In a series of tweets Friday morning, Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell revealed that Facebook accidentally included some secret 'joke' messages on the internal components of tens of thousands of Touch controllers.
'This Space For Rent' and 'The Masons Were Here' were printed on the innards of the controllers' final production hardware. A few developer kits shipped with 'Big Brother is Watching' and 'Hi iFixit! We See You!' messages as well, but those were limited to non-consumer units according Mitchell.
These 'easter eggs' were only intended to be on prototypes for the company's upcoming Quest and Rift S controllers, yet somehow found their way into consumer devices.
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/po1qyQ10UmApril 12, 2019
"While I appreciate easter eggs, these were inappropriate and should have been removed," said Mitchell.
Facebook has no plans to recall any of the affected items, as the integrity and functionality of the hardware were not compromised, as Mitchell also mentioned in his tweet.
So, all those affected consumer devices will eventually ship, which means anyone buying a Touch controller might see one of those messages, if they feel like taking apart their controller. (Maybe iFixit will let us know if they get one.)
For a company whose name has become synonymous with Big Brother, letting these messages slip through their quality control process probably doesn't help its image—but I'm sure most of us can't help but smile at the irony.
Thanks, Business Insider.
