Lawyer: Luckey not smart enough to create Oculus
SAN FRANCISCO — When you sell your first company to Facebook at age 21 for around $3 billion, it's admittedly hard to get people to feel sorry for you.
But Oculus Rift virtual reality goggle creator Palmer Luckey, 24, may have earned a few votes of sympathy Wednesday after lawyers in a Dallas courtroom insinuated that the college dropout didn't have the brains to create the groundbreaking VR device without the technical assistance of their clients, ZeniMax Media.
Before the courtroom hijinx, some scene setting.
Shortly after Luckey's big sale to Facebook in 2014, ZeniMax sued Luckey and Facebook contending that Oculus Rift was created partly with its intellectual property.
Oculus Rift Touch controllers lend realism to VR
Back in 2012, VR whiz John Carmack, who worked for iD Software, a game-maker that is part of ZeniMax, began helping then-student Palmer with his goggle project. That technical assistance eventually required Luckey to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Not long after, Oculus Rift was an instant hit on Kickstarter, raising $2.4 million and confirming its commercial potential. Carmack eventually went to work for Luckey.
The defendants in this trial say that what ultimately became Oculus Rift did not contain ZeniMax code or IP; the plaintiffs maintain that the NDA was violated and ZeniMax is therefore is due remuneration from the mammoth sale.
The $600 consumer version of Rift launched last year and retails for up to $2,000 for both the VR goggles and the computer to power them. Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that VR is the future of online social interaction, and the appearance of competitors such as HTC Vive and Sony PlayStationVR would seem to validate that bet.
Beyond its high fiscal stakes — ZeniMax is asking for a whopping $2 billion in damages — this corporate squabble is notable for its tech world star power.
On Tuesday, it brought to the stand Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who testily maintained that he didn't know what ZeniMax Media was. He also disclosed that with retention incentives the Oculus purchase price was closer to $3 billion than the $2 billion often reported.
The reality behind choosing a VR headset
Then the spotlight moved to Luckey, a brash figure who has gone into media seclusion since The Daily Beast revealed his donation back in September to an online group that supported then presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The drama all started with a testy exchange between ZeniMax lawyer Phillip Philbin and Luckey, who wrestled over the details of the case-critical NDA, according to a Gizmodo report.
“You’re only showing me one message in a long chain of messages," Luckey lamented. "I just want to make sure I accurately describe the content of my (email) replies so they’re not taken to mean something they don’t mean. Which is easy to do when there’s only one line there.”
“You don’t have a law degree, right?” Philbin said. "No," said Luckey.
Philbin then asked Luckey if he had an electrical engineering degree ("No.") or an engineering degree ("No.") and, finally, noted: "Well, you don't have a degree at all?"
Facebook lawyers contended that the line of questioning was simply designed to "make fun" of their client. They then cited Luckey's childhood subscription to a technical magazine called Nuts and Volts as evidence of his scientific precociousness.
ZeniMax's tack would appear to be specious. The tech world is littered with dropouts that have changed the world, including Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs and even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
A jury verdict in the case is expected sometime next week.
Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter.