John Carmack, Meta’s virtual reality project manager, leaves his post: ‘I’m tired of fighting’

John Carmack He resigned from Meta Platforms, a partnership created last year by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, in a letter on Friday expressing his frustrations when he started out as an executive consultant in virtual reality.

“There is no sugar coating to this,” Carmack wrote in the letter, which he shared on Facebook. “I think our organization works half as effectively as making me happy.”

“Some might scoff and say we’re doing it right, but others will laugh and say, ‘Half? Say Oh! I’m in the efficiency room! Tired of fighting“He confirmed.

Asked about Carmack’s resignation and his comments, Meta directed the Associated Press on Saturday to a tweet from its chief technology officer and head of Reality Labs, Andrew Bosworth. “It is impossible to overestimate the effect Bosworth wrote in his grateful tweet to Carmack:

A decisive moment

Carmack’s departure comes at a time when Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has been battling a widespread perception that he was wasting billions of dollars trying to build the Menlo Park, California, Metaverse startup. With gods for real people.

As casualties from the metaverse mounted, Facebook and its affiliate services such as Instagram They suffered a decline in advertising, which generates most of the company’s revenue.

The reason for the downturn was a combination of recession fears, stiff competition from other social media services such as TikTok, and privacy controls on Facebook. Apple iPhone That made it difficult to track people’s interests to help sell ads.

These challenges have caused Meta shares to lose nearly two-thirds of their value this year so far, causing them to vanish $575 billion in shareholder wealth.

Carmack, master piece

Although Carmack was only on the Meta part-time, the dismay he expressed likely amplifies questions raised about Zuckerberg’s efforts to become as dominant in VR as Facebook has been in social media since the service’s inception. nearly 20 years ago while attending Harvard University.

Zuckerberg began exploring virtual reality in earnest in 2014 with Facebook’s $2 billion purchase of headset maker Oculus. At the time, Carmack was the chief technology officer of the company skylight He later joined Facebook after the deal closed. Prior to joining Oculus, Carmack was best known as the co-founder of the video game Doom.

Federal regulators are now trying to limit Zuckerberg’s influence on virtual reality by blocking his offer to purchase Under Unlimited, which would make a fitness app designed for the metaverse.

Carmack testified earlier this week in a lawsuit pitting the Federal Trade Commission against Meta over the fate of the deal. Zuckerberg is expected to testify at some point in the trial, which is set to resume. Monday in San JoseCalifornia.

Despite his frustration with the way things were going at the Meta, Carmack paid tribute to his latest virtual reality headset, the Quest 2, in his resignation letter. He described the headset as “almost exactly what I wanted to see from the start” during his tenure at Oculus.

“It works, and successful products make the world a better place,” Carmack said of Quest 2. “Everything could have happened a little faster and better if different decisions had been taken, but we built something Too close to the right.”

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