and perseverance to see it through to the current state. VR won't be like that. The experience is too obviously powerful, and it makes converts on contact. The fairly rapid involvement of the Titans is inevitable, and the real questions were how deeply to partner and with who. Honestly, I wasn't expecting Facebook (or this soon). I have zero personal background with them, and I could think of other companies that would have more obvious synergies. However, I do have reasons to believe that they get the Big Picture as I see it and will be a powerful force towards making it happen. You don't make a commitment like they just did on a whim.

Carmack previously tweeted that he "would expect Facebook to not exert any overt control over Oculus unless Oculus fumbles badly a few times, at which point they SHOULD."