In news that you may have seen coming, John Carmack has resigned from his position at Id Software, the Company he co-founded.
Being immersed in the world of VR, it’s sometimes easy to lose track of how far commercial Virtual Reality, a dead industry just 18 months ago, has come. And if there’s one man who can claim credit for selling the pile of gaffer tape and ski goggles that eventually became the Oculus Rift into the public’s face, it’s him.
Today, the story that started at E3 in 2012 enters a new chapter. IGN reports that John Carmack has now officially resigned from the company he helped found way back in 1991. Tom Willits, Studio Director at Id said:
John Carmack, who has become interested in focusing on things other than game development at id, has resigned from the studio. John’s work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete, and his departure will not affect any current projects. We are fortunate to have a brilliant group of programmers at id who worked with John and will carry on id’s tradition of making great games with cutting-edge technology. As colleagues of John for many years, we wish him well.”
John Carmack has been occupying two posts at both Id and Oculus VR since his appointment as CTO back in August – and has been front and centre ever enthusing about his work in VR ever since. The enthusiasm for his new role and the technology he’s working on is evident and Willit’s comments above read as understandably bitter.
Oculus VR have been quiet regarding the announcement thus far, but finally having the question of where Carmack’s energies are focused finally answered must come as a small relief. With any luck we’ll find out soon what secret project he’s been talking about in several interviews – Positional Tracking, Stereo Front Mounted Cameras, Nvidia Gsync support, 4k Panels or perhaps a new form of input device? All of the above perhaps.