250°

John Carmack, the consulting CTO for Meta's virtual-reality efforts, is leaving.

businessinsider writes: "His exit came on Friday, the people said. Carmack, who has been openly critical of Meta's advancements in AR and VR, core to its metaverse ambitions, posted to the company's internal Workplace forum about his decision to leave."

Read Full Story >>
businessinsider.com
BlackIceJoe511d ago

I hope he starts up another new company and can get another new game engine on the market too.

Number1TailzFan511d ago

He's apparently focusing on AGI, Artificial General Intelligence, AKA trying to get AI to be sentient. Which according to Ray Kurzweil could happen by 2029.

Rainbowcookie511d ago

SKYNET approves

SKYNET becomes a follower

SKYNET left the forum

Yui_Suzumiya511d ago

Then I need to look more into this because it sounds like the backbone tech I need to make Projekt Monika a reality.

camel_toad510d ago (Edited 510d ago )

AI advances are really starting to open my eyes to us not even having scratched the surface. But with the field itself growing exponentially and stuff I'd never considered before like putting AI to work finding cures for major diseases - it's exciting but also kinda scary tbh.

More on topic - sentient AI. Creating a digital soul so to speak. Spooky in a what have we done and is it good or bad kind of way.

masterfox511d ago

He is like: "Im done with F#@#$%NG nonsense, pff Metaverse da funk I was thinking!!, Im out!! :D"

Yeah he put a smile in his face too in the end.

Orchard511d ago

I hope he goes back to traditional games.

VR gaming is a flop and the Metaverse has (fortunately) completely failed to take off.

Babadook7511d ago

VR has much more potential than flat screen games. Just need to tap the right market and fund AAA development. Meta is a rotten company though so good to see him leave.

Orchard511d ago (Edited 511d ago )

That's where it becomes a catch-22 problem though. Very few companies (if any) are going to spend AAA amounts of dollars on VR if the market isn't there - and the market isn't there.

If it was the future of gaming we'd see the big publishers getting involved - and basically none of them are.

Agree on Meta 100% - horrible company and I really do hope FB (and social media) dies some day soon.

JackBNimble511d ago

There will never be AAA games until VR sells at the rate of mainstream consoles. Understand that even if Sony do sell 3.5 million VR in the next 2 or 3 years like they hope, that isn't ever going to get any commitments for AAA budget. No investor would ever sign off on that.

Orchard511d ago (Edited 511d ago )

The adoption has been terrible and the market basically non-existent as a result of that.

We're now 10 years into PC VR gaming, 6 years into console VR gaming and it just hasn't taken off - the reality is, most consumers don't care for it.

Even with a huge install base like the PS4, only a few million adopted it, about 3-4%.

ApocalypseShadow511d ago

He only thinks it in his mind. Because Microsoft isn't offering "high fidelity VR." Only Sony is offering "high fidelity VR" because they actually deliver.

I just read today that Honda is moving forward in using VR and has vehicles that were built in VR without an actual real vehicle.

Orchard just doesn't know any better. He claims he's a PlayStation fan but doesn't want Sony to succeed in growing the VR market. But he's okay with Microsoft buying up the industry and game pass. Tell you where his mind is actually at. Or he has investment in it.

But Carmack leaving is only that he was frustrated with higher ups. But he's very interested in AI. And that's a good field of investment too.

JackBNimble511d ago

If any of the big 3 had sales were like VR for their console, they would fold like the Saturn. Right now VR is nothing more then a high priced peripheral and no one should expect AAA for it.

By the way , I am one who would like to see VR succeed, but it has a long way to go before that ever happens.

Orchard511d ago (Edited 511d ago )

@Apocalypse

"Only Sony is offering "high fidelity VR" because they actually deliver."

And the reality is, from what we've seen thus far, the vast majority, about 97% of Sony customers don't care about it in the slightest. They can't even sell out of PSVR2 devices, which are supposedly in short supply. Better to just invest in traditional experiences instead.

"I just read today that Honda is moving forward in using VR and has vehicles that were built in VR without an actual real vehicle."

Yes. And that helps gaming how? I've said time and time again that AR/VR is great for enterprise. Just not great for gaming.

The lack of customers, lack of customer interest, and lack of AAA game companies investing & AAA game experiences being crafted says everything we need to know about the state and future of gaming VR.

tagzskie511d ago

When uncle philly announced true vr experience and demoed fallout 4 in one x, some xboys sings different tune..

Orchard511d ago

@tagzskie Well, those people were wrong.

Knushwood Butt511d ago

'Just not great for gaming.'.

That's your heavily biased opinion. You are in every VR thread trying to project your doom and gloom. Why?

