Facebook demos, then removes, violent game demo from booth at CPAC

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Hugo Barr, VP of VR at Facebook

Facebook showed a violent virtual reality game demonstration in its kiosk at a conservative political conference near Washington, then removed the demo out of respect for recent school shooting victims in Florida after at least one attendee shared a video of it on Twitter.

The demonstration was part of a highlight reel used to promote its Oculus virtual reality game unit. That reel was included in Facebook’s booth at the Conservative Political Action Committee event, where a user posted it on Twitter:

Tweet

Facebook removed the reel from the booth, and temporarily removed the shooting demo from the reel, soon thereafter. The company said in a statement to CNBC that it regretted not removing the VR shooter game sooner.

“There is a standard set of experiences included in the Oculus demos we feature at public events. A few of the action games can include violence. In light of the recent events in Florida and out of respect for the victims and their families, we have removed them from this demo. We regret that we failed to do so in the first place,” said Hugo Barra, vice president of VR at Facebook.

The demo for the game, called “Bullet Train,” is being developed by a third-party game-maker, not Oculus, the company said.