In a post to the company’s official blog, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe confirms he’ll be stepping down from the company’s top position to head the new PC VR group. Founder Palmer Luckey will also land in a new role.
Brendan Iribe was one of Oculus founding team members back when the company formed in 2012. He’s held the role of CEO ever since, including through the company’s 2014 acquisition by Facebook. Now, following the launch of the Rift headset and Touch controllers in 2016, Iribe confirms he’ll be stepping away from the CEO role to head a new, internal PC-focused VR group, which will operate alongside a Mobile-focused VR group within the company.
“…we’ve decided to establish new PC and mobile VR groups to be more focused, strengthen development and accelerate our roadmap,” Iribe writes. “Looking ahead and thinking about where I’m most passionate, I’ve decided to lead the PC VR group—pushing the state of VR forward with Rift, research and computer vision. As we’ve grown, I really missed the deep, day-to-day involvement in building a brand new product on the leading edge of technology.”
At present, that leaves Oculus without a executive head. Iribe says that he, along with Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer, and Jon Thomason will seek a new leader for the Oculus team. Thomason recently joined Oculus to head the Mobile VR group, and has worked previously as the VP of mobile shopping at Amazon.
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, who has shied away from the spotlight following community and developer backlash to his association with a polarizing political group, remains with the company and will be taking on a new role, Oculus confirmed to The Verge. So far that role is undisclosed, though the companys says more details on Luckey role will be made available soon.
