Meta lays off 1500 employees, Oculus founder once fired by Mark Zuckerberg calls it good decision

Meta has announced fresh layoffs in its Reality Labs division as it shifts focus from heavy virtual reality spending to AI wearables. Following the announcements, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, who was once fired by the company, is now defending Meta’s decision of job cuts, calling it a necessary step for the long-term health of the VR ecosystem.

Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Meta recently announced another round of job cuts, trimming more than 1,000 roles from its Reality Labs division. While these layoffs are being framed as a sign of distress, fuelling fears of automation and even prompting criticism that Mark Zuckerberg is retreating from a failed bet on virtual reality and the metaverse, Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, has come out in support of the move. Luckey, who himself was once fired by Meta following controversy around his political views, believes the decision could actually help Meta strengthen the VR ecosystem in the long run.

In a lengthy post on X, Luckey said his view runs counter to much of the VR industry and media commentary. “This is not a disaster. They still employ the largest team working on VR by about an order of magnitude. Nobody else is even close. The ‘Meta is abandoning VR’ narrative is obviously false. A 10% layoff is basically six months of normal churn concentrated into 60 days, strictly numbers-wise,” he wrote, pushing back against claims that Meta is stepping away from virtual reality.

Luckey argued that the scale of the layoffs, estimated at roughly 10 percent of Reality Labs, is being overstated. While acknowledging the shock and pain such concentrated cuts can cause, he suggested the layoffs do not fundamentally change Meta’s position as the dominant force in VR development.

To support his stance, Luckey highlighted that the majority of the roughly 1,500 jobs eliminated in Reality Labs were tied to first-party content teams, internal studios developing games that directly competed with third-party developers. In his view, this internal competition distorted the market. He suggests that Meta-owned teams, backed by deep pockets, marketing support and favourable platform placement, made it extremely difficult for independent developers to compete sustainably.

“Crowding out the rest of the ecosystem makes even less sense. Every developer, big and small—even the hyper-efficient ones—has had an extremely hard time competing with games developed by Meta-owned teams with budgets that vastly exceed their earning potential,” he added.

Notably, Luckey was once a prominent part of Meta’s VR ambitions but was fired from the company, then known as Facebook, following controversy surrounding a donation he made to a pro-Trump group. Although Facebook initially denied that his departure was politically motivated, Luckey was fired in March 2017 after a period of leave. His exit remained a point of public contention for years. However, as of 2026, Luckey and Meta have officially reconciled and are collaborating on military technology projects.

Meanwhile, Luckey’s comments come as Meta restructures Reality Labs amid mounting financial pressure. According to a Bloomberg report, more than 1,000 employees are being laid off from the division, which employs around 15,000 people. Impacted staff were reportedly informed via an internal post from Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/meta-lays-off-15000-employees-oculus-founder-once-fired-by-mark-zuckerberg-calls-it-good-decision-2854299-2026-01-19