Good summary:

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If the original complaint is to be believed(1) – which Juror’s found credible -the course of events, tldr was something like this:

– Zenimax bought ID software for >$100m(1) on June 24, 2009.

– Carmack signed up with Zenimax for an earn-out / golden-handcuffs agreement that ended in June of 2013.

– Carmack was enthralled with VR.

– Carmack found Palmer via an internet forum, reached out to get a rift to try.

– Carmack tinkered with the Rift, adding sensors, building calibration, etc. while on the clock / using hardware from zenimax.

– Carmack brought a prototype of the Rift working on Doom 3 to E3 with him providing Oculus with their early press.

– Zenimax realized the extent to which Carmack was enabling Oculus and worked to negotiate equity with Brendan Iribe.

– Oculus sent Zenimax a proposal to discuss a partnership Sept 21, 2012 but never followed up / followed through.

– Carmack quit Zenimax the day his contract was up in June 2013, joined Oculus as CTO a few months later and took his 5 best guys with him.

– FB bought Oculus March 2014, Zenmix got pissed and sued.

Clearly it’s Carmack’s genius that made this viable.

It’s Carmack’s video that lent credibility to the campaign.

And it’s Carmack’s original IP (Doom) that made the demos compelling.

It may be a weird system that Zenimax is entitled to $500m but since Carmack was an employee, under contract with Zenimax – who had paid >$100m to buy him / his IP – it sounds like this was a fair verdict.

(1) https://www.scribd.com/document/274211118/Judge-denies-Faceb…

(2) http://www.gamespot.com/articles/zenimax-raised-105-million-…

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