Controversial Oculus Rift founder Palmer Luckey, who has been in the line of fire a lot over the last year due to his highly publicized hardlined political views, as well as the legal proceedings with Zenimax, is no longer working at Oculus, Facebook has confirmed. Luckey is no longer going to be associated with the brand.
“Palmer will be dearly missed,” Facebook said in a statement. “Palmer’s legacy extends far beyond Oculus. His inventive spirit helped kickstart the modern VR revolution and helped build an industry. We’re thankful for everything he did for Oculus and VR, and we wish him all the best.”
The exact circumstances surrounding his departure are unclear- whether he retired voluntarily to recede from the public eye, or was fired because of the bad PR and negativity he was bringing to the brand by association, or has decided to pursue other projects- Facebook itself refuses to comment on that, citing an internal policy about not discussing employee dealings.
Which to me is fishy, and reinforces the notion that something did happen that Facebook would rather not discuss in public- but at this point, given Luckey’s departure, that is water under the bridge.
[UploadVR]