Fallout 3 meet id Software

It’s difficult to think of any studio more influential and controversial in the history of first person shooters then id Software.  In fact, id Software states that they “created the original first-person shooter, Wolfenstein 3D” and id Software co-founders have been the stuff of legends with John Romero’s rock star lifestyle before leaving id and John Carmack continuing to earn respect at id from gamers and developers alike.  Today, id Software, the creators of Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake announced that they’ve been acquired by ZeniMax Media, the parent company of another game studio legend, Bethesda Softworks of the Elder Scrolls series and Fallout 3.

At first glance, id, an almost exclusively first-person shooter dominated studio; and RPG powerhouse Bethesda may not seem to have that much in common, but this may be the thing that makes them the best fit.  With no directly overlapping internal competition this deal serves to expand ZeniMax Media’s portfolio without creating conflict between their respective subsidiaries.

In the joint press release from all three companies they have committed that id will continue with business as usual and that all of the principles at id have signed long term contracts with ZeniMax Media.  The major changes for id will be having access to more funding, business resources, and stronger marketing under their permanent new publisher.

ZeniMax Media also gains many valuable assets in acquiring id Software beyond id’s obviously strong properties and fan base.  The id Tech 4 game engine which started as the Doom 3 engine is still licensed frequently in the game industry and is know for superb dynamic per-pixel lighting and for it’s innovation in normal mapping and texture management.  There is no word on whether the id Tech 4 engine will continue to be slated for becoming open source like the earlier id Tech 3 engine.

Perhaps even more valuable than the engine however is the designer behind the Doom 3 engine; the Co-Founder and Technical Director of id Software, John Carmack.  Carmack is widely considered a genius within the computer graphics world and, we have to admit, he’s one of our heroes.  Besides being a successful technical designer, he helped create all of id’s games, carving out the legendary game studio’s reputation and, oh yeah, he’s an aerospace engineer at a X-Prize contending company he started as a hobby.  Having access to the id Tech 4 engine and the man who designed it will be a major advantage for ZeniMax going forward.  With the texture memory innovations he’s been working on for RAGE we’re sure we’ll be seeing more detailed open worlds from Bethesda in the future.

This is only speculation but this acquisition might help explain why there was no id presence and zero RAGE news at E3 a few weeks ago.  It definitely seems like a plausible explanation and helps us feel a little less disappointed we didn’t see anything new.

Given both companies commitment to maintaining all the principles and keeping id running the same way it did before the acquisition, we’re optimistic that this could be very good news for id and Bethesda fans alike.  It’s certain to make the landscape of the gaming universe a little more interesting.

What we all really want to know is when we’re going to get an open-world Commander Keen RPG from Bethesda.

Corrected June 30: Bethesda was behind Fallout 3, not the entire series.