The creator of Meta’s Oculus virtual reality headsets shredded Mark Zuckerberg’s version of the metaverse — arguing the platform is currently “terrible” and in need of an overhaul.
Palmer Luckey, who sold Oculus VR to Facebook for $3 billion and was later ousted by the company, compared Zuckerberg’s foray into the metaverse to a “project car” — a pet initiative requiring a massive investment with no guarantee that others will find it worthwhile.
“I don’t think it’s a good product. It’s not. It’s not fun, it’s not good,” Luckey said during an appearance at the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference Monday. “I think actually most of the people probably on the team would agree that it’s not currently a good product. It’s like a project car.”
Under Zuckerberg’s direction, Meta has spent at least $15 billion to build its version of the metaverse — with little to show for its effort. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported Meta has already cut user growth goals for its main metaverse platform, Horizon Worlds, due to sagging early results.
Critics have accused Zuckerberg of neglecting Meta’s core social media business even as the company struggles through a major stock slump. Shares are down more than 60% since January during a broader tech sector slowdown.
Luckey did not completely write off Meta’s initiative, noting that early iterations of his Oculus Rift headset were “awful” but eventually improved.
“It’s hard for me to really wholeheartedly say, ‘Oh, Horizon Worlds, what an absolute disaster,’ because I look at it and I see something that’s being developed in the open, developed in public,” Luckey said. “It is terrible today, but it could be amazing in the future. I think Mark will put in the money to do that.”
Luckey also described Zuckerberg as “the number one virtual reality fan in the entire world” who has “put in more money and more time into it than anyone has ever done in history.”
“Will they stumble along the way? Yeah, sure. Will they waste money on initiatives that don’t really make sense? Will they add things to their project car that they later hack off and replace with something else? Yeah, sure,” Luckey added.
Luckey founded military contractor Anduril Technologies after leaving Facebook in 2017. His departure followed reports that he donated $10,000 to a pro-Donald Trump internet campaign during the 2016 presidential campaign. Facebook has long denied that his dismissal was politically motivated.
“We can say unequivocally that Palmer’s departure was not due to his political views. We’re grateful for Palmer’s contributions to Oculus, and we’re glad he continues to actively support the VR industry,” a Facebook spokesperson said in 2018.
Luckey touched on the episode during his appearance at the conference, stating that he has “no love for Facebook” and that the company “fired me.”
“The official reason is no reason at all — they just didn’t have a place for me anymore,” Luckey said.
“The real reason is because I gave some money to a particular presidential [candidate] … a particular political effort that was unpopular in 2016,” he added.