Oculus cofounder Palmer Luckey leaves Facebook

Palmer Luckey, the person most directly associated with the rise of Oculus as a major force in the growing world of virtual reality hardware, has left parent company Facebook, according to a statement provided to Ars Technica by a Facebook representative:

Palmer will be dearly missed. Palmer's legacy extends far beyond Oculus. His inventive spirit helped kickstart the modern VR revolution and helped build an industry. We're thankful for everything he did for Oculus and VR, and we wish him all the best.

Facebook declined to clarify further details about Luckey's departure and did not specify whether Luckey would issue any official statement on the matter.

After being a major face of the company since Oculus' first public prototype unveiling in 2012, Luckey's public role with the company has been greatly reduced since September, when he was financially linked to an odd Donald Trump-backing "shitposting" group. Luckey quickly apologized for the impact that revelation had on the rest of Oculus as a company after a vocal backlash among some in the VR community. Luckey did not appear at Oculus' annual Connect conference last September after taking a keynote spot at the previous Connect events.

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