Legendary gaming developer John Carmack has resigned from his position as a consulting CTO for VR at Meta. Widely known for his work on the games Doom and Quake, Carmack says he's leaving to focus full-time on his AI startup Keen Technologies.
Carmack shared his internal resignation note in a post on Facebook. It includes some frank parting shots at Meta, which he repeatedly criticizes for being “inefficient.
Carmack says the company is operating at “half the effectiveness that would make me happy,” adding that despite having a “voice at the highest levels,” he was “evidently not persuasive enough” to change its culture.
Carmack says it's still possible for Meta to change, however. "I have my own startup to run, but the fight is still winnable! Maybe it is actually possible to get there by just plowing ahead with current practices, but there is plenty of room for improvement,” he writes, before saying: “Make better decisions and fill your products with 'Give a Damn!'"
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth thanked Carmack for his contributions to the company in a tweet on Friday, complimenting his “technical prowess” and “relentless focus on creating value for people.” He added that it's “impossible to overstate the impact” Carmack had on Meta’s VR work and “on the industry as a whole.”
Prior to the VR consulting role, Carmack worked as the chief technology officer at Facebook’s Oculus VR division from 2013 until 2019. During his time at Meta, he was never guarded about his frustrations. In October, he admitted there was a “bunch that I’m grumpy about” in virtual reality, and criticized the company’s decision to kill off his mobile efforts with the Samsung Gear VR as a “missed” opportunity.
Back in August Carmack tweeted that had been splitting his time 80/20 between his new startup Keen Technologies, and Meta.
Meta did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.
In July, the company raised the price of its Quest 2 headset by $100, with the cost of the 128GB version hitting $399, and the 256GB model rising to $499. Meta released a higher-end version of the headset, the Meta Quest Pro, in November. It costs $1,499.99.