Industry vet John Carmack leaves Meta after telling the company to "give a damn"

Doom and Quake co-creator, John Carmack, is leaving Meta after "a decade in VR".

The consulting CTO stepped down on Friday, but not before making his feelings about the company and its current direction painfully clear. 

"This is the end of my decade in VR. I have mixed feelings," his note - as seen by Business Insider - began.

"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," he added.

From there, however, Carmack was less complimentary, stating that the "issue" is the company's "efficiency".

After detailing his frustration that although he has "a voice at the highest levels", Carmack said he was seemingly "not persuasive enough" to "kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it".

"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 organization 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!" Carmack added. "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.

"Make better decisions and fill your products with 'Give a Damn!'"

Talking of Quest 2… did you see that today's Epic Games Store festive freebie is Costume Quest 2? (Yes, I'm proud of that segue!). Head on over to the store now if you'd like to add Double Fine's humorous adventure to your library.

"15 Days of Free" is now live, giving away one game every day from now until the end of the year. Each game will only be available for 24 hours - so you'll need to check the store daily to unlock your free gift - but if it follows the trend of previous years, expect a good mix of indie and AAA titles across a wide array of genres. 

Looking to expand your VR library? Here are our tips for the best VR games.