Gaming Forums => General Gaming => Topic started by: TJ Spyke on June 24, 2009, 01:03:12 PM
Title: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: TJ Spyke on June 24, 2009, 01:03:12 PM
Today it was announced that ZeniMax Media (parent company of Bethesda Softworks) has purchase long time independent developer id Software. This will not affect exisiting publishing deals though, which means that Electronic Arts will still publish Rage and Activision Blizzard will still publish Wolfenstein. id was founded in 1991, so I wonder if the economy made them finally agree to be bought?
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: ShyGuy on June 24, 2009, 01:15:00 PM
HOLY COW
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on June 24, 2009, 02:23:34 PM
The cow is a lie.
Goodbye id. Didn't care much.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: NWR_DrewMG on June 24, 2009, 02:36:33 PM
I haven't been a big id fan in awhile, but Doom II multiplayer deathmatch is still in my top 5 all-time favorite multiplayer games. Second maybe only to Smash Bros.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: ShyGuy on June 24, 2009, 03:05:37 PM
THE COW IS SACRED. As a gaming pioneer, John Carmack and id is only second to Will Wright and Maxis. In the US, of course. Miyamoto and Nintendo are still high above them like Cleopatra.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: Dirk Temporo on June 24, 2009, 03:28:27 PM
As a gaming pioneer, John Carmack and id is only second to Will Wright and Maxis.
HAHAHA. OH WOW. William Higinbotham...
Who? All the other ones are notable and well known, but I have never heard of this guy (which to me means he probably isn't notable).
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: vudu on June 24, 2009, 03:47:12 PM
He created a Pong clone before Pong existed. It was one of the first video games ever.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: ShyGuy on June 24, 2009, 04:03:31 PM
Let me clarify, I meant game developer pioneer. Maybe I should change it to "Gaming's Greatest Game Makers"
John Romero lost his standing back in the 90s. I would rank Richard Garriot fourth behind Carmack overall. Sid Meier is in the top ten, along with Pete Molineux and Michel Ancel and Hideo Kojima.
I always considered Nolan Bushnell more of a hardware maker, not a game dev. Same with Gunpei. I didn't know the name of the guy who made the pong clone. Who made Spacewar?
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: TJ Spyke on June 24, 2009, 04:13:59 PM
Let me clarify, I meant game developer pioneer. Maybe I should change it to "Gaming's Greatest Game Makers"
John Romero lost his standing back in the 90s. I would rank Richard Garriot fourth behind Carmack overall. Sid Meier is in the top ten, along with Pete Molineux and Michel Ancel and Hideo Kojima.
I always Nolan Bushnell more of a hardware maker, not a game dev. Same with Gunpei. I didn't know the name of the guy who made the pong clone. Who made Spacewar?
Dozens of companies made Pong clones after Atari became a huge success from it. The original Pong was created by Al Alcorn (who was given the assignment by Nolan Bushnell and was only meant to be a test for Alcorn to get used to programming, Bushnell liked it so much that they turned it into a full game).
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: NWR_insanolord on June 24, 2009, 08:35:05 PM
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Who made Spacewar?
Steve Russell
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: TJ Spyke on June 24, 2009, 08:48:43 PM
Mostly. Russell was pretty lazy and got a lot of help on the game (his original version was crude, with no effects and generic visuals). A detailed account of Spacewar is include in Steven Kent's book "The Ultimate History of Video Games" (a little dated now since it came out in Fall 2001, but still an excellent read).
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: NWR_insanolord on June 24, 2009, 09:05:15 PM
The Ultimate History of Video Games is a great book, I own it and have read it a few times. That's how I knew the answer to that question.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: BranDonk Kong on June 24, 2009, 09:24:49 PM
I've got to agree John Carmack is a certifiable Gaming God. I'm not a huge Doom or Quake fan, but the dude has got some talent.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: Morari on June 24, 2009, 10:55:18 PM
Id Software has been quickly declining since Doom III. Their work-in-progress, Rage, seems to have "console-kiddie" written all over it from the early interviews and previews. QuakeLive is just one big advertisement with too many CPL "enhancements" running through it. The new Wolfenstein looks to be interesting, but Raven kind of failed the Quake license a few years ago, so hope is being kept to a minimum.
Really though, Carmack has been loosing interest for years now anyway, dedicating more and more time to his aerospace endeavors instead. I wouldn't be surprised if he's setting himself up for retirement over the next few years. Selling off his stake in Id will certainly make tinkering with rockets and iPhone games easier for him.
