New Oculus VR Controllers Accidentally Include Bizarre Hidden Messages

By Adam Westlake

Oculus, the Facebook-owned VR hardware company, is gearing up to release a pair of new headsets in the coming weeks: the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S. But during the manufacturing process it seems some unintended Easter eggs were added to the motion controllers that will ship with the devices, the company has revealed. Silly phrases like "This Space For Rent" have been printed inside "tens of thousands" of the new Touch controllers, a joke that was only meant for prototype models.

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Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell revealed the news on Twitter yesterday, noting that "The Masons Were Here" was another phrase used that accidentally made it into the controllers. These messages are only printed on components inside the controllers, so users won't see them unless they decide to crack open the hardware.

Other phrases include "Hi iFixit! We See You!", referring to the popular teardown and repair guide website, and the somewhat creepy "Big Brother is Watching." However, Mitchell says that these two messages only made their way onto developer kits, not the controllers meant for consumers.

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While this accident is easy to understand and essentially harmless, Oculus is getting out in front of the mishap with an apology. "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," Mitchell wrote.

It's likely that the "Big Brother" message was most alarming for Facebook, as the social media company has been under heavy scrutiny lately for its practices of collecting personal data, not to mention its many privacy failures.

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