There are many genres where VR is at least equal to or better than flat. VR in a driving game destroys the flat experience.

FPS, horror games, even Tetris is better in VR.

You speak about AAA as if it's the only consideration, moving goalposts.

Capcom.

Are they not a AAA publisher?

Is RE4 not a AAA game? RE7? RE8?

Hofstaderman511d ago (Edited 511d ago )

The Metaverse is one big flop but VR gaming on its own still has steam and growth potential. Remember Mark and his Meta wants you to associate gaming with the meta verse the gaming industry and its large number of users has the capacity to sway the opinion of the mass market.
Incidentally, Meta is haemorrhaging money and expertise that’s what this article is highlighting.

ApocalypseShadow511d ago

See, the problem orchard is that you see what you want to see. Sony sold PSVR at profit. They made money on software. They made money on a 10 year old peripheral. Yeah. It didn't sell 100 million. How many games sell bucket loads when they cost almost 10 times less than PSVR was at launch? That's why the new headset is coming. Before, there was no console VR. There is now. To grow the market, you must keep pushing and not be afraid like Microsoft. Facebook, HTC, ByteDance, Varjo, Valve, Sony, etc are growing the gaming market. Did flat gaming sell millions overnight? No. It took time. Just like any other product. Fads fade. VR is not a fad because it has potential in many areas. Sony doesn't want PS VR 2 to be a Kinect. A fad. Millions on advertising but no substance. It's why PS Move still exists and works on PS5. And Kinect is dead. Move had substance. PSVR had substance. Which is why PS VR 2 exists.

Honda is an example of VR entering other sectors. It's fairly obvious that it "ain't no 3D TV." Bugatti also uses VR as well as other car manufacturers. VR is here to stay. I know it hurts you that it's growing bedsides flat gaming being successful too. Just like mobile.

You just like to lie to yourself and others. VR is in education, in construction, in the automotive industry, medicine, real estate, music.... AND GAMING. The market wasn't there. Now it's here and it's growing in every sector besides gaming. But you want it to jump out there immediately like some viral video or fad. That's not how it works.

Chances are, you developed something, because you call yourself a developer. And no one wanted your product. So you're projecting.But there are other companies and developers who are successful in making VR work. You just sucked at it.

You claim Sony isn't selling out on pre-orders. But you don't even know what numbers they have allocated. Or how many they are producing to meet demand. You just pull it out from you know where and lie to everyone that Sony is failing. Sony has said they will have headsets for launch and not have to worry about production. What do you have that goes against Sony's statements on the matter? Absolutely nothing. Put up your facts against Sony's production lines?

But tell us. What software you made for VR that failed so that we all can know where your mindset is?

Orchard510d ago

@Knush You just highlighted the problem perfectly - the only AAA taking part in console VR is Capcom. Where is COD VR? Battlefield VR, GTA VR? All the big pubs are skipping on it because they don’t believe in its future - if they did they’d be investing in it now.

@Apocalyspe At the time I thought MS were insane for not getting into VR, but looking back on it, given where we are now, that seems like a very smart decision.

Honda making VR for car showrooms or whatever means nothing for gaming. The vast majority of gamers - PS gamers included - don’t care in the slightest about VR. The numbers show that.

I’ve never worked on a VR game nor do I want to. The market being non-existent means salaries are substantially lower when compared to AAA salaries. I wouldn’t take the pay cut - I’ve been in AAA since graduating college, and I intend to keep it that way.

But that’s also the good point of being a developer, ultimately it doesn’t really matter to me if the game sells well or poorly - I still get paid the same at the end of the day.

It’s funny that you mention Kinect because I consider the Kinect a failure too - but it still had 4x the sales of PSVR and a way higher attach rate.

We are supposedly still in the tail end of a chip shortage, so clearly we would expect a new device like PSVR to sell out - Sony themselves were too or they wouldn’t have done invites to get one initially - they thought it was going to be difficult for people to get one (so did many on here) but when it turned out it wasn’t they opened it up to everyone.

Clearly it isn’t moving as many units as they’d anticipated.

Come talk to me when we’re all sitting in our living rooms with VR headsets on and the attach rate is so high they ship it in the box as the default controller method - so I guess I won’t ever be hearing from you again :p

Knushwood Butt510d ago

@Orchard

'the only AAA taking part in console VR is Capcom'.

No, EA and Ubisoft have VR games on console.

https://www.ea.com/games/f1...

+ Show (8) more repliesLast reply 510d ago
Stanjara511d ago

Problem with VR is that it hasn't have legs. Everything from mevement, enemies, pacing, puzzles has to take that into equation.

