John Carmack Leaves Meta, Cites Company ‘Inefficiency’

Famous gaming developer, John Carmack, has resigned from his position as a consulting CTO for VR at Meta, Business Insider has reported(Opens in a new window).

The tech industry leader, widely known for his work on the games Doom and Quake, said he was leaving to focus full-time on his AI startup Keen Technologies.

Carmack shared his internal resignation note in a post(Opens in a new window) on his personal Facebook page.

The post included some frank parting shots at Meta, which he repeatedly criticized for being “inefficient”. ”His complaints included that the company was 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 added it was 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 wrote, 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(Opens in a new window) on Friday, complimenting his “technical prowess” and “relentless focus on creating value for people.” He added that it was “impossible to overstate the impact” Carmack had on Meta’s VR work and “on the industry as a whole.”

Tweet(Opens in a new window)

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(Opens in a new window)” in virtual reality, and criticized the company’s decision to kill off his mobile efforts with the Samsung Gear VR as a “missed(Opens in a new window)” opportunity.

Back in August Carmack tweeted(Opens in a new window) that had been splitting his time 80/20 between his new startup Keen Technologies(Opens in a new window), and Meta.

PCMag contacted Meta for comment on Carmack’s resignation but Meta did not immediately respond.

In July, the company raised the price(Opens in a new window) 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.