id Software Sells Out

Doom creator bought by Bethesda parent company ZeniMax.

By John Gillooly on 25 June, 2009

It is somewhat poetic that two of the developers most responsible for the first-person shooter as we know it today are now under the same roof. In a move everyone thought would never happen, the once fiercely independent id Software has been sold to Bethesda parent company ZeniMax.

So unexpected was the move, even ZeniMax was unaware that id would be interested in its offer. According to an interview on Kotaku, it was id that approached ZeniMax, who has recently been acquiring developers, most notably the maker of the id Tech-based Enemy Territory games, Splash Damage.

It is hard to understate just how surprising this announcement is, as id Software has stood as one of the few independent developers that has stood the test of time from its early shareware days of Commander Keen and Wolfenstein. Through its resident technical genius, John Carmack, the developer has been responsible for driving the very evolution of 3D gaming.

While id may no longer command the world’s greatest games developer title, it still produces a solid lineup of first-person shooters based on its long-running franchise. With the recent browser-based revival of Quake III: Arena gathering steam – Quake Live – it is currently working on the sci-fi shooter, Rage. The deal will bring franchises long associated with former publisher Activision back to the fold. The current Wolfenstein game being made by Raven will still be published by Activision, and Rage will continue through EA Partners – however, future titles will be published by ZeniMax.

Some, like John Romero, have found the deal “disgusting” (via Twitter, although he has already tempered his remarks), while 3D Realms owner George Broussard thinks that this is probably a good match. What it does do is bring id and Bethesda together after years of competition. Few remember that Bethesda also started out making first-person shooters based on the Terminator franchise, in direct competition to id Software. While these games may have faded into obscurity, the controls used in PC shooters owe a lot to what Bethesda implemented in them.

Bethesda is now one of the more successful developers around, with the Elder Scrolls games and its recent revival of Fallout. While it is unlikely that the acquisition of id will greatly effect the way either developer works (don’t plan on a Wolfenstein role-playing game or Fallout first-person shooter), it is natural that there will be some bleed between the companies. For now, it appears that the plan is for both to continue business as usual.

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