Oculus cofounder leaves Facebook amid legal firestorm

Palmer Luckey, after years of being a prominent face at Facebook and the figurehead of Oculus, is leaving the company.

Luckey has been at the center of a legal battle between Facebook and ZeniMax Media for the last couple of months. ZeniMax brought suit against both Facebook and Luckey for theft of intellectual property and disseminating a false origin story for the Rift as entirely Luckey’s invention — the Oculus, ZeniMax claimed, was based on its software.

The court passed judgement in ZeniMax’s favor. The ruling stated that Luckey in particular owed ZeniMax $50 million for false designation — meaning he misrepresented himself or his product.

Zenimax recently brought more legal action against Facebook to keep it from selling Oculus VR code.

Luckey was a cofounder of Oculus, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion. In a statement published by Business Insider, Facebook said, “We’re thankful for everything [Luckey] did for Oculus and VR, and we wish him all the best.”