Bethesda Buys id Software

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I don’t think anyone saw this coming, Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax Media has just bought id Software. Financial terms were not disclosed. Wow.

Legendary video game developer id Software, which is based in Mesquite, said Wednesday that is has been sold to game publisher ZeniMax Media Inc. Id is most famous for its line of Doom first-person shooting games but has also created blockbusters like the Quake and Wolfenstein franchises.
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I guess this means that insted of releasing a title "when it's done" it's be "when our new corporate masters tell us to."
 
Steve said:
I don’t think anyone saw this coming, Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax Media has just bought id Software. Financial terms were not disclosed. Wow.
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Wow is right ... a complete shocker ... Fallout 4/5 with cutting-edge engine in the future? Better storylined Doom/Quake games? The possibilities are vast and exciting :)
 
yeah, I saw this coming a while ago...


okay, no I didnt, just wanted some attention
 
*cough*
HOLY S...!

Did not expect that at all, I know I haven't heard much from them in terms of things new except for the rage engine was it? Which I don't think I've seen in anything. I know statistically speaking the unreal engine use has been heavy but wow, I didn't even know they were on the market.
 
End of an era. Prepare for iD branded shovelware in the next few years. :p
This is the sort of thing that's killing the soul of PC gaming. :mad:
 
Quite a deal for Bethesda,considering the game franchises they're getting.Hope they don't screw them up.Really looking forward to the next Wolfenstein sequel.
 
Like I said in another thread here's hoping they allow each studio to remain completely independent for development and allow them to continue making great games in there respective genres.
 
Wow, that's out of left field. Hopefully none of the id franchises get screwed up.
 
I have a feeling QuakeCon will see its final days from this .... :-(
The event may still exist later on, but itll prolly be even more shit than its become now..
 
Their best products were behind them anyway. Nothing will match the Quake trilogy empire, and the remakes of Doom just don't have anywhere near the fun they did when first introduced so long ago.

A shame, but nothing stays the same forever...

"id Software is dead... long live id Software..."
 
Oh wow. TOTALLY unexpected.

Well, on the bright side, id games will probably start getting released on time. On the not-so-bright side, we'll be getting a lot of Bethesda-style rehashed Doom/Quake shovelware. :rolleyes:
 
So how are the rampant bugs and crashes found in Bethesda software going to impact id software?
 
Come on guys, the writing was on the wall a long, lone time ago.

When John Romero left, it was the beginning of the end...
 
In my opinion ID makes great engines - nothing more. The only games I really enjoyed were Doom 1-2. The rest of their single player games were unimaginative rail shooters that were very redundant. I'm not disputing Carmack's brilliance, I'd say he's about the best in the business at making games engines. It's just that the games themselves are not fun (at least not for me).
 
Grimham said:
In my opinion ID makes great engines - nothing more. The only games I really enjoyed were Doom 1-2. The rest of their single player games were unimaginative rail shooters that were very redundant. I'm not disputing Carmack's brilliance, I'd say he's about the best in the business at making games engines. It's just that the games themselves are not fun (at least not for me).
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Unfortunately, you're right. Id's last good game was, IMHO, Quake 3/Team Arena. After that, their games turned into glorified tech demos. Don't get me wrong, their engines are great, and are among the most-used and highest-respected in the industry, but really Id, I want GAMES darnit!
 
gotta check the date... nope, it's not april 1st.

InorganicMatter said:
Unfortunately, you're right. Id's last good game was, IMHO, Quake 3/Team Arena. After that, their games turned into glorified tech demos. Don't get me wrong, their engines are great, and are among the most-used and highest-respected in the industry, but really Id, I want GAMES darnit!
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meh, i think they were fine where they were: supplying other software companies with game engines. I dont think i would want them to waste their time trying to actually make games, there's other companies for that.
 
InorganicMatter said:
Unfortunately, you're right. Id's last good game was, IMHO, Quake 3/Team Arena. After that, their games turned into glorified tech demos. Don't get me wrong, their engines are great, and are among the most-used and highest-respected in the industry, but really Id, I want GAMES darnit!
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+2... it's a damn shame this had happened, but let's not watch the glass half empty... iD has a special place in my heart (awwwwwwwwwww!!) and I'm sure they will get better at making games, not just game engines...
 
The only thing that is worrisome is the corporate overhead.

ID is a great studio and Bethesda is a Great studio. I don't see the issue here. It's going to completely depend on what they do with them from here out really.

That being said I wonder what ID had that they wanted so badly, I mean it's not like id was particularly struggling.
 
Isn't this a little misleading?

Bethesda doesn't own iD Software.... Bethesda's parent company ows iD Software.
 
InorganicMatter said:
Unfortunately, you're right. Id's last good game was, IMHO, Quake 3/Team Arena. /QUOTE]

You know, that statement it kind of stupid since the only thing they've made since than was Doom 3 and Quake Live. ROTC was outsourced to Gray Matter, Quake 4 was made by Raven, and Quake Wars was done by Splash Damage.
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Doom 3 Sucked major butt crack. I think if the creative minds behind Bethesda have any influence over story and game play you might actually get a game that isn't just video card killer.

People said Bioware was going to turn to poo.......... they are still an excellent company that puts emphasis on the story line and put the fun in gaming......... not just a point and shoot graphics engine. Crysis sucked ass in the same way....... but hey thats just me.

One of my favorite games of all time however was RTCW........ heck I still play RTCW: Enemy Territory. (I believe RTCW was ID and RTCW ET was Splash Damage)

Just my two cents.
 
