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John Carmack Really Working With Virtual Reality Pioneer Oculus
Oculus Rift has a new chief technology officer, as id Software co-founder John Carmack comes aboard. He will not be departing id entirely, instead splitting his time between the companies.
Carmack's status with id was confirmed via a tweet from the company's official account.
Happy to say @id_aa_carmack is not leaving id & will continue to provide leadership for our games in development.
— id Software (@idSoftware) August 7, 2013
Additionally, Game Informer received a comment from Bethesda. "John has long been interested in the work at Oculus VR and wishes to spend time on that project," we were told. "The technical leadership he provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected." Carmack is known in part for his work as lead programmer of Doom, Commander Keen, Quake, Rage, and Wolfenstein 3D.
When the Oculus Rift Kickstarter campaign launched, it did so with a recommendation from Carmack. In the pitch video, he's quoted from E3 2012 as saying, "For a certain segment of the population, the hacker/maker crowd, this is going to be awesomely cool to work with."
Our Take
This is exciting news. Carmack will be splitting his time across id Software and Oculus Rift. While QuakeCon this year was absent any news of Doom 4, I'm willing to put some money on it being Oculus-compatible from the moment it gets in the hands of gamers.
I used Oculus Rift for the first time at E3 2013, and I can't wait until Gamescom, when I'll get more opportunities. I believe the headset will change the way we interact with games, and I'm looking forward to owning a consumer model when they are ready.
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