Meta's VR CTO John Carmack quits, says firm is inefficient

(Image Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

Gaming industry veteran John Carmack quit as the consulting chief technology officer of Meta Platform’s virtual reality unit, saying the company was not efficient enough and was prone to “self-sabotage”.

Known for his no-nonsense attitude, Carmack, a pioneer of VR technology, was scathing in his review of the Facebook parent in his resignation letter.

In his parting letter posted online, the 52-year-old technologist said everything Meta needed for success was there but the company constantly seemed to "self-sabotage and squander effort".

Carmack said that Meta was "operating at half the effectiveness" and despite being "a voice at the highest levels", he struggled to get things done.

"A good fraction of the things I complain about eventually turn my way after a year or two passes and evidence piles up," Carmack wrote.

"But I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it. I think my influence at the margins has been positive, but it has never been a prime mover."

It was still within Meta's power to win the fight for VR, he added.

"VR can bring value to most of the people in the world, and no company is better positioned to do it than Meta," Carmack said.

Carmack made his name as one of the co-founders of id Software and gave the world many iconic franchises such as Doom, Wolfenstein and Quake.

He is also known for his contributions as a programmer, pioneering state-of-the-art 3D game engines and writing the technology rulebook.

Carmack left id Software in 2013 and joined Oculus VR, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014, as CTO. In 2019, he cut his role to a consulting CTO.

Before joining Oculus in 2013, Carmack founded Armadillo Aerospace, which won NASA's lunar lander challenge in 2008 and a cash prize of $350,000. In 2009, the start-up won another prize worth $500,000. The company was put in “hibernation mode” in 2013.

Carmack will now focus his energies on artificial intelligence and machine learning with his start-up Keen Industries, which he started in 2019.