John Carmack and ZeniMax Settle Their $22.5 Million Beef

Megalith

Megalith

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John Carmack has announced that his legal dispute with ZeniMax is now over: the former co-founder of id Software and now Oculus VR CTO sued the publisher last year, alleging ZeniMax failed to fully pay him for the acquisition of id in 2009. Apparently, he has received the $22.5 million he was owed, although no specifics were mentioned.

The dispute arose shortly after ZeniMax was awarded $500 million in its lawsuit against Oculus VR, filed over allegations that Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey had violated an NDA prior to working with ZeniMax on VR technology in 2012-13. Carmack, who joined Oculus as CTO just prior to his departure from id Software, claimed that ZeniMax had failed to make the final payment on the acquisition, and thus owed him $22.5 million.
 
Looks like the full sale was 150 million, not sure what John's total cut of that was.

edit: all I can find is "terms of deal not disclosed"
 
DF-1 said:
final payment? wonder what the total was.
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They raised $105m to buy id so it was probably around that price, or a little more. Carmack was the last of the founders left at id at the time so I'd imagine a good amount of the purchase price went to him.
 
Good for him getting a pound of flesh from Zenicrap.
 
If there ever was a man that deserved his just desserts, it is the man that made 3D gaming a reality.

Oh and shotguns...
 
BloodyIron said:
If there ever was a man that deserved his just desserts, it is the man that made 3D gaming a reality.

Oh and shotguns...
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I don't disagree, but he also the man who nearly destroyed id. Bethesda saved id and the new Doom is proof. Doom Eternal will cement this and id will go on. No thanks to Carmack.
 
I bet the coworkers at oculus will be a little jealous, he got out of id software at the right time, software companies are only as good as the personnel, everyone at id left for the most part
 
PenGunn said:
No thanks to Carmack.
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well, remember:
the Doom 4 team had a big meeting in which company leaders talked about what Doom meant to them. John Carmack got up in front of everyone and said something like, "Doom means two things: demons and shotguns."
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It was at this point the company scrapped Doom 4 and decided on the more focused vision we see today in Doom.

Beyond that it's hard to imagine what would've been had he stayed. I'd love to read a follow up to Masters of Doom someday, and how Carmack's contribution to VR eventually led to the creation of the first true multiverse for the masses, as the original id gang imagined long ago during all those lovingly long d&d pizza nights... he was the dungeon master back then and he is basically the only one still ticking away at that dream now... huge thanks from me anyways, a true inspiration...

yea, some are still butt hurt over rage and want their money back... it's understandable...
 
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Lord of Shadows said:
I bet the coworkers at oculus will be a little jealous, he got out of id software at the right time, software companies are only as good as the personnel, everyone at id left for the most part
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Yeah, many of them needed to go. The present Doom and Doom Eternal team is easily as good as what's gone, look at what they did, its magnificent.
 
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