Bethesda acquires id Software News • News • Eurogamer.net

News PC Xbox 360 PlayStation 3

Quake maker to remain untouched.

Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media has announced the acquisition of id Software, the developer responsible for Doom, Quake and soon Rage.

No changes will be made to the operations of id Software and the development of its games, according ZeniMax. And all the key figures, such as John Carmack and Todd Hollenshead, will remain in place.

"This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward. We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof, leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward looking research to be done in the service of all of them," said John Carmack, a human robot.

"We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am."

Rage is in development for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and will arrive presumably next year.

We'll find out more at QuakeCon 2009, which takes place from 13th to 16th August.

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.

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

Comments (45) Latest comment 3 years ago

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JahB #1 3 years ago

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good stuff. giving john carmack more money to make games will hopefully lead to more frequent releases of id goodness
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Psychotext #2 3 years ago

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Big news. I wonder what other buyouts and mergers we'll see over the next year.
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Jonathan_Fakenham #3 3 years ago

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Rage / ID Tech 5 engine for Fallout 4?

Edited by 1 at 24/06/09 @ 17:11
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neilka #4 3 years ago

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Nice round of buzzword bingo from John Carmack.
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BiscuitBase #5 3 years ago

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id haven't released a good game since Quake 1. Discuss.
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MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #6 3 years ago

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New Lamborghinis all round!
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jaxon58 #7 3 years ago

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'going forward'. Arrrgh!
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peak_performance #8 3 years ago

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whatwhatwhat

So Zenimax suddenly publishes both for Id and Splash Damage? I just hope Id can stand against the combined stupidity of their Bethesda fathers.
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kangarootoo #9 3 years ago

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"id haven't released a good game since Quake 1. Discuss."

Quake 3 was regarded by many as the top flight twitch-FPS experience of its time.
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Jonathan_Fakenham #10 3 years ago

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Yeah, but Rage is definately their most interesting project since Quake though. It looks like it'll be pretty awesome.

Edited by 1 at 24/06/09 @ 17:10
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Artemus #11 3 years ago

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Quake 2 was great!
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miiiguel #12 3 years ago

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Carmack wins the Euromillions. Again.
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Malek86 #13 3 years ago

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Wtf, this is something I wasn't expecting. Are they going to make Quake RPG now?

"id haven't released a good game since Quake 1. Discuss. "

Quake 2 would like to have a word with you. Also, Quake 3 was pretty good (though not on par with the first two games). Everything else after those kinda sucked tho, I'll admit. Doom 3 was just boring, Quake 4 was slightly better but still no cigar.
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MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #14 3 years ago

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id haven't released a good game since Quake 1. Discuss.

I was going to argue that, but I am struggling a bit. I never played Quake 2 - it fell between two stools in terms of me having a mchine capable of playing it at the time. I'm not sure it Return to Castle Wolfenstein counts. Certainly they have produced engines that have supported truly great games, although not really since iD Tech 3.
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Hunam #15 3 years ago

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Bethesda seem to be rich as hell latley and they seem to be going down well with developers too. More of this please.
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JahB #16 3 years ago

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@BiscuitBase

as pointed out, Quake 3 still stands as the unsurpassed bar of competitive, twitch-based FPS. and needless to say, the fact that id released it as a free-to-play browser game is pretty awesome and makes me wish more developers would do that (just think of lucasarts doing that for their old adventure games).

edit: wrong@

Edited by 1 at 24/06/09 @ 17:16
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WinstonWolf #17 3 years ago

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Oh God, NO!
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Xerx3s #18 3 years ago

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"id haven't released a good game since Quake 1. Discuss. "

It's a BS statement. EoD.
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Malek86 #19 3 years ago

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Expanding on that... of course, if we consider that Q3 came out in 1999, that means they've gone 10 years without good games now. Not pretty. Maybe it was about time someone bought them out.
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superdelphinus #20 3 years ago

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playing doom 3 was the best thing i've ever done, including have sex with a donkey
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cyacomini #21 3 years ago

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Quake 2 was alright, Quake III Arena was just astounding though.

