Oculus exec leading VR video efforts leaves Facebook

Oculus’s Head of Video Eugene Wei has left Facebook, according to an update on his personal blog. Wei joined the virtual reality company in late 2015 to lead video efforts after previously holding product exec roles at Flipboard and Hulu.

Wei detailed that he left the role in mid-July. The exit would have come just a few weeks after Facebook suddenly shut down Oculus’s in-house cinematic VR production team, Oculus Story Studio, and dismissed all of the team’s roughly 50 employees.

An Oculus spokesperson confirmed Wei’s departure to TechCrunch while also noting that the company is not actively searching for a replacement.

The executive departure comes as Oculus continues to pair down its own in-house VR video creation efforts in favor of building up investments in outside creators using the $50 million that the company has specifically set aside to invest in non-gaming virtual reality content.

Oculus has faced a number of internal reshuffles over the past several months as the Facebook-owned virtual reality company has been drawn more firmly into its parent company’s org structure.

In January, Facebook announced that Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra would be joining the company to lead VR efforts following Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe stepping down as CEO. Yesterday, Facebook confirmed that long-time exec Andrew Bosworth would be taking over consumer hardware efforts at the company, including the virtual and augmented reality products being built by Oculus.

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