It's definitely a shame to see Id slowly spiral downward, but they haven't done a very good job of staying current over the past several years. I can't see any point in the future when the original Quake trilogy won't have a happy home on my hard drive however. So long as Id keeps releasing the source code to their engines, at least something good will come of them. :)
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: TJ Spyke on June 24, 2009, 11:25:19 PM
Maybe the new owners of id's IP's will have inject something new into them.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: Djunknown on June 24, 2009, 11:51:19 PM
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It's definitely a shame to see Id slowly spiral downward, but they haven't done a very good job of staying current over the past several years.
They've always been about pushing the tech since Wolfenstein 3d. I still remember to this day when I saw it being demo'ed at CompUSA when I was a kid. When Doom came out, my jaw just dropped. id does what Sega and Nintendon't ;) (Seriously, the SNES/32x version of Doom? *shudder*...)
With the Quakes, they just kept pushing and pushing, though ironically, competitive players turned all the fancy effects off to get maximum frame rate. 8)
Now they push, but the differences are negligible, and until they reach the Uncanny Valley (which we'll get the 'WOW' factor like they did back in the day), they won't get many new gamers to sustain them. But I do hope they'll adapt to their new home.
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QuakeLive is just one big advertisement with too many CPL "enhancements" running through it.
I've been meaning to try it one of these days, if nothing else, to see what's changed since 1996. That, and its one the few games my PC will run... :'(
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: NinGurl69 *huggles on June 24, 2009, 11:55:27 PM
They could've tried programming for the Wii Remote. But they chose irrelavance.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: NWR_DrewMG on June 25, 2009, 09:08:01 AM
Carmack doesn't make games that everybody likes. He left that to the Bee Gees.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on June 25, 2009, 11:25:58 AM
I still can't quite wrap my head around this news. I mean, id's just always been there. Hopefully, ZeniMax won't interfere too much.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: Morari on June 25, 2009, 07:05:33 PM
I've been meaning to try [QuakeLive] one of these days, if nothing else, to see what's changed since 1996. That, and its one the few games my PC will run... :'(
Personally, I think you'd be better off simply reinstalling Quake III Arena and possibly Team Arena. QuakeLive adds very, very little of merit. The only real plus is that the community is fairly active. Even then, there's always someone out there to play in vanilla Q3A. I still keep Quake3 installed for the Generations Arena mod if nothing else. :)
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: Nick DiMola on June 26, 2009, 01:57:40 PM
Quake 3 Arena is still one of the best FPS ever made. Why don't they get on porting that and the rest of the Quake trilogy (4 doesn't count) over to the Wii?
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on June 26, 2009, 04:55:50 PM
Because they would rather be bought out than make their own money and stay independent.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: UltimatePartyBear on June 26, 2009, 05:35:47 PM
So much Quake 4 hate. I liked it. It wasn't as bunny-hoppy as the earlier Quakes, but that came from using the engine developed for Doom 3, and you sure can't blame Raven for that.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: Morari on June 26, 2009, 05:38:44 PM
Quake 4 was only "good" in regards to having just been pissed all over by how bad Doom III ultimately was. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, as well as Prey, were both much, much better implementations of the Tech 4 engine. Just wait until the engine source code is released under the GNU later this year. That is when you'll really start to see amazing things!
I do still have hope for RAGE at this point, but must worry when it's being simultaneously "designed" for consoles and held back to get a T rating.
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: Djunknown on June 28, 2009, 12:24:26 AM
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Personally, I think you'd be better off simply reinstalling Quake III Arena and possibly Team Arena.
Lost that CD a while ago... :-[
Quote
still keep Quake3 installed for the Generations Arena mod if nothing else.
Awesome times. My favorite was the Doom trooper. I remember how they originally wanted to make an super-total conversion with the Quake 2 engine, where they had each id character (BJ from Wolfenstein 3d, Doom trooper, Quake 1 soldier and Quake 2) with their respective weapons, and the levels from Wolf3d Doom, and Quake 1. But that was a little too much for id, so they slapped them with the C&D...
I hope this acquasiton will work out. Bethesda will get a powerful engine, and id should get some fresh ideas. But please, no gun/tank/useless armor... :P
Title: Re: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media
Post by: Morari on June 28, 2009, 09:25:31 PM
While I do enjoy the frequent outing as a Doom Warrior, I must to stay true to my Strogg Tropper brethren. ;)
