id sold out?

[cmoreland]

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59265

Not sure what to make of this. I thought they had insane amounts of cash...

[Hipshot]

http://www.zenimax.com/id.htm

?!

[Unconscious]

From what I've seen, it's true. Whether or not this is a good thing though, we'll have to wait and find out.

[Bad Sector]

Recently id started going from a small studio focused to a single thing to a studio trying to do a lot of stuff. They might not be able to do this by themselves anymore so they might need the help of some 3rd party or something.

This might be an exceptional case, but so far i fail to remember any case where some studio was bought from some publisher had a positive effect for the studio in the long run.

On the other hand, its not EA and with a smaller company (ZeniMax isn't the biggest fish out there i think) they may keep their way of doing things. If not, i don't think that Carmack would think twice before leaving - and Hollenshead lately did a lot to stress that their biggest asset is Carmack.

Well, except their franchises. But their contract might have these protected.

EDIT: btw, despite what many people seem to think, games are made by the people who formed these companies. If those people are not there, the companies mean nothing. An "id software" without the same people who are now, wouldn't be the "id software" people knew. And today's "id software" is hardly the same "id software" of the Wolf3D and Doom days. The people behind them is what matters most.

I think a good example of this is Ken Levine and the System Shock 2 / BioShock games. You just can't have the SS2 experience without Ken on board (and although i might be proven wrong here, i don't think the upcoming BioShock 2 will be as good as the first one, since most the people who made the first are not involved).

(and of course another good example is the Leisure Suit Larry series...)

[Malchik]

Activition was licensing a lot of their franchises to third parties. id made the decision of moving from an independent single game at a time company to a large brand label producing multiple games at a time. With so many games coming to the iPhone plus both Rage and Doom 4, this is really a natural step.

[Chubz]

id Software hasn't made a great game in nearly a decade.  This is just natural selection at work.  Maybe with this buyout, they'll actually be able to push out better games than the oh-so-awful Doom 3 and its expansion.

[Bad Sector]

I liked Doom 3 and many did. It might not be the next big thing that id actually promised (or at least they acted like it), but it was far from a failure.

[Joe Slap]

This is another sad news (following the end of 3DRealms), id was THE Indipendent company, they never wanted to be bought by anybody and look what we have now...

SIGH

[sathomaso]

I don't think J. Carmack would let anyone purchase id Software without them (id) still having the major decision-making in hand.
So this is hopefully not that big of a deal. Only a matter of $$$.

[Hugo]

I saw this coming for years now. Every since they started to work on multiple titles with multiple teams.
I knew they only did that because the company would grow to be more valuable to buyers.

What we see here is the end of a era. 3D Realms is dead and gone, and now it’s Id Software’s time to die.
John Carmack will probably quit Id within 2 years. And work on rockets fulltime.

They way I see it Carmack planned his retirement for a long time now.

The games aren’t as big as they used to be anymore. Sure I liked Doom3 but it wasn’t like the first time I saw Doom.
Same goes for the tech. There’s just a limit for what one person can do against a lot of other tech savy companies such as crytek.

Not saying carmack isn’t brilliant or losing his touch. It’s just that there are a lot of very smart programmers out there right now.
If you stick a few of them together in a team, they catch up fast.

[Chubz]

I liked Doom 3 and many did. It might not be the next big thing that id actually promised (or at least they acted like it), but it was far from a failure.

It wasn't worthy of the Doom name, though, which is why I decided to list it off as oh-so-awful.  Compared to Doom and Doom 2, it was just embarrassing.

[zfan]

I liked Doom 3 and many did. It might not be the next big thing that id actually promised (or at least they acted like it), but it was far from a failure.

It wasn't worthy of the Doom name, though, which is why I decided to list it off as oh-so-awful.  Compared to Doom and Doom 2, it was just embarrassing.

honestly? doom 3 was more a doom game than doom 2: creeepy atmosphere and enough shooting and fame to keep me interested(the game not me with the fame thing... but i think thats obvious) doom 2 was realy (ok you have a gun and you shoot demons... sorry dooom 2 was the letdown of the series for me)

[Hugo]

I liked Doom 3 and many did. It might not be the next big thing that id actually promised (or at least they acted like it), but it was far from a failure.

It wasn't worthy of the Doom name, though, which is why I decided to list it off as oh-so-awful.  Compared to Doom and Doom 2, it was just embarrassing.

honestly? doom 3 was more a doom game than doom 2: creeepy atmosphere and enough shooting and fame to keep me interested(the game not me with the fame thing... but i think thats obvious) doom 2 was realy (ok you have a gun and you shoot demons... sorry dooom 2 was the letdown of the series for me)

play Doom2 on Ultra-Violence or Nightmare. Then the game becomes like chess. I have scrapbooks full of notes and drawn out levels to get through the game.
every level after the first 10 or so, was basically a little project for me. It could take days before I figured out the best route through a level. You see, on those
skill levels you don't just need to find the exit. You need to find it with enough heatlh/armor and ammo. Because otherwise, you'll be fucked the next level.

it was such an awesome game.

[Joe Slap]

Anyway, I trust Bethesda. I hope they won't ruin anything.

[cmoreland]

I played through Doom 3, was one of the few people that I know that did. ONLY because it had the Doom name on it. It was nothing compared to the original Doom, even Doom2. I just miss those days and they won't ever be back. Gaming is becoming so damn much just about MONEY. MONEY MONEY MONEY. Just look at 3D Realms...it was all about money and still is in court. When gamers were developing games as gamers instead of having the suits breathing down their necks 24/7 games were just more FUN.

/bring back the fun in games!
//Doom4...what is id going to do in it to fix the broken Doom name?

EDIT: scratch that last one, Doom will never be Doom again without Romero and the spirit id had back in the day. (not trying to be a suck up, it's true and you know it) *goes back to read Masters of Doom for his nostalgia fix*