Author Topic: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media (Read 8237 times)

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?

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24183

ShyGuy · « **Reply #1 on:** June 24, 2009, 01:15:00 PM »

HOLY COW

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #2 on:** June 24, 2009, 02:23:34 PM »

The cow is a lie.

Goodbye id. Didn't care much.

NWR_DrewMG · « **Reply #3 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.

ShyGuy · « **Reply #4 on:** June 24, 2009, 03:05:37 PM »

Quote from: NinGurl69 *huggles on June 24, 2009, 02:23:34 PM

The cow is a lie.

Goodbye id. Didn't care much.

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.

Dirk Temporo · « **Reply #5 on:** June 24, 2009, 03:28:27 PM »

Quote from: ShyGuy on June 24, 2009, 03:05:37 PM

As a gaming pioneer, John Carmack and id is only second to Will Wright and Maxis.

HAHAHA. OH WOW.

Yeah, let's just forget all about John Romero, Richard Garriott, Sid Meier, Nolan Bushnell, William Higinbotham...

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #6 on:** June 24, 2009, 03:33:53 PM »

George Lucas

TJ Spyke · « **Reply #7 on:** June 24, 2009, 03:35:23 PM »

Quote from: Dirk Temporo on June 24, 2009, 03:28:27 PM

Quote from: ShyGuy on June 24, 2009, 03:05:37 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).

vudu · « **Reply #8 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.

ShyGuy · « **Reply #9 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?

TJ Spyke · « **Reply #10 on:** June 24, 2009, 04:13:59 PM »

Quote from: 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 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).

NWR_insanolord · « **Reply #11 on:** June 24, 2009, 08:35:05 PM »

Quote

Who made Spacewar?

Steve Russell

TJ Spyke · « **Reply #12 on:** June 24, 2009, 08:48:43 PM »

Quote from: insanolord on June 24, 2009, 08:35:05 PM

Quote
Who made Spacewar?

Steve Russell

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).

NWR_insanolord · « **Reply #13 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.

BranDonk Kong · « **Reply #14 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.

Morari · « **Reply #15 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.

TJ Spyke · « **Reply #16 on:** June 24, 2009, 11:25:19 PM »

Maybe the new owners of id's IP's will have inject something new into them.

Djunknown · « **Reply #17 on:** June 24, 2009, 11:51:19 PM »

Quote

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.

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.

Quote

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...

NinGurl69 *huggles · « **Reply #18 on:** June 24, 2009, 11:55:27 PM »

They could've tried programming for the Wii Remote. But they chose irrelavance.

NWR_DrewMG · « **Reply #19 on:** June 25, 2009, 09:08:01 AM »

Carmack doesn't make games that everybody likes. He left that to the Bee Gees.

UltimatePartyBear · « **Reply #20 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.

Morari · « **Reply #21 on:** June 25, 2009, 07:05:33 PM »

Quote from: Djunknown on June 24, 2009, 11:51:19 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.

Nick DiMola · « **Reply #22 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?

BlackNMild2k1 · « **Reply #23 on:** June 26, 2009, 04:55:50 PM »

Because they would rather be bought out than make their own money and stay independent.

UltimatePartyBear · « **Reply #24 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.

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Author Topic: id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media (Read 8237 times)