Valve’s leader of Research and Development, Michael Abrash, has left the company to serve as chief scientist at Oculus VR today. Abrash arrival at Oculus comes just after Facebook’s recent acquisition of the company for $2 billion, which Abrash addresses in a blog post on the Oculus VR website.
“The resources and long-term commitment that Facebook brings gives Oculus the runway it needs to solve the hard problems of VR – and some of them are hard indeed,” Abrash wrote, in part. “I now fully expect to spend the rest of my career pushing VR as far ahead as I can.”
Abrash also joins his former Id Software colleague John Carmack, who joined Oculus in August 2013 as the company’s chief technology officer.
“It’s great to be working with John again after all these years, and with that comes a sense of deja vu,” Abrash continued. “It feels like it did when I went to Id, but on steroids – this time we’re working on technology that will change not just computer gaming, but potentially how all of us interact with computers, information, and each other every day. I think it’s going to be the biggest game-changer I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen quite a lot over the last 57 years.”
(via Joystiq)