Palmer Luckey is leaving Oculus
It's been an unlucky year.
Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Luckey, who landed in hot water in 2016 over his support for the pro-Trump "shitposting" group Nimble America, has left the company. According to UploadVR, his last day with Oculus, which was acquired by Facebook in 2013 for a staggering $2 billion, will be tomorrow.
Oculus confirmed Luckey's looming departure in a statement, saying, "Palmer will be dearly missed. Palmer's legacy extends far beyond Oculus. His inventive spirit helped kickstart the modern VR revolution and build an industry. We're thankful for everything he did for Oculus and VR, and we wish him all the best."
Interestingly, it was only a few months ago, following the resignation of Brendan Iribe as Oculus CEO (he remains at the company, however) that Oculus confirmed that Luckey was still at the company, and that "we'll have more to share on his new role soon."
That was the last we'd heard about him until his testimony during the ZeniMax-Oculus lawsuit, which ended in a $500 million victory for ZeniMax when the jury found that Luckey had broken the non-disclosure agreement he'd signed with ZeniMax prior to working with it on early VR hardware.
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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.