John Carmack resigned from his leadership role at Meta Platforms Inc’s virtual reality (VR) unit, citing frustration with its slow progress and disagreements over strategy with company founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg.
The games industry veteran said in his resignation note that he had long been frustrated by the poor operational efficiency of Meta’s VR endeavor, which he never felt adequately able to influence in the right direction.
Carmack, 52, joined VR developer Oculus in 2013 ahead of its acquisition by Meta — then still known as Facebook — in 2014. Having started at Oculus as chief technology officer, he became an executive consultant for VR at Meta.
Photo: Reuters
Zuckerberg renamed the company Meta to signal its commitment to developing a “metaverse” of virtual 3D experiences.
“I have a voice at the highest levels here, so it feels like I should be able to move things,” Carmack said in the note. “But I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it.”
The games industry veteran — who founded id Software, which produced classic first-person shooter games Quake and Doom, and helped usher in 3D graphics for PC video games — wrote on Twitter that he found a “notable gap” in strategic thinking between himself and Zuckerberg.
He believes “everything necessary for spectacular success is right there, but it doesn’t get put together effectively,” he said.
Meta is spending billions of US dollars each year on its metaverse and VR project, and its Meta Quest 2 is widely regarded as the best VR headset on the market.
The company said in October that the operating losses of the Reality Labs unit that houses the venture would grow significantly next year, which was not welcomed by investors looking for more cost discipline from tech companies.
“It is impossible to overstate the impact you’ve had on our work and the industry as a whole,” Meta chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth said of Carmack.
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