Palmer Luckey, Oculus co-founder, leaves Zuckerberg’s Facebook

Reports suggest that Palmer Luckey, often called the father of virtual reality headset Rift, has decided to leave Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook.

The Oculus co-founder, who helped kickstart the recent VR craze with a prototype headset built out of his parents’ garage, has left the company after a year that heralded the launch of the consumer Oculus Rift but also a number of lawsuits and a pro-Trump meme scandal. (File photo)

Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Facebook-owned virtual reality (VR) company Oculus and the inventor of the Oculus Rift headset, is leaving the company, media reported.

"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," theverge.com quoted Facebook as saying.

Earlier this year, a US court ordered Oculus and its executives to pay game developer ZeniMax Media $500 million in damages over copyright infringement and violation of non-disclosure agreement.

The Dallas Court order came weeks after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg denied the allegations of stealing the ZeniMax technology and said that it used its own technology to create the Oculus VR headset.

Facebook bought Oculus VR for more than $2 billion in 2014 and the dispute started just after the acquisition when ZeniMax Media sued Oculus of stealing important elements of its technology.