Meta VR Consultant John Carmack Leaves Company; Criticizes Inefficiencies of VR and Metaverse Projects

John Carmack, the founder of renowned company ID Software and executive consultant on VR for Meta, has announced he is leaving Meta. Among the reasons for this departure, Carmack signals that there are inefficiencies and self-sabotage at Meta that have affected the work that the company is doing regarding its VR (virtual reality) and metaverse efforts.

John Carmack Abandons Meta

Meta (formerly Facebook), the social network and metaverse company, has lost one of its leading VR consultants. John Carmack, a founder of ID Software, creators of the Doom franchise of games, has announced his departure from the Meta. In a Facebook post, Carmack explains that his resignation as a VR consultant for the company marks the end of a VR-dedicated decade, and reveals the company is plagued by inefficiencies regarding the work done towards VR and metaverse development.

Carmack explains:

We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort. There is no way to sugar coat this; I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy.

Carmack was part of Oculus as the CTO of the company when Facebook bought it in 2014, and took a consulting role at Facebook in 2019 to dedicate his work to artificial intelligence projects.

Mea Culpa and More

However, John Carmack includes himself as part of the problem, acknowledging he might have done more. As part of his tale of what made him take the decision of leaving, Carmack explains:

I have a voice at the highest levels here, so it feels like I should be able to move things, but I’m evidently not persuasive enough. A good fraction of the things I complain about eventually turn my way after a year or two passes and evidence piles up.

However, not all is bad for Carmack. He gives high praise to the Quest 2, a headset produced by the company that, according to him, is used by millions of people that are getting value out of it. The headset can be considered the current entry-level metaverse and VR headset offered by Meta, having a cost of $400, while the Meta Quest Pro, which has better technical specs, costs $1,500.

Meta’s metaverse pivot has seen the company invest in VR software and hardware R&D, causing losses calculated in the billions, and leading the company to lay off tens of thousands of its employees

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