Doom veteran John Carmack leaves Meta with fiery exit letter: “Give a damn”

Doom and Quake co-creator John Carmack has left his position at Meta, telling the company: “Give a damn.”

Carmack, who held the role of consulting Chief Technology Officer, shared an angry note with his employers before stepping down.

The note, seen by Business Insider, read: “This is the end of my decade in VR. I have mixed feelings.

“Quest 2 is almost exactly what I wanted to see from the beginning – mobile hardware, inside out tracking, optional PC streaming, 4k (ish) screen, cost effective. Despite all the complaints I have about our software, millions of people are still getting value out of it.

“We have a good product. It is successful, and successful products make the world a better place. It all could have happened a bit faster and been going better if different decisions had been made, but we built something pretty close to The Right Thing,” Carmack added.

Going on to criticise the company’s “efficiency,” Carmack said: “We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort. There is no way to sugarcoat this; I think our organisation is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy. Some may scoff and contend we are doing just fine, but others will laugh and say, ‘Half? Ha! I’m at quarter efficiency!’

“Enough complaining. I wearied of the fight and have my own startup to run, but the fight is still winnable! VR can bring value to most of the people in the world, and no company is better positioned to do it than Meta. Maybe it is actually possible to get there by just plowing ahead with current practices, but there is plenty of room for improvement.

The message ended: “Make better decisions and fill your products with ‘Give a Damn!’”

Elsewhere at Meta, the company recently announced the purchase of three game development studios, including the teams behind Iron Man VR and Resident Evil 4 VR.