John Carmack, the chief technology officer consulting for Meta’s virtual reality efforts, is leaving. I’m tired of fighting

• Carmack joined Oculus in 2013 as CTO, prior to its acquisition by Facebook.
• He’s a well-known and well-known game designer, who moved into a new consulting position at Oculus in 2019.
• Often publicly critical of Facebook’s advances in AR/VR, Carmack’s exit note urged people to “take care.”

John Carmack, the chief technology officer consulting for Meta’s virtual reality efforts, is leaving, two people familiar with the company said.

And people said that his exodus came on Friday. Carmack, who has publicly criticized Meta’s developments in AR and VR, the core of its metaverse ambitions, posted on the company’s internal Workplace forum about his decision to leave.

“We built something very close to the right thing,” Carmack said in the note, which was seen by Insider. “The issue is our efficiency.”

Overall, Carmack said he was simply “tired of fighting” with Meta, formerly Facebook, which acquired Oculus in 2014. Despite being one of the most popular and popular VR headsets on the market, Meta changed its brand name. Recently a year into meta quest. Oculus was founded by Palmer Luckey in 2012 with Carmack emerging as its first CTO in 2013.

“I have my own startup to run, but the battle is still winnable!” Carmack added in his note. “It may indeed be possible to get there by moving forward with current practices, but there is a lot of room for improvement. Make better decisions and fill your products with ‘Give a damn!’ “

A Meta spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Founded earlier this year, Carmack Keen Technologies has focused on developing artificial intelligence technologies.

Carmack is one of the most respected names in video games, thanks in large part to his role in co-creating the groundbreaking “Doom” and “Quake” franchises. This approach has helped make Carmack one of Meta’s most important ambassadors in selling its vision of VR and AR to gamers who are also a core demographic.

During the Meta developer conference in October, Carmack hosted an hour-long solo talk about the company’s Oculus or Quest headset. And he admitted he had a lot of things to be “grumpy” about, like the company’s rate of progress in technological advancement and the basic functionality of the headphones. He said it was frustrating to hear from people inside the Meta who found the Quest 2 headphones so unreliable that they refused to use them for work or offer them to people outside the company.

Carmack said at the time. “Virtual reality should be fun to experience for your friends.”

Carmack said Meta has made some improvements. On Friday, he wrote “Virtual reality can bring value to most people in the world, and no one is better positioned to do so than Meta.”

Earlier this year, Carmack acknowledged that the Quest headset’s $100 price increase occurred because the company’s free metaverse apps, which Meta monetizes little from in-app purchases, were more popular than premium games.

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