*remembers GLQuake fondly
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jim1975 #22 3 years ago

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whats an id
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WrongShui #23 3 years ago

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Its a Freudian thing..
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bodypopper #24 3 years ago

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Good to know this doesn't spell Doom for Carmack and co.

/gets coat
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ChthonicEcho #25 3 years ago

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Here comes Quake V - Oblivion in space.
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AphoticCosmos #26 3 years ago

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Wow! Err, didn't see that one coming!

I hope that good things come from it.
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Azazel #27 3 years ago

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"leveraging"

Argh!
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stevetuck #28 3 years ago

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Thank fuck it was not EA
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loopy #29 3 years ago

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"... leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward looking research to be done in the service of all of them."

Why does this sort of corporate speak make me want to shoot someone repeatedly in the head? :/
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onyx_elite #30 3 years ago

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They haven't made a good Quake game since Quake 1. I thought Doom3 was alright as a single-player experience tho.

*ducks*
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the_mtfr #31 3 years ago

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I wonder how much id actually cost.

@BiscuitBase apparently, people don't discuss about that any more, since they now have the option to rate down your comment... dunno why. I rated it up, thought it was funny

edit: wow, I got voted down, for wondering how much id cost.

Edited by 1 at 24/06/09 @ 21:57
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DUFFKING #32 3 years ago

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I even liked Quake 4. Every shooter seems determined to have its own gimmick these days, so a straight old school FPS was more than welcome for me. I wish they'd stayed truer to Quake 1 style level design though, like RTCW sort of did. Lots of secrets please.
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Chufty #33 3 years ago

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id haven't released a bad game ever. Discuss.
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Sar #34 3 years ago

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Woah.

Don't think it'll make much of a difference anyway tbh.
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Inigo #35 3 years ago

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Bethesda's engine for Oblivion/Fallout 3 wasn't the best in the world, though the game play was fantastic. The opposite could be said id.

Seems like a perfect marriage.
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Gorgonnae #36 3 years ago

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This is incompetent journalism. Did Robert Purchese even read what says in the article instead of copy and paste what other sites are also reporting???

"Bethesda's parent company ZeniMax Media has announced the acquisition of id Software"

It's the first sentence, for f***s sake. ZENIMAX bought id, not Bethesda.

Edited by 1 at 24/06/09 @ 20:29
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Alkeno #37 3 years ago

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I didn't see this one coming! Well, if John Carmack is happy with it, so are we. I guess...

It seems pretty extrange, id has always seemed so independent, doing whatever they liked (good 3d tech and corridor fps) no matter how famous the competence became (halo, cod, etc.).

If someone told me this yesterday I just wouldn't have believed it...
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clockworkzombie #38 3 years ago

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playing doom 3 was the best thing i've ever done, including have sex with a donkey
A pair of asses together at last.
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curtlikesmeat #39 3 years ago

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onyx_elite - I agree with you, I really enjoyed Doom 3 despite the fact that it wasn't that well received. I thought it was fairly tense and played almost like a survival horror (which I guess isn't what most people were expecting, and why it probably didn't go down that well).
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WJF #40 3 years ago

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'It's the first sentence, for f***s sake. ZENIMAX bought id, not Bethesda. '

Yes, but I'd be suprised if many people knew Zenimax owned Bethesda, so by saying Bethesda bought 'em it gets people to read it.

It's not technically correct, I'll give you that, but there you go.
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marilena #41 3 years ago

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going forward
extend all of our franchises
leveraging our capabilities
across multiple teams
enabling
forward looking research

If Carmack actually said that, with his own mouth, I'll buy a hat and eat it.
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marilena #42 3 years ago

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Why are the last posts in italics?
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MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #43 3 years ago

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Oh, my god there's an italic on the loose!

Who can save us?
[/i][/i]
Oh, wait, it's gone away.

Edited by 3 at 25/06/09 @ 09:44
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w00t #44 3 years ago

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Are we now safe from the rampaging italics?

Seems like Zenimax are defintiely growing as a publisher now - using all that lovely Fallout 3 money.
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Vaughan422 #45 3 years ago

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Hell ye. The Elder Scrolls Arena 5! Bring it!!!
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