id Software aquired by Bethesda parent company, ZeniMax

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In an unexpected turn of events, one that is common in the gaming industry, it was released that id Software has been bought up by ZeniMax, parent company to the popular developer Bethesda.

It has been stated that ZeniMax will be keeping id Software as a separate entity along size Bethesda.
John Carmack, lead programmer and last founder still working at id Software who will now be leading the company, has confirmed that they wont be going anywhere, "No changes will be made in the operations of id Software in the development of its games,"

He adds, "This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward. We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof"

Carmack is not the only one who is excited about the future of the company and future workings with ZeniMax and Bethesda.

The CEO of ZeniMax, Robert Altman, is looking forward to working with id Software and bringing their interesting and popular games under one roof, he comments "We, along with many others, consider id Software to be among the finest game studios in the world, with extraordinary design, artistic and technical capabilities. They have demonstrated, repeatedly, that rare ability to create franchise properties that are critical and commercial successes"

For anyone out of the loop when it comes to games, id Software are the developers behind the well known and popular Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein series of PC video games, which for some were their first experience with the start of 3D gaming.

They are currently developing Rage, a First-Person Shooter (FPS) and Racer, and Doom 4, the fourth in well known and popular of FPS titles.

Bethesda are the developers behind the Elder Scroll titles, the latest in the series Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. In 2004 they acquired the Fallout rights and in 2008 released Fallout 3 which was a critical and commercial success winning numerous awards for the games design.

#1 ChrisJ1968 on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:00

I surely hope that the ID software titles that we have all come to love don't get smashed or ruined like alot of franchises.

#2 macrosslover on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:01

megaton!!!!

lol, I'm shocked they were able to keep this quiet, seems like an odd pairing though. Elder Scrolls first person sworder inc? lol

#3 ripgut on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:03

John Carmack is still there things are good.

#4 +mezron on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:11

Actually, I'm thinking this provides John Carmack an out so he can pursue the rocketry projects he's been working on.

(12 replies) #5 FoxieFoxie on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:11

Nooo :-/

Westwood, id and Blizzard are/were 3 companies which I love.

Westood - bought, ****ed up by EA
id Software - bought, never heard of Bethseda or whatever that is, not playing any games though.
Blizzard - not yet

#5.1 macrosslover on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:15

you serious? you do know that activision bought Blizzard like a 1.5 years ago right?

#5.2 FoxieFoxie on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:20

macrosslover said,

LOL? I heard about vivendi group only which controls blizzard, but wtf about activision? googling

#5.3 Metka on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:21

Vivendi owns Blizzard.
Right?

#5.4 FoxieFoxie on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:23

Oh my gawd, you are right, a little part of me just died inside. Since it was a weak part, guess I am stronger now.

#5.5 macrosslover on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:23

activison bought vivendi games, which owned blizzard and sierra among other studios..hence activision blizzard for the new name of the company.

#5.6 Sartoris on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:25

You never heard of Bethesda? Anyways, it doesn't look like the acquisition will have much of an effect.

Add Maxis to your list, they were bought by EA and then milked for The Sims while destroying all of the other sim games.

#5.7 Metka on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:28

I thinks it's the other way, Vivendi owns Activision and Blizzard.

#5.8 FoxieFoxie on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:29

Sartoris said,

You never heard of Bethesda? Anyways, it doesn't look like the acquisition will have much of an effect.

Nop, last game I played was... Doom 3 probably.

#5.9 macrosslover on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:36

Metka said,

might be right

#5.10 nonick on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:55

Nobody bought either, they merged.. and now called Activision Blizzard, where Vivendi is the majority stock holder..

#5.11 KavazovAngel on 26 Jun 2009 - 01:14

Vivendi owns around 54% of the whole Activision Blizzard company.

#5.12 RangerLG on 26 Jun 2009 - 18:59

FoxieFoxie said,

never heard of Bethseda or whatever that is

They released a little game recently called Fallout 3

#6 qdave on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:12

I think this deal doesnt matter for us much...since id will still be doing their own games. Maybe it was a good move for id so that they would expand and bring games more qickly?

(1 reply) #7 Lock on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:14

...wining numerous awards for the games design

#7.1 +Kirkburn on 26 Jun 2009 - 21:50

Lock said,

You meant to highlight "wining", right? Use the "report a problem" link at the top right, please.

(2 replies) #8 GenBlood on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:21

They better release something this year .... I hate to see a good
company like id Software go down like 3dRealms ....

I can see a really cool RTS game ... based on Doom ...

coming
out of this combo ...

#8.1 Viper217 on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:43

Doom RPG? i need a marine tank char spec sheet asap!

#8.2 FoxieFoxie on 25 Jun 2009 - 22:13

GenBlood said,

Rage is coming next year, Doom 2011-2012

#9 nvme on 25 Jun 2009 - 21:26

well.. so much for the "we decide when a game is finished and ready to go to market" and "we pick who we think best serves our purposes better as a publisher"

#10 Albert on 26 Jun 2009 - 09:58

huh. how the mighty has fallen.

#11 TheGoodReverendKirdneh on 26 Jun 2009 - 10:58

Great! So ID can make the next Fallout. Can't be less true to it's franchise.

#12 Bri- on 26 Jun 2009 - 11:31

I guess it's cool that id will have a little extra financial support when needed, but in my opinion, they haven't done anything revolutionary in years. Doom 3 was more or less an expensive tech demo or benchmarking tool to me.

#13 toadeater on 26 Jun 2009 - 22:16

Bethesda should dump that horrible Gambryo engine with the crap AI and bugs and get Carnack to make something better for them. If anyone here has ever worked on any Gunblivion addons you know how tedious making maps for that game is. The editor is really barebones, and you have to manually add collision boxes! How much $$$ did Bethesda waste sitting around adding collision boxes and from other tedious manual labor that is the result of a bad engine and editor rather than an unavoidable fact of game development? That's why game devs now need these huge budgets and giant teams, they are still working with 1990s style tools that are not designed to make highly interactive games with much content.

Some recent engines like Far Cry 2's are starting to improve upon this, but most of the industry is still being held back by obsolete dev tools and procedures.

(1 reply) #14 Airlink on 27 Jun 2009 - 13:28

Hey, maybe they can finish Duke Nukem Forever now.
Or not.

#14.1 Magallanes on 03 Jul 2009 - 17:48

yes they can but duke nukem is owned by a entire different company.

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