Nate Mitchell, one of the five co-founders of Oculus and the last to stay with Facebook, announced in a post on Reddit that he would be leaving the company. He was the last of Oculus’ founders to leave the company, alongside Palmer Luckey, Brendan Iribe, Jack McCauley, and Michael Antonov.

Hey everyone — I have some bittersweet news to share with this community. After 7 incredible years, I’ve decided to move on from Oculus / Facebook.


When we posted the Kickstarter in 2012, VR was mostly the stuff of science fiction. We didn’t know if people would take us seriously. We weren’t even sure we’d hit our original $250k target. But this community from around the world came together and helped make VR a reality. Fast forward just a few years later, and VR is changing people’s lives every day. This is because of you.


Virtual reality is still on the bleeding edge of technology, and this community continues to pioneer the way forward. What’s ahead is always unknown, and that’s what makes it exciting. Stay bold and keep chasing the future.


What’s next for me: I’m taking time to travel, be with family, and recharge. Of course, I’ll still be part of this community, but I’ll have a much smaller role to play.


I expect the incredible team at Facebook to continue to surprise and delight us on this mission to build the next computing platform. I can’t wait to see what comes next.


To everyone here: Thank you for your passion and creativity. Thank you for believing in the impossible. Thank you for inspiring us everyday.
Thanks for 7 amazing years.

Nate Mitchell’s post on the Oculus subreddit.
The accompanying photo to Mitchell’s Reddit post of him taking the stage at Oculus Connect 2 in 2015. Mitchell referred to this photo as “one of my fondest memories of this whole adventure.”

While Mitchell has not as of yet elaborated on the reasons for his departure, rumors about tensions among Facebook and Oculus employees about the direction of their virtual reality headset have persisted. One of the possible reasons could be related to Jack McCauley’s statement last month about how he believes that VR won’t break through to a mainstream, videogame-playing audience.

“If we were gonna sell [Oculus headsets], we would’ve sold,” McCauley said to CNBC. “I don’t know what kind of application it would be for VR that would keep players plugged in for six hours like they do with game consoles.”

It’s possible that Mitchell shares this sentiment, however, this statement cannot be confirmed as he is likely under NDA following his departure. At the end of the day, Mitchell clearly still believes in VR as a viable medium, seeing as he communicated directly with the core VR community that thrives on Reddit instead of other channels.

Facebook will be conducting an internal and external search to find Mitchell’s replacement, a spokesperson told WIRED. While the company had no official comment on Mitchell’s announcement, some of its other execs commented on a post that he put on his Facebook page. “Nate thank you for all you’ve done for VR and FB,” wrote Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer. “Was and is an amazing ride and blast working with you. THANK YOU! Hope you get some well-deserved rest and I can’t wait to see what you do next!”