[UPDATE] Following the publication of this story, Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey wrote on Reddit that Oculus VR employees have received death threats in the wake of the company's sale to Facebook.

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

The original story is below. We have updated this story's headline to reflect Luckey's comments, which were made today.

Following the surprise announcement Tuesday that Facebook had purchased Oculus VR for $2 billion, positive and negative comments flowed forth from social media. Oculus VR vice president Nate Mitchell said in a new interview with Game Informer that he expected to get some heat from its core fans over the deal, but said he was surprised by the outpouring of negativity from the community at large.

"We assumed that the reaction would be negative, especially from our core community," Mitchell said. "Beyond our core community, we expected it would be positive. I don't think we expected it to be so negative."

In the time that's passed, Mitchell said he's already starting to see the conversation on Twitter and Reddit "swinging back the opposite direction." He stressed that it's up to Oculus VR to educate people on why the deal makes sense and should be considered a good thing.

21-year-old Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey has been busy doing just that. Immediately following the announcement of the acquisition, he answered dozens of questions on Reddit about privacy concerns and what the deal means for the future of Oculus. For more on the Oculus VR/Facebook deal, check out editorials from GameSpot editors Tom McShea and Peter Brown.