Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe Steps Down

[HardOCP News]

I'm not sure what is behind this move but it's a pretty big announcement. While the press release says all the normal stuff people say when they are stepping down from a CEO position, I do like what Iribe said about heading up the PC VR group.

Changing the world on that scale has required us to also scale Oculus at warp speed. With our growth and product strategy, 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.

 

[maxius]

Facebook does not see Occulus in the same light as the occulus staff saw it before the acquisition. Hit a big mall and look for the facebook booth you will sees exactly what im saying.

 

[Sonicks]

Facebook does not see Occulus in the same light as the occulus staff saw it before the acquisition. Hit a big mall and look for the facebook booth you will sees exactly what im saying.

Meh. People need to stop using their parent company, Facebook, as any kind of scapegoat to be honest.

If I did have to pull some theory out of my ass though, I'd bet this has something to do with the Zenimax lawsuit.

 

[Coznefx]

My guess is that internal sales targets were not reached, so that's why facebook is installing a new CEO. Iribe and his crew that he's had with him at Scaleform, Gaikai, and Oculus (Mitchel and Antonov) are probably waiting for their stocks to vest before leaving to begin another startup.

 

[SeymourGore]

Any sighting of Luckey anywhere? Or does Facebook still have him hidden in their detention centre?

 

[pj-]

Assuming it was voluntary, I'd probably want to do the same. Mobile VR seems like it wouldn't be that fun to work on. It's like real VR except everything is harder and the end result is less impressive.

Work on the cutting edge tech and hire someone else to be the figurehead.

Edit: Oculus says they're going to hire someone new, but the person won't have the title of CEO. They are probably redefining what Iribe's former position was, and making it mostly bureaucratic and an interface to the larger facebook organization.

We'll never know the true reason for the move but I'd say not unlikely that he wants this and that it isn't punishment for fucking something up

 

[NickJames]

Any sighting of Luckey anywhere? Or does Facebook still have him hidden in their detention centre?

He hasn't been active on social media lately since he started sounding like an ass during the Oculus delays. Anyway if you were worth almost a billion dollars and constantly berated for selling out would you bother to show your face in public? Fuck that! I'd be sipping on cocktails with my feet in the sand.

 

[nvgrim]

He hasn't been active on social media lately since he started sounding like an ass during the Oculus delays. Anyway if you were worth almost a billion dollars and constantly berated for selling out would you bother to show your face in public? Fuck that! I'd be sipping on cocktails with my feet in the sand.

He has been in hiding ever since he was exposed in being part of a troll group from trump fans. He was like donating them money or something, him and his GF. Gizmodo does a "lucky watch" article everyday because they have nothing else to do and have a hard on for berating anyone that isnt a left winged SJW.

 

[NickJames]

He has been in hiding ever since he was exposed in being part of a troll group from trump fans. He was like donating them money or something, him and his GF. Gizmodo does a "lucky watch" article everyday because they have nothing else to do and have a hard on for berating anyone that isnt a left winged SJW.

Oh yeah I forgot about that. Meh politics.

 

[Sonicks]

He hasn't been active on social media lately since he started sounding like an ass during the Oculus delays. Anyway if you were worth almost a billion dollars and constantly berated for selling out would you bother to show your face in public? Fuck that! I'd be sipping on cocktails with my feet in the sand.

Actually, he's been straight up silenced by Oculus after it came to light he was personally funding some hate-speech laced pro-Trump memes and putting them up on billboards.

EDIT: I was beaten to it by nvgrim.

 

[Nenu]

I hope he gets their act together to sell accessories and non durable parts for the Rift.
Its been out nearly a year and they still dont sell face foam even!
There are quite a few businesses established selling many variations and new mounts for them, they charge a lot for a basic item.
They really missed a trick here.

On the other side of the fence I had my first experience of support and its the nicest of any company I have had.
They read and responded to every point and were extremely pleasant to boot.
Kudos.

