Carmack is departing Meta to work full-time on his AI firm Keen Technologies, but on his way out, he has some harsh words for the company’s culture.
John Carmack, the legendary game creator, has resigned from his role as Meta’s consulting CTO for VR. Carmack, well renowned for his work on the games Doom and Quake, has announced his departure to focus full-time on his AI business Keen Technologies.
Carmack posted his internal resignation letter on Facebook. It contains some harsh parting shots at Meta, which he continually condemns for being “inefficient.
Carmack claims that the corporation is working at “half the efficacy that would make me pleased,” and that despite having a “voice at the highest levels,” he is “clearly not persuasive enough” to change its culture.
However, Carmack claims that Meta can still alter. “I have my own business to manage, but the battle is still winnable! “Perhaps it is conceivable to get there by simply continuing with present processes, but there is lots of space for improvement,” he adds, before adding, “Make better judgments and fill your goods with ‘Give a Damn!'”
In a tweet on Friday, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth congratulated Carmack for his contributions to the firm, praising his “technical prowess” and “relentless dedication on generating value for people.” He went on to say that it’s “difficult to overestimate” Carmack’s influence on Meta’s VR development and “the industry as a whole.”
@ID_AA_Carmack, it is impossible to overstate the impact you’ve had on our work and the industry as a whole. Your technical prowess is widely known, but it is your relentless focus on creating value for people that we will remember most. Thank you and see you in VR.
— Boz (@boztank) December 17, 2022
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.
