As we digest the news today that Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe is stepping down from his role as CEO of the company and moving to head up the PC VR team, we asked Oculus whether Palmer Luckey would be staying with Facebook and Oculus through the transition.
“Palmer is still at Oculus and we’ll have more to share on his new role soon,” is our answer from an Oculus spokesperson.
Luckey’s role at Oculus infamously came into question when an article by The Daily Beast tied him in September to a crude election propaganda group. In the run-up to the bitterly divisive U.S. presidential election, the article left Luckey — once the face of Oculus and virtual reality in general — silent on the public social media channels he used to communicate with VR enthusiasts.
He issued an apology, saying “I am deeply sorry that my actions are negatively impacting the perception of Oculus and its partners,” but hasn’t been heard from since. We’ve been checking in from time to time to make sure he is still there at Facebook, and with today’s revelation of Iribe’s move we’ve confirmed again that he’s still an active part of the company that he, Iribe and others sold to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014.
We’re super curious to find out now what role he will be finding at the company going forward. With Oculus Touch shipping and a whole set of great games already out, and more on the way, Facebook seems to be ready to transition to its next steps in VR. How Luckey fits into that future will be interesting to see.
