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Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe Steps Down, Will Now Lead PC-Focused VR Team Within Facebook (uploadvr.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the moving-on-to-bigger-and-better-things dept.

The co-founder and CEO of Oculus, Brendan Iribe, is stepping down from the company he helped create with Palmer Luckey over four years ago in Irvine, California. Iribe writes in a statement to UploadVR: "We've decided to establish new PC and mobile VR groups to be more focused, strengthen development and accelerate our roadmap. 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. You do your best work when you love what you're working on. If that's not the case, you need to make a change. With this new role, I can dive back into engineering and product development. That's what gets me up every day, inspired to run to work." UploadVR adds: When we asked Oculus PR what this meant for Max Cohen, the current Head of Mobile at Oculus, we were told that, "he's still focused on mobile and growing the mobile ecosystem on Jon's team." After publication, Oculus PR also informed us of how this affects the roles of Nate Mitchell, VP of Product, and Michael Abrash, Cheif Scientist, upon further inquiry: "Nate will be leading Rift, on Brendan's PC VR team. Michael Abrash still leads Oculus Research on Brendan's team. When asked about John Carmack, CTO, and Michael Antonov, Chief Software Architect, Oculus PR informed us that, "they are both still at Oculus and they work on the mobile team. Michael Antonov is leading the Carmel and ReactVR effort today."

12 comments

  1. Oddly-applicable VR and VR business commentary by Empiric · · Score: 0

    Wretched is the body that is dependent upon a body, and wretched is the soul that is dependent on these two.

    --Thomas

    IMHO, improbable anachronisms don't get enough C-Level executive credence.

    --
    ~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
  2. Drowning in Buzzwords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Re-read those buzzword-laden quotes in OP: "accelerate our roadmap.", "more focused," "where I'm most passionate," "the leading edge of technology", "That's what gets me up every day", "growing the mobile ecosystem", yada yada yada.

    People fall back to Buzzwords when the technology they tried to create becomes an afterthought. They are doomed.

    1. Re:Drowning in Buzzwords by Gordo_1 · · Score: 1

      Leave it to the Slashdot misanthropes to find the negative in everything. Facebook's Oculus Rift, which you evidently haven't even tried, is actually a pretty impressive piece of gear for a 1.0 product release. I suspect they will have a mass market version in a couple years. The people who built it are shuffling themselves a bit to get themselves beyond the startup roles they've been in since 2012. Makes sense to me.

    2. Re:Drowning in Buzzwords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Judging by their hiring habits I'd say Faceshit is looking to shove this Oculus "business" up some ass.

    3. Re:Drowning in Buzzwords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      > Oculus Rift, which you evidently haven't even tried

      > I suspect they will have a mass market version in a couple years.

      Derp derp derp

    4. Re:Drowning in Buzzwords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Oculus Rift, which you evidently haven't even tried, is actually a pretty impressive piece of gear

      It's no HTC Vive.

    5. Re:Drowning in Buzzwords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Oculus Rift, which you evidently haven't even tried, is actually a pretty impressive piece of gear

      It's no HTC Vive.

      Ba Dum Tishhhhhh!

    6. Re:Drowning in Buzzwords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With the recent rise in "out and proud" racists I'd say they are going to move a lot of product.

    7. Re:Drowning in Buzzwords by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rift fans are like Mac Fanboi's. Annoying and with their head up their ass. The Rift is a bad product, and touch doubly so with lots of people posting problems about it on the internet.

      It's obvious to me that the reason the heads are quiet / stepping down is due to the fact that Oculus is going in the wrong direction, and there is no way to change the momentum of the path they've chosen. They had good intentions, but bad decision after bad decision has made the company worse off and now the leads want out.

  3. I nominate Pepe the Frog to take Iribe's place. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sure he's Palmer's first choice.

    1. Re:I nominate Pepe the Frog to take Iribe's place. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Luckey could not be reached for comments, as he was still locked in the basement, drawing swastikas on the wall in crayon.

  4. reverse midas touch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The moment faecebook bought occulus, occulus died. Why? VR needs sensors on. Facebook needs data. There won't be any way to keep sensors on AND not send data to facebook, that won't get squashed in the next update.

    If they gave these things out for free, i might get one and try to block its data-exfiltrating capabilities. The time it'll take is about what the damn thing is worth anyway... but it would be fun. But to PAY for the motherfucking privilege to play cat-and-mouse with some stupid piece of software on regular basis?!

    Fuck no.