John Carmack discusses Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus

When Facebook bought Oculus for 2 billion dollars earlier this month, one of the first people fans looked to for answers was John Carmack, the legendary game designer who joined Oculus as Chief Technical Officer last year. Carmack has been relatively silent on the issue, but has now made his thought’s clear on Peter Berkman’s blog. Carmack says he wasn’t expecting the deal, but still has faith that Facebook can see “the big picture.”

Creator of Doom and Chief Technology Officer at Oculus VR John Carmack didn’t necessarily expect it to be Facebook, but said that Oculus had to partner with someone. Carmack commented on a post to Anamanaguchi member Peter Berkman’s blog, which criticized Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus VR. Berkman said he’s worried about Facebook collecting data, creating an “information monopoly,” and the notion that today “companies exist and operate only to be acquired.” In his response, Carmack said that there is a case for being an independent company like Valve and trying to build a new virtual reality ecosystem like Steam from the ground up. “This is probably what most of the passionate fans wanted to see,” he said. “The difference is that, for years, the industry thought Valve was nuts, and they had the field to themselves. Valve deserves all their success for having the vision and perseverance to see it through to the current state.”