Recently updated on December 27th, 2019 at 04:57 pm
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| John Carmack wearing Oculus Rift. (Image Credit: PCWorld) |
In the latest news, John Carmack, the father of Quake & Doom games, is being accused by his former employer, ZeniMax of taking the company’s VR technology intellectual property to Oculus VR, which is now his current employer. As you know, Oculus VR is the manufacturer of the hottest virtual reality headgear at this moment, Oculus Rift.
Before coming onboard at Oculus VR, John Carmack was working with Id Software which he co-founded and the company owned by ZeniMax Media. For info, ZeniMax also owned other game studios such as Bethesda Game Studios and Arkane Studios. On November 2013, John Carmack quit from Id Software so he can fully focus on the virtual reality project at Oculus VR as the CTO.
From ZeniMax point of view, since Carmack already working on his virtual reality project since August 2013 while he is still with ZeniMax, then ZeniMax should also have some interest in the VR technology developed by him. Furthermore, in 2012 and 2013, ZeniMax claims to provide support and assistance to Palmer Luckey, the Oculus VR founder, and other Oculus VR employees in order to make Oculus Rift a working and most successfuly VR product in the market.
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Now that Facebook already acquired Oculus VR for $2 billion, the situation might become much more complicated for all parties including Facebook. Perhaps, the only way to resolve this is to look back at the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) signed between Palmer Luckey and Id Software on May 2012. It is too early to conclude anything since it is still at early stage and we just wait for more to come.
For more info, you can read it at:
1) “Zenimax going after John Carmack and Oculus VR for intellectual property theft” from PCWorld.
2) “Oculus and Facebook face legal challenge from John Carmack’s former employer” from The Verge.
3) “John Carmack’s former employer claims he stole tech for Oculus VR when he left” from Engadget.
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