John Carmack Joins Oculus VR as Chief Technology Officer

John Carmack, co-founder of id Software and co-creator of Doom, has joined the Oculus team as their Chief Technology Officer (CTO).  He will be leading development from their new office in Dallas, TX. 

But what does this mean for his position at id?  In a tweet from the company:

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

Whew.

In a press release, Carmack had this to say:  

“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. I’m extremely excited to make a mark in what I truly believe will be a transformative technology.”

When one of the “Gods of Gaming” says something like that… you should probably listen. Carmack has been on the cutting edge of PC gaming since the dawn of the industry. He’s programmed several of the industries most groundbreaking games, and over the years has been instrumental in developing key changes to real-time computer graphics.  In 2001 he was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame, won two Emmy awards (in 2006 and 2007) for his work in graphics technology , and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the GDC in 2010.

So it makes a whole lot of sense for him to be a part of the next big graphical thing. 

“To build the best virtual reality experience, we’re putting together a team of the brightest minds, and John Carmack is at the top of the list. It’s a true honor,” said Brendan Iribe, cofounder and CEO, Oculus.

Carmack has been a big supporter of the Oculus Rift for some time now and actually helped put the technology on the map.  With him officially joining the team… things just got a lot more interesting.  If you haven’t been paying attention to the Rift before… now’s the time.