Bethesda parent gets more money

By Robert Purchese Published 7 October, 2010

To spend on games, new studios.

ZeniMax Media already owns Bethesda, id Software and Arkane Studios - but the Maryland monster isn't sated yet.

A chunky $150 million has just been secured by ZeniMax from Providence Equity Partners. This is to be spent on "increased game development", "strategic acquisitions" and "expanded publishing operatings".

Only three years ago, PEP pumped a gigantic $300 million into the American media company.

ZeniMax's most attention-grabbing purchase of late was of Doom and Quake creator id Software. Website CrunchBase reckons a further $105 million was raised for that.

ZeniMax now has an envious game portfolio that includes Brink, Fallout: New Vegas, RAGE and Doom 4.

"Since our original investment in 2007, ZeniMax Media has tripled the size of its development portfolio and assembled an extraordinary library of major game franchises, along with some of the best development talent in the world," bragged Michael Dominguez from PEP.

id Software's RAGE. Underneath it, that now 'proprietary technology' idTech 5.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • GordonJ #1 2 years ago

    "ZeniMax now has an envious game portfolio"

    enviable?

  • gjgjg #2 2 years ago

    jesus, i want to go to that expansion party

  • Trikk #3 2 years ago

    Please for the love of Satan revive the ET franchise!

    ETQW got Kotick'd waaaaaaay too early (although it's still a great game as it stands).

  • Moz #4 2 years ago

    Lets hope they look to current day EA as a role model rather then following in ActiBliz's Screw your fans and your devs footsteps.

  • Xardan #5 2 years ago

    But what about the elder scrolls? Why are they expanding so much and ignoring their roots entirely?

  • rotmm #6 2 years ago

    @GordonJ,

    Our Mr Purchase is making far too many of that kind of mistake at the moment. Does he still have an Expo hangover at the moment?

  • rotmm #7 2 years ago

    @Trikk, "Please for the love of Satan revive the ET franchise!"

    Is that wise? Wasn't it ET that destroyed Atari back in the day? ;)

  • Moz #8 2 years ago

    @Xardan

    Because currently Fallout is making them more money, and after 5 games Elder scrolls needed a break to stop it becoming stale. I'm sure it'll reappear in a couple of years hopefully as an innovative ground breaking MMO that matches the older games depth and story telling.

  • ubergine #9 2 years ago

    @Xardan

    No doubt ES5 has been in development since Oblivion shipped, but I'd expect an all new engine (Id Tech 5?) and, given it's Bethseda's flagship IP, they might even be holding off for the next generation of consoles for all we know. Or if they don't, they certainly would have considered that option until it became clear that both majors will try to extend the life of PS3 and 360 as long as possible.

  • metallicorphan #10 2 years ago

    @Xardan 'But what about the elder scrolls? Why are they expanding so much and ignoring their roots entirely? '

    as soon as Oblivion was released i remember that they said they started work on number 5 if that's what you mean,its just that these games take a long time(Morrowind to Oblivion was 4 years apart)..i heard it's meant to be set in Skyrim which is above Cyrodil and North West of Morrowind on the World map of Tamriel,whether it will expand/change i don't know

    more recently however Sony have come out and said that there is a new Elder Scrolls game on the way(apparently Bethesda contacted them),and also an ElderScrollsV domain has also recently been registered

    Bethesda themselves said in the middle of 2008 that they were concentrating on Fallout 3 but with a new Elder Scrolls title for 'potentially' 2010

  • mkreku #11 2 years ago

    Skyrim? Is that a land with snow in it? Because I love snow..

  • EgbertoTheGreat #12 2 years ago

    Pretty certain that they don't own Splash Damage.

  • FladgeMangle #13 2 years ago

    If it's Skyrim then we might get a bit of Akavir too.

    If you do the Pale Pass quest you get lots of info about their land which is basically a fantasy Japan, hence the katanas the Blades use. They tried to invade once and had a civil war involving dragons, tigers and snakes, although they might just be clan names.

    Jeez, I really should get out more.

  • Hunam #14 2 years ago

    EgbertoTheGreat is correct, Zenimax/Bethesda don't own Splash Damage.

    But I wouldn't mind if they did. Both companies are 7 shades of win.

  • Trikk #15 2 years ago

    Jesus died for our sins yet I can't -1 rotmm's comment more than once.

  • Silvergun-Blue #16 2 years ago

    Most, if not all information on the next Elder scrolls game is pure speculation.

    However I recall someone from Bethesda stating that they had two "unannounced" projects, both based on current tech.