A far cry from HTC who didnt respond once and I really tried hard to get assistance.
I ended up cancelling my Vive order and they didnt even come to collect it.
Got a refund via the bank and a Vive still in its box lol.
Dumbasses.

 

[zazzn]

My 2 cents, is GOOD. My buying experience was horrible, and I've been VERY disappointed in my oculus. It sits collecting dust, and I'm going to simply sell it on Ebay now at a few hundred dollar loss. Honestly, everything interaction with oculus has left a sour taste in my mouth. Their website sucked so bad for preorder lookups and account linking, their game line up wasn't great, their "store" was bad the first few times I used it and offered NO REFUNDS. All I can say is I can't be happier to rid myself of this device. It was one of the things I anticipated SOOOOO badly all summer long. IMO the technology just is not quite there yet, the pixel density is terrible, and the lenses to make you feel immersed make everything look really bad because of god rays and small focal point. I'd rather them just put the screen very close to my eyes in a curved screen to make it feel more realistic bottom line it's certainly not worth the money they are asking for it IMO. To me, this is a product that should cost no more than 200$

 

[spugm1r3]

Whether or not he screwed up, or whether or not it is related to the Zenimax suit, one could hope this might signal the opportunity to increase the Rift's potential on the PC. It seems almost intentional the way the Rift has avoided peripherals, and I think it has hurt its growth. Things like room-scale and controllers are a big part of the immersion, and the Vive is killing them on that front. I want to see AMD/Intel of the 90s... not AMD/Intel post 2007.

 

[Seventyfive]

My 2 cents, is GOOD. My buying experience was horrible, and I've been VERY disappointed in my oculus. It sits collecting dust, and I'm going to simply sell it on Ebay now at a few hundred dollar loss. Honestly, everything interaction with oculus has left a sour taste in my mouth. Their website sucked so bad for preorder lookups and account linking, their game line up wasn't great, their "store" was bad the first few times I used it and offered NO REFUNDS. All I can say is I can't be happier to rid myself of this device. It was one of the things I anticipated SOOOOO badly all summer long. IMO the technology just is not quite there yet, the pixel density is terrible, and the lenses to make you feel immersed make everything look really bad because of god rays and small focal point. I'd rather them just put the screen very close to my eyes in a curved screen to make it feel more realistic bottom line it's certainly not worth the money they are asking for it IMO. To me, this is a product that should cost no more than 200$

I have to admit, I'm also thinking of selling mine. $200 more for Touch, to a company I hate, just to play a few new titles doesn't sound appealing. Maybe at some point I jump back in on the Vive Gen 2 but I'll never buy another Oculus product again.

 

[EdZ]

Bit of a storm in a teacup: Iribe is still heading the part of Oculus he was already running (hardware & product development), but now instead of Oculus being one big organisation with a bit that did Mobile VR, a bit that did PC hardware, a bit that did game development, etc, it is now has two more formal internal divisions for PC VR and Mobile VR, with Iribe heading the PC VR portion (along with everyone else already working on that, Mitchell, Abrash, Carmack, etc). Iribe has always seemed to be more interested in the actual product development anyway than the day-to-day running of a company (about 95% bureaucracy), so this works out well for him.

 

[Bigc208]

I have to admit, I'm also thinking of selling mine. $200 more for Touch, to a company I hate, just to play a few new titles doesn't sound appealing. Maybe at some point I jump back in on the Vive Gen 2 but I'll never buy another Oculus product again.

I got mine at the pre-order. Thought about canceling a few times with all the delay drama. When it finally came I was glad I kept it because of the combat flightsim use I'm getting out of it. Lack of software and Touch would've made me send it back otherwise. Now, with the Touch controller, it actually got me back into gaming the way I have not done in 10 years. Dead and burried is a blast and Super Hot is fantastic on a level I'd never expected. That last game alone is worth the $800 admission and wait. If you need the money or hate the company sell it but try at least Super Hot. You'll never look at the Matrix the same way again.