511d ago Replies(2)
Hofstaderman511d ago

I agree with you. I remember when Second Life was as the dogs bollocks and big business had store fronts or ambassador land parcels but soon discovered that it was pie in the sky. Second Life is still operational but only frequented by a stagnant population of people who were with it since it’s launch. New people sign up to try it out but tend to not stay. People want to browse the internet or use it to play games not live in it.

generic-user-name511d ago

"And yet, you can provide me no evidence to the contrary."

Compare sales of gen 1 VR headsets with sales of gen 1 home consoles.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 510d ago
XxINFERNUSxX511d ago

One of if not, the best game engine developer in the world. I hope he gets back into developing game engines.

Orchard511d ago

I could see him in some kind of director role at Epic games working on Unreal Engine. That would be pretty cool.

MadLad511d ago

I would hope he stays away from modern day Epic.

Orchard511d ago

@Mad Depends. Their engine & online services are highly impressive and very advanced.

The games on the other hand... Fortnite... no thanks.

Wrex369511d ago

They need to stick VR back in RnD departments everywhere that or let the porn industry lead the way like everything else that's been introduced then brought to mass market after porn made it a thing lmfao

Number1TailzFan511d ago

Yea VR has that virt-a-mate thing which seems to be quite popular with adult Quest 2 owners, but i mean there is Half Life Alyx, few other things.. nothing huge after those so far.

Show all comments (39)
210°

Report: Sexual Misconduct Investigation Conducted at EA, Suspects Named and What They Did Revealed

EA senior staff has been investigated for sexual misconduct involving female coworkers, and these said people have been named publicly.

isarai10h ago

Aye just call Phil, i mean he somehow made Bobby Kotick's scandal disappear and gave him a few million dollar high five on the way out.

Cacabunga1h ago

I wonder if it will be censored with some in game ads.

XiNatsuDragnel7h ago(Edited 7h ago)

EA about to go down like Activision and then Phil saves the day saying.this is good for the industry and consolidation will help create competition. /s.

ravens525h ago

What's up with all these horny creeps. You gon be horny, fine. Just not at work take care of that shit before you go in. Rub one out if you have to. Don't be a creep at all. ESPECIALLY at work. But don't be one AT ALL.

Extermin8or3_43m ago

I mean part of the issue is that things transpired outside of work....

KwietStorm_BLM33m ago

You think deviants care where they are? Work sometimes makes it an even better situation for them because they can abuse their power.

NotoriousWhiz5h ago(Edited 5h ago)

"it seems that according to EA, given the events transpired outside of work between two adults, and the fact that once investigation has started that the alleged perpetrators didn’t do it again, the investigation is considered closed. [...] The victim still has to work with the people that harassed her."

Yep, EA is disgusting.

Extermin8or3_38m ago

I mean the fact stuff happened outside of work puts EA in quite a difficult position legally. These women don't seem to have reported the matter to the police which kinda ties EA's hands on what they can do. If they don't file reports of the crimes then yeah from EA's perspective it is stuff that happened outside of work. The only exception is the guy that apparently referenced things in the slack channel for work, spending on what he said proving it may be very hard and he may well be able to get away with plausible deniability. I don't like EA and I think these people need to be dismissed but without any legal action being taken, EA can't really do much without risk of being sued themselves for unfair dismissal etc.

Show all comments (14)
260°

More Job Losses At Xbox, “There’s More To Come”: Paul Thurrott

Paul Thurrott in a recent episode commented on the on-going Microsoft fiasco hinting at more job losses and that "there's more to come".

Read Full Story >>
spieltimes.com
Sonic188118h ago(Edited 18h ago)

There won't be no more acquiring game publishers from Microsoft in the future . Xbox has to pay Microsoft back. It might take two decades to do that.

sagapo14h ago(Edited 14h ago)

I don’t understand what you’re saying. Xbox IS microsoft so there’s no “paying back “.
And MS gross profit in 2023 was over 140 billion dollars so forget your 2 decades.

Unless you mean the money MS invested in Xbox (acquisitions included) and the time it will take for xbox as a brand to gain that money back on it’s own, then yeah, that could take a while.

romulus238h ago

The better term to use might be return on investment, xbox is simply a division of Microsoft one that MS can easily do away with if profit margins are not met. So in that regard he's right, if xbox isn't showing the expected return on investment the higher ups are expecting than it's unlikely Microsoft will acquire any other studios any time soon, especially if they are spending billions buying developers just to shut them down in the end.

MrBaskerville1h ago(Edited 1h ago)

Xbox is a division that they discussed shutting down but doubled down on after Gamepass was pitched.