Interesting...well hopefully we will see some great new games using iD tech,
 
CounTDookU23 said:
Doom 3 Sucked major butt crack. I think if the creative minds behind Bethesda have any influence over story and game play you might actually get a game that isn't just video card killer.

People said Bioware was going to turn to poo.......... they are still an excellent company that puts emphasis on the story line and put the fun in gaming......... not just a point and shoot graphics engine. Crysis sucked ass in the same way....... but hey thats just me.

One of my favorite games of all time however was RTCW........ heck I still play RTCW: Enemy Territory. (I believe RTCW was ID and RTCW ET was Splash Damage)

Just my two cents.
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Nope, ROTC was Grey Matter Interactive. ET was Splash Damage though.
 
You are correct............ however id Software, the creators of the original game Wolfenstein 3D, oversaw the development of the game and were credited as executive producers.
 
Posted from Kotaku
In an interview with Kotaku, id's John Carmack and Todd Hollenshead explained how changing circumstances with Activision and other studios spurred id's sale to Bethesda parent ZeniMax.

id Software is still a development studio that commands respect, but it's one that had found itself not quite fitting in of late, its principals told us during a phone interview tied to the announcement of the company's sale to ZeniMax.

One of the problems lately, Carmack told Kotaku, is that id just wasn't a good fit with big publishers these days. "As we were shopping Rage and Doom and upcoming stuff, talking about all of that, we were getting a pretty consistent line from all the publishers," he said. "They were willing to continue to fund our working with partner companies for all of these but pretty much ever publisher said, ‘Well, it would be worth much more to us if you would grow your studio and do more of your own work internally. That's why we already started to staff up to do Doom 4 internally. So things were already moving in that direction."

Carmack spoke specifically of Activision, where id's games such as the upcoming Wolfenstein (developed in partnership with Raven), would be published under the same label as works from Activision's internal studios, like Call of Duty and Modern Warfare studios Treyarch and Infinity Ward. "Going back to a much earlier time," Carmack said, "We were just Activision's shooter shop. We did the FPSes there. There was no conflict, and that was great. But they brought on their own internal studios and there's a very real conflict there between whether they want to put resources behind something they own the IP for and derive all the profit for versus something where they don't own the IP and they might feel like any effort they're putting into it isn't going into their value but somebody else's. That problem has grown over the years as budgets have increased."

Hollenshead told Kotaku that he found ZeniMax to have the closest match with id in terms of a philosophy on how to best make and sell games. It was a better fit, he said, than the studio's recent publishing partners Activision and EA.

What comes out of the deal is a stronger id, the men say. "Things aren't really going to be different in terms of what's going on at id," Hollenshead said. "We're not going to change the kinds of games we make…. It allows us to accelerate the growth of our internal studios, so we can focus on making all of our internal games as opposed to working with external partners where there has been a step down in quality… There will be more, better games from id. So if you're a fan of the company, then it is all upside and all things to look forward to."

Carmack's high on id even now, of course. He said the company just did a "first-look" event for upcoming EA-published, id-developed racing-FPS Rage last week and that it "went spectacularly."

Doom 4 will be published by ZeniMax/Bethesda. The Wolfenstein and Rage games being made under Activision and EA's publishing labels will continue as such. But any sequels will be ZeniMax games.

And will there be any Bethesda-id crossover coming out of this? "The teams are very much separate," Carmack said. "There is a lot of mutual respect there. There's going to be a lot of communication and cross-pollination. I doubt there's going to be any technology shifts between the two companies, but there's certainly going to be cooperation. And I wouldn't be shocked to see some hints of different things crossing over in different ways. That's just the kind of stuff when you have lots of people who think everybody is working on cool stuff together."

Terms of today's deal were not disclosed. ZeniMax and id are private companies.
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noobman said:
Isn't this a little misleading?

Bethesda doesn't own iD Software.... Bethesda's parent company ows iD Software.
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Zenimax isn't a random faceless company that happens to own Bethesda. Zenimax was co-founded by the guy who founded Bethesda, and that guy is still the majority stockholder.

It's kind of like if a company owned by Bill Gates bought Microsoft :p

Zenimax was set up to handle higher level business processes, like publishing, distribution, marketing and shit, so that Bethesdas managers could focus on making games.

It appears (from comments Carmack has made today) that id basically just want out of the publishing and distribution negotiation rat-race, so they can focus on games and leave the business stuff to someone else on a permanent basis.

I doubt very much that they went into this deal blind, without assurances that Zenimax would keep it's nose out of the creative side, there was probably even some form of stock conversion or arrangement that gives the former id owners a stake in Zenimax.

Todd Hollenshead will probably wind up on the Zenimax board or something :p
 
CounTDookU23 said:
You are correct............ however id Software, the creators of the original game Wolfenstein 3D, oversaw the development of the game and were credited as executive producers.
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Mhm. Still the credit for the game should go to Grey Matter as they actually did all the hard work.
 
yep this sucks. they did lead the industry for a long time. however the last few years since quake 3 and wolfenstein have been a crapshoot. the new wolfenstein doesnt even look as good as the last. so maybe they needed a new direction or they are getting old
 
Evil Juggalo said:
I have a feeling QuakeCon will see its final days from this .... :-(
The event may still exist later on, but itll prolly be even more shit than its become now..
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I have the same concern. It's the only remaining massive LAN party that comes to DFW. (as far as I know)

Suppose the Doom source code will get pulled back as well?
 
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