id Software purchased by ZeniMax Media

StupidBunny · Post by **StupidBunny** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 4:26

I just thought I'd make a thread about this, since there didn't seem to be one on this forum. id Software is officially going to be sold (or has been...I'm not totally clear) to ZeniMax Media, which owns Bethesda Softworks among other things. John Carmack has said he'll remain on id's development team despite the ownership change. I've read about this on other forums and reactions have been really varied. Nobody's sure how positive or negative this will be for the company, or whether it will even make a difference in how they do things. Furthermore, since I've mostly read about this on sites devoted to fans of older id games a lot of people don't really even mind that much since the id Software of the olden days has long since passed. Still, I thought it was worth bringing up and it is kind of too bad that, after all these years, they'll no longer be an independent company. What are all your reactions to this?

Roobar · Post by **Roobar** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 4:47

I'm with John. The fans win.

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 5:18

I've never even heard of ZeniMax. That's very random.

Lava89 · Post by **Lava89** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 5:23

That's actually kinda surprising. And to be honest, I don't see the point: the last id developed game was doom 3 and Rage hasn't even been released yet, so it's uncertain how profitable it will be as a franchise. Why do you they need id? To publish Quake games??

I think the question at hand is this: Do you believe the freeing of Keen's rights will be more likely or less likely with id's purchase?

Post by **KeenRush** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:36

Sounds odd. Why the damn are they selling themselves in the first place? I've always thought iD as a very profitable company, considering all the games and technology they've made. How it affects Keen rights, no idea... I don't see the new owners giving anything away for free, though. This only muddles the waters (is there even such a phrase?), now it won't even be possible for iD to give the Rights to Tom, if they decided so. Or do they remain in control over the games already released? I don't know anything.

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 10:45

Then again, now the Keen rights may not be so tied to Carmack's apparent personal vendetta against the series. Perhaps the new owners will see the potential...

K1n9_Duk3 · Post by **K1n9_Duk3** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 11:21

KeenRush wrote:now it won't even be possible for iD to give the Rights to Tom, if they decided so. Or do they remain in control over the games already released? I don't know anything.

idsoftware.com wrote:id Software, Wolfenstein, DOOM, QUAKE, RAGE and Enemy Territory and related logos are registered trademarks owned by ZeniMax Media Inc.

I guess id isn't in control anymore. But unfortunately, they don't say a word about their other franchises Commander Keen, Orcs & Elves Hexen or Heretic

Galaxieretter · Post by **Galaxieretter** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 11:41

This sucks. Everyone is turning into a sellout. First 3D Realms and now ID. There are no independent game companies from the United States anymore. Everyone is being eaten by bigger companies like EA or... ZeniMax. At least ZeniMax has some decent titles published and aren't as hostile of a takeover as EA's track record is.

If this keeps going I think we are going to have a gaming industry monopoly on our hands... if we don't already have that.

I don't know about the rest, but I think ID software makes good games. Quake 4 was pretty good (Although I believe it was someone over at ID "acting out" or something.) and so was Doom 3 but they just haven't done anything in the past few years... like 4?

Our last hope relies in Epic Games. And I would rather not see it there.

That would be cool if they made the new Commander Keen.

Dynamo · Post by **Dynamo** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 15:17

It's about time it happened. Let's face the truth guys, in the past 10 years ID software only made DooM III, it asked other companies to work on other games like Wolfenstein and Quake Arena. In truth ID Software was almost non-existent before this, now it is officially non-existent. It had to happen.

Deltamatic · Post by **Deltamatic** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 18:39

Commander Spleen wrote:Then again, now the Keen rights may not be so tied to Carmack's apparent personal vendetta against the series. Perhaps the new owners will see the potential...

Carmack? Personal? Vendetta?
My world spins before my eyes.

DaVince · Post by **DaVince** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 22:08

At least we should be glad ZeniMax is sort of a good company... (Hey, they're part of Bethesda, and they made some awesome stuff!)

Let's hope this changes something in the future of Keen.

Deltamatic · Post by **Deltamatic** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 3:58

The only thing is, ID is famous only for making FPS games. And they've made quite a lot of money off of them, too. So logically what ZeniMax would do is order them to make more FPS games.

K1n9_Duk3 · Post by **K1n9_Duk3** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:07

Galaxieretter wrote:This sucks. Everyone is turning into a sellout. First 3D Realms and now ID.

I think the situation is different with id. They have been trying to sell the company for quite some time now. Rumours say that this was the reason why they kind of forced co-founder Adrian Carmack to leave the company since he didn't want to sell the company.

Since id was actually owned by John Carmack (among 3 others), he actually made a lot of money by selling the company. Who would say no to some million dollars? So I guess this was just another act of capitalism.

Apogee/3D Realms is still owned by Scott and George and they are not willing to sell the company to anybody while Take Two seems to be trying to forcing them into it.

Sslaxx · Post by **Sslaxx** » Sat Jun 27, 2009 22:09

Frankly, I'd rather 3D Realms just went to DIAF. Want to look at how a franchise is (mis)handled? Look no further!

I'm rather happy to see this having taken place - hopefully, the benefits for both id and Bethesda will be manyfold (not least would be technology sharing - id Tech 5, anyone?). As to whether or not it means anything for Commander Keen (or the policy of releasing source code) remains to be seen.

Oh, Bethesda is a part of Zenimax, DaVince, not the other way round.

Post by **Levellass** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 8:31

Miserable company. I have no sympathy at all. Fire the demolition beams!

Keen is more likely to thrive under new management, though sadly it may be a terrible remake.