Bethesda’s Parent Company ZeniMax Accuses John Carmack of Stealing “Thousands of Documents” Developing Oculus

A couple of years ago, in 2014 to be specific, Zeminax and Oculus Rift developer Palmer Luckey went to court, with the latter getting accused of using his position at Zenimax to acquire the technology to develop Oculus. Forward to today, and the flame has rekindled, with the company claiming that Luckey didn’t just use their technology, but also “secretly and illegally copied thousands of documents.”

The amended complaint, via GameInformer, isn’t backing away from suing Oculus’ current chief technology officer John Carmack. It contained a detailed description of what happened, and how he was able to gain access to the documents and technology while working at Zenimax.

“Before leaving ZeniMax, Carmack secretly and illegally copied thousands of documents containing ZeniMax’s intellectual property from his computer at ZeniMax to a USB storage device which he wrongfully took with him to Oculus. After he had joined Oculus, Carmack returned to ZeniMax’s premises and took without permission a customised tool that Carmack and other ZeniMax personnel had developed for work on virtual reality.”

“Carmack was given a copy of the prototype by Luckey, and Carmack and other ZeniMax personnel added numerous improvements to the prototype. Together, those ZeniMax employees literally transformed the Rift by adding physical hardware components and developing specialized software for its operation.”

Eurogamer reached out to Oculus, and they responded confidently, describing the allegations as “one-sided and conveys only ZeniMax’s interpretation of the story.”