The company behind the Oculus VR headset has secured a major addition: the creator of 'Doom.'
Oculus has confirmed that John Carmack, the co-founder of video game studio id Software, has been named the company's chief technology officer. Carmack will lead development for Oculus from a new studio in Dallas, near id headquarters.
"John's early experiments with the Rift put Oculus on the map and helped create an amazing amount of momentum around virtual reality," says Oculus founder Palmer Luckey in a statement. "His technical genius and passion for solving hard problems makes him the ideal CTO."
Although Carmack will take on a new role with Oculus, the game designer will remain with id. "John has long been interested in the work at Oculus VR and wishes to spend time on that project," reads a statement from video game publisher Bethesda Softworks, whose parent company ZeniMax acquired id Software in 2009. "The technical leadership he provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected."
Carmack is recognized as one of the video game industry's brightest designers, having creating popular PC franchises including Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein.
"The dream of VR has been simmering in the background for decades, but now, the people and technologies are finally aligning to allow it to reach the potential we imagined," said Carmack in a statement. "I'm extremely excited to make a mark in what I truly believe will be a transformative technology."
The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that displays video games in stereoscopic 3-D. The headset raised $2.4 million through Kickstarter, wooing game developers including Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson.
In June, Oculus secured $16 million in funds to help create and sell versions of Rift to consumers.
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @bam923.
Oculus has confirmed that John Carmack, the co-founder of video game studio id Software, has been named the company's chief technology officer. Carmack will lead development for Oculus from a new studio in Dallas, near id headquarters.
"John's early experiments with the Rift put Oculus on the map and helped create an amazing amount of momentum around virtual reality," says Oculus founder Palmer Luckey in a statement. "His technical genius and passion for solving hard problems makes him the ideal CTO."
Although Carmack will take on a new role with Oculus, the game designer will remain with id. "John has long been interested in the work at Oculus VR and wishes to spend time on that project," reads a statement from video game publisher Bethesda Softworks, whose parent company ZeniMax acquired id Software in 2009. "The technical leadership he provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected."
Carmack is recognized as one of the video game industry's brightest designers, having creating popular PC franchises including Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein.
"The dream of VR has been simmering in the background for decades, but now, the people and technologies are finally aligning to allow it to reach the potential we imagined," said Carmack in a statement. "I'm extremely excited to make a mark in what I truly believe will be a transformative technology."
The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that displays video games in stereoscopic 3-D. The headset raised $2.4 million through Kickstarter, wooing game developers including Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson.
In June, Oculus secured $16 million in funds to help create and sell versions of Rift to consumers.
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @bam923.