id and Zenimax, Sitting in a Tree

Anyone else thinks this doesn't make any sense at all?

Well, the id Software site confirms it.

I don't know about it making sense or not, I just think it's lame :p

I guess it had been going in the direction that would lead to this for a while, though, in becoming a more standard "game studio" rather than a team of independent developers.

I don't care that much what may be of newer releases, as long as it doesn't affect DOOM's GPL status in any adverse way...

It also makes me feel that what Romero said about the recession not hitting the gaming industry is off the mark.

I'm wondering whether Carmack will now spend more time on rockets than games, now that the company is a subsidiary (not that I know whether Zenimax bought all or just a huge share).

I'm pretty sure thta even if they wanted to, they couldn't rob Doom source ports of their GPL status. Otherwise they would probably have forced it on ports that wouldn't go for it when they relicensed the source to GPL in the first place.

Probably, although id never confirmed on their site that Doom is under the GPL, and they don't host a version of the source under the GPL on their server. But yeah, since Carmack himself is openly using the license for iDoom, things should be okay.

In any case, it leaves Carmack with a load of money, that can further his rocket developments.

At first I thought "No, this can't be true!" but I think they should do just fine. I don't think this will will have any major impact on any future games but I guess that remains to be seen.

Someone needs to photoshop Patrick Stewart's face on doomguy or some Rage character. Quick.

Huh, developers of some of my favorite games under the same company. I wonder how this will affect doom 4 and TES 5.

Personally I think Doom 3 already ruined the future of the Doom franchise, no good can come of putting the Fallout 3 team in with Doom 4. But I don't really care for new games anyway.

Pretty sure Carmack already has enough money, with his garage full of worked exotics and adventures into rocket science, but if this gives him more then power to him :)

He really is an amateur rocket scientist? That's awesome. Is "become brain surgeon" the next thing on his to-do list?

I would like to see him get Doom running on that hardware.

He sure is! Here's his rocketeering company: http://www.armadilloaerospace.com/

And if you Google carmack rocket you'll find lots of news stories about him.

Someone on the bethsoft forums linked to this: http://twitter.com/theromero/

Heh.

Down with Gamebryo, go Id Tech 5!

MEH

myk said:

I don't care that much what may be of newer releases, as long as it doesn't affect DOOM's GPL status in any adverse way...

Impossible; the GPL is designed to be irrevocable. When it's out in the public, it's out forever, and nobody can take away the status of being free.

I am at an absolute loss for words... nothing can say how disgusted and disappointed I am. This confirms what I said in that last thread, ID is past their prime, and they will surely die very soon because of this.

Zenimax is a very very shitty company and ID's future games will suffer greatly because of it. It's a very sad thing, and I have completely lost respect for John for doing this.

Xtife said:

ID is past their prime, and they will surely die very soon because of this.

id (not ID or iD, you clowns) has been past their prime for quite a while. I really can't think of any id game released this decade that I've liked.

I doubt they'll "die soon" though. Carmack is (probably) still raking it in thanks to his engines.

Well, I enjoy the Elder Scrolls games, and I enjoy id games. However the last id game I really loved was Quake, so I can't say I'm that destroyed by the merger. Maybe it'll actually help id to start making great games again, or help zenimax/bethesda create games that both look good, and aren't bug ridden. I doubt they're going to be that intertwined though, aside from profit sharing, and it means id doesn't have to spend time whoring their games out to publishers. I doubt anything will change, and if it does it will probably be for the better. Still, I hope zenimax realizes id's next game will have a hard fought road ahead of it to overcome Doom 3.

Jello said:

or help zenimax/bethesda create games that both look good, and aren't bug ridden.

My concern is that because Bethesda makes very bug ridden games, this will happen to id's games too now. Their games were always perfect on release (with very few minor patches after) But Beth? No major bugs were fixed in any patches they released and they pretty much leave their games to rot after that with no further support. They are very far from being goods matches for each other.

id is pretty much dead to me from this point forward, they sold out.

Doom 4 will probably be better for it. Like Carmack said, it gives them better resources to do what they want. Zenimax probably won't have any more influence than EA or Activision has on their current games. Otherwise he wouldn't have agreed with it. No one would have.

id's games sell. If they were to change them, they would make them Halo clones with vehicle races as a part of the game.

Oh, wait.

But Bethesda published those old Terminator: Future Shock and Skynet games, iirc. Those were the buggiest damn games I've ever played.

Either way, Carmack isn't the greatest influence on modern games. He'll still fight to make it so there's no "use" key.

myk said:

I don't care that much what may be of newer releases, as long as it doesn't affect DOOM's GPL status in any adverse way...

Classic DOOM is fine, it is the DOOM3 source I'm worried about, which was going to be released sometime soon. The open source world would be quite diminished without Carmack's gifts.

Wow, just wow.

andrewj said:

Classic DOOM is fine, it is the DOOM3 source I'm worried about, which was going to be released sometime soon. The open source world would be quite diminished without Carmack's gifts.

This was one of my concerns, too. What is the current ownership status of id's engines at this point? Do id still own them, or does Zenimax?

Considering how much Carmack would despise having to keep the engines non-free forever, Doom 3 source will probably still come out when he's ready to release it.

All speculation, I'll grant that.

Maybe Doom 4 will be much better after this fusion... Just sayin'.

I think a lot of people are missing the point of what this deal means: Id software now has a worldwide publisher for its 360 titles as a child company and they have financial backing for all future products. Furthermore, they can just re-allocate in house talent from project to project, meaning they bring on people who know what their doing and don't have to be brought up to speed on the ways of id. Its said that this will change nothing else in the way id does it's activities.

That being said, the id we knew of died after quake III (or maybe it was dead before then). They have shifted their primary focus in-house off of the pc and on to consoles, put out maybe 2.5 new (debatable) games since 2001 and boasted their pride on how exclusive their tech has been across the industry (as opposed to unreal). I guess this is just another inevitable step that the magic that surrounded them has passed and that they are just another game company to many of us now.

I fully share Mr. Romero's feelings about this:
http://twitter.com/theromero

I'm a little confused here. Is that really an acquisition or a partnership if ZeniMax is only there to support financially and publish games for id? Typically, in most cases, an acquisition involves name changing and I hope the name "id" stays

If the company lives up to the words stated in the article, I think some of you are overworried about certain aspects. Carmack still remains as technical director. He's smart enough not to make a game full of bugs. It's also said that most key people at id remain in positions continuing to operate as usual so I don't see if this business change will impact the future quality of games.

In fact, I think some of you are whining too much that you're dwelling too much on the old id games. The gaming world has moved away and on to a new generation long ago. If you don't like it, then stop playing. There's always new blood coming in for support. We live in a world full of commericials with business decisions in weigh, it's inevitable to stop the change. Learn to deal and live with it

Besides that, I bet Activision has been ripping off a lot of commissions from partnering with id in the past and especially during this recession period, it has become more demanding from Activision. This is a very wise move by id, although I'm sure Carmack has enough money backing to save the company if it were in financial trouble.

I saw an imp the other day. Terrible creatures.