The name John Carmack will bring back memories for many people, especially if you were a gamer in the 90’s. For others, we know him more recently because of his role in VR, having served as Meta’s technical director and consultant for some time since Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus. Except that we just found out that he slams the door and he’s not very affectionate with his former employer.
Credit for select images: Oculus VR
A bitter beginning
We need to contextualize that John Carmack isn’t just anyone. He’s a big name in the tech industry, especially after working in virtual reality for several years. He was previously best known for founding iD Software and games such as Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. His speech is all the more important because his farewell to Meta is accompanied by a devastating note on society. While it’s usually a good time to say that everyone was nice and that they liked their job, Carmack decides to speak his mind instead.
In particular, we understand from his letter that he’s tired of fighting a giant who he thinks is pouring billions into the Reality Labs division to create virtual helmets and try to flesh out their vision of the metaverse. The lack of efficiency of the metaverse seems to be the main reason for his departure.
It’s the end of my decade spent in virtual reality
Still, he remains satisfied with his work on Meta Quest 2, despite mixed public response. Carmack thinks it’s a good product, but is weighed down by Meta’s decisions, particularly the helmet’s price increase.
We have a good product. It’s successful, and successful products make the world a better place. Everything could have gone a little faster and better if different decisions had been made, but we built something pretty close to the right thing. The problem is our efficiency.
The main problem, according to him, is still the lack of efficiency, while enormous resources are used.
We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and waste our efforts. There is no other way to put it, I think our organization operates at half the efficiency that would satisfy me. Some may scoff and claim we’re fine, but others will laugh and say, “Half? Ha! I’m at a quarter of my capacity!
He remains positive about the application of VR in people’s daily lives. The technology, he says, will only continue to spread in the future, and Meta remains in a good position to help spread it.
His departure does not mean the end of his career, because now he wants to devote himself to artificial intelligence with his company Keen Technology. A company he started in Dallas last year to do research on AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). It is therefore certain that we will hear the name John Carmack in the near future.