It needs to make money at some point. Big money.

SonyStyled14h ago

“There won't be no more acquiring game publishers from Microsoft in the future”

No bro, there do be is for Microsoft not acquiring for what is now if not what it be is 😂

12h agoReplies(2)
ChasterMies2h ago

Xbox isn’t a separate company from Microsoft. It’s all Microsoft.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 31m ago
jwillj2k417h ago

There really needs to be a class action lawsuit here. You buy these companies just to put people out of jobs. And it’s not like something happened to derail their plans this WAS the plan. Microsoft has no business in this space at all.

franwex17h ago(Edited 17h ago)

Microsoft has been doing this for years. They simply want the IPs. Look at Nokia. Look at Skype. This time it simply expanded to games. Gaming is not as important to Microsoft’s executives as it was to the founders too. Bill Gates was willing to sell the og Xbox at a loss. Steve Balmer approved the red ring of death fiasco. This CEO isn’t really a gamer.

-Foxtrot16h ago

Maybe it's time though to put a stop to it and use a big giant like Microsoft as a huge example to the rest of these big companies.

There has to be a line drawn somewhere.

People like the FTC and the like went against Microsoft yet their Actvision deal was still allowed to go through yet look what's happened...it's not even Acitivisions studios aswell, it's Bethesdas.

RNTody17h ago

Ninja Theory, Perfect Dark, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Wolfenstein 3, Dishonored, Prey, Doom, Quake... something tells me that bad things are going to happen to these entities under Microsoft.

MrDead6h ago

ID software, the makers of Doom and Wolfenstein that have been with us since 1991 could be gone and MS will keep the IPs.

I hope some of these studios can buy their freedom from MS otherwise this is going to be even more devastating for the industry and gamers.

Yui_Suzumiya4h ago(Edited 4h ago)

That's exactly what I'm worried about. I've been a fan of id since Wolfenstein 3D and I'm honestly afraid.

anast16h ago

Good thing the bosses of all those small studios made their money.

glenn197915h ago

they cant do it right now they will get burned

Show all comments (43)
170°

Xbox No Longer Has Its Head In The Game

Microsoft & Xbox have shut down Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks to lay off more workers, insinuating that they're not in the game anymore.

XiNatsuDragnel1d 1h ago

They're headless for a long time because closing tango isn't exactly a good move

PapaBop4h ago

Ever since that cringe Kinect reveal they've never been the same. They used to make some amazing games and do great deals with third parties Early on in the 360 era they had games like Chromehounds and Shadowrun, both well ahead of their time. Now instead of nurturing their studios, they'd rather gaslight gamers and throw billions on pre existing studios. Not sure how Spencer is still in a job, I wouldn't trust him to organise a piss-up in a brewery.

Father__Merrin3h ago

We've said all along Spencer needs to go. I wish xbox went back to xbox only with new gears fable forza halo releases lots of third party releases

Those early rainbow 6 Vegas days and phantasy star universe are gone forever

S2Killinit1h ago

MS has its head in the game but the game they are playing is something different from what console gamers expect from a platform. MS’s end game has always been to use the xbox as a trojan horse.

1Victor21h ago

“Acquisitions always come with cuts”

343 trillion points shield activated
343 trillion percent damage negate activated
All damage reduced to 1 for 343 trillion turns.
MICROSOFT DEFENSE FORCE IS A GO

Tacoboto20h ago

Especially for Microsoft, when Booty pretty much said they didn't know how to handle that many studios.

Why even make the acquisition then.

-Foxtrot20h ago

Didn’t they make the swipe for Bethesda when Sony wanted like 6 months exclusiveness for Starfield

It’s like…chill, you got Rise of the Tomb Raider for a year.

romulus2319h ago

Do they always come with senseless cuts becasue that's exactly what cutting Tango was, senseless.

H921h ago

Everyone's acting now that game companies care about games and Xbox is committing the Ultimate betrayal, they are all like this and you have just been quiet about it for far too long

Nuclearmoon20h ago

I wonder if Microsoft do pull out of the console market that it might open the door for valve to relaunch the Steambox. Competition is good for the industry but Microsoft don't even seem to be trying anymore.

UltimateOwnage16h ago

Steam / Valve are one of the few truly pro-consumer bright spots in gaming right now. Thankfully.

jwillj2k419h ago(Edited 19h ago)

“Your game has won some pretty significant awards and is a show piece for where we want to go in the future.”

1 hour later.

“We’re gonna have to let you go. You can’t cover our 100 billion dollar acquisition. Oh and take your awards too 👍🏾”

Show all comments (23)