Continuing a string of high-profile departures from Facebook Inc., Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe today announced that he’s leaving the social network to “recharge, reflect and be creative.”

Iribe (pictured) served as the chief executive officer of Oculus prior to its $3 billion acquisition by the company in 2014. The entrepreneur, who had earlier started two startups that were sold to Sony Corp. and Autodesk Inc., is credited with having orchestrated the successful Kickstarter campaign that put Oculus’ virtual reality headset on the map.

Iribe joined Facebook following the acquisition and in 2016 handed over the reins of the group to Hugo Barra, a former Xiaomi Corp. executive. The Oculus co-founder moved to a more limited role in which he focused on Facebook’s desktop-connected VR headsets.

A source told TechCrunch that Iribe departed over disagreements about the development roadmap. According to the tipster, the executive and the rest of the Facebook leadership had “fundamentally different views on the future of Oculus that grew deeper over time.” This split is said to have led to the cancellation of a planned headset dubbed Rift 2 that was meant to be tethered to a personal computer.

Facebook is now focusing its efforts on developing standalone VR units that don’t rely on an external device for processing tasks. Last month, the company unveiled the Oculus Quest, a $399 headset with a wireless design that provides a resolution of 1600-by-1440 pixels per eye. The system is powerful enough to support virtual spaces that take up the equivalent of 4,000 square feet or more.

Iribe didn’t address the reported disagreement with Facebook’s leadership in his announcement today. His decision to step down comes a year and a half after the departure of Palmer Luckey, another Oculus co-founder. The period since has seen the founders of Instagram Inc. and WhatsApp resign as well over their own disagreements with Facebook’s leadership.

The social network said that Nate Mitchell, Oculus’ third co-founder, will continue working at the company in his current role as the head of the development team.

Photo: Facebook