John Carmack needs more money for his rockets, sells out to ZeniMax (Bethesda)

[Trippy]

Including a Kotaku link just to piss off schild

http://kotaku.com/5302060/id-software-bought-by-bethesda-parent-company-zenimax

Note: John is not actually the majority shareholder of id

[IainC]

Looks like someone forgot to ask John Romero's opinion

[NiX]

Why do people care about Romero? He's so irrelevant and has been for a long time.

[schild]

Why do people care about Romero? He's so irrelevant and has been for a long time.

Guess I can just close photoshop. I had a screenshot of that tweet in it and I was going to change it to "I'm Irrelevant?!"

[Malakili]

Why do people care about Romero?

Because he made me his bitch that one time. 

[Chimpy]

Romero was irrelevant long before he used the "Wow you must be the greatest quake player ever if you beat me, want to mate?" pickup line on Stevie Case.

[Yegolev]

Why do people care about Romero? He's so irrelevant and has been for a long time.

He's very much a miniature pro-wrestling element in the game industry.  Like if maybe the Iron Sheik ran a plumbing company.

[Tarami]

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

[Moaner]

I don't know if I'd be such an avid gamer had it not been for Quakeworld.  I know they haven't developed a relevant game in years, but this news really makes me sad.

To add insult to injury, I fucking hate Bethesda.  Needless to say I'm not a fan of Oblivion or Fallout 3 and the thought of id staff working on Elder Scrolls 5 or whatever makes me want to punch a kitten.

EDIT:  Clearly I'm illiterate.  Excuse the fuck out of me, I just worked a 21 hour day and id is my favorite developer while Bethesda is amongst my least as of late.  I think I am going to go punch a kitten now.

[NiX]

I take it you're either illiterate or didn't bother to read anything in this thread. Romero Carmack specifically said the reason they went to BethSoft is because they don't do shooters and ID doesn't do RPGs, so there's no internal competition for their company to stay afloat.

Edit by Trippy: FIFY

[Venkman]

Hmm, I don't get it. Is it that id couldn't stand on its own? Who were they competing with? Publishers not answering their calls? If the two companies are still going to be largely autonomous, neither gets the benefit of the other for resources, talent, etc.

Sharing engines or some tech stuff?

[fuser]

Hmm, I don't get it. Is it that id couldn't stand on its own? Who were they competing with? Publishers not answering their calls? If the two companies are still going to be largely autonomous, neither gets the benefit of the other for resources, talent, etc.

 id's always been an engine house steered by Carmarck that happened to produce games. I'm guessing in the past few years id has lost a lot of ground to epic in licensing of their tech engines. A few tired FPS series with no new IP money and royalties are probbly drying up so its a win win. Zenimax picks up a new complete engine source and development, and id goes back to making engines.

 No more licensing costs to Gamebryo so they are the real losers.

[Hayduke]

The major publishers (EA, Activision, etc..) would've probably gutted them if they'd been acquired.  And id seems to have been tired of licensing out properties to other publishers that have vested interests in their own franchises.

Here's an interview with Carmack and Altman though if interested.

[Fabricated]

Why do people care about Romero? He's so irrelevant and has been for a long time.

He's very much a miniature pro-wrestling element in the game industry.  Like if maybe the Iron Sheik ran a plumbing company.

The Iron Sheik is still around and fucking hilarious by the way.

Opie and Anthony had a great interview with him lately where he badmouthed Hulk Hogan and threatened everyone he didn't like that he'd "fuck their ass" with his ten inch cock and break their back and put them in the camel clutch.

[Venkman]

Hmm, I don't get it. Is it that id couldn't stand on its own? Who were they competing with? Publishers not answering their calls? If the two companies are still going to be largely autonomous, neither gets the benefit of the other for resources, talent, etc.

 id's always been an engine house steered by Carmarck that happened to produce games. I'm guessing in the past few years id has lost a lot of ground to epic in licensing of their tech engines. A few tired FPS series with no new IP money and royalties are probbly drying up so its a win win. Zenimax picks up a new complete engine source and development, and id goes back to making engines.

 No more licensing costs to Gamebryo so they are the real losers.

Ok that makes a bit more sense.

[Big Gulp]

Ok that makes a bit more sense.

A LOT more sense.  What was the last actually good game id has come out with?  It has to be prior to Doom 3.  Their engines aren't anything special any more either, especially in comparison to the stuff Epic and Crytek are putting out.  Depending on how much they paid (and I have a hunch they paid way too much), I'd say Zeni got a raw deal.

[Trippy]

Hmm, I don't get it. Is it that id couldn't stand on its own? Who were they competing with? Publishers not answering their calls? If the two companies are still going to be largely autonomous, neither gets the benefit of the other for resources, talent, etc.

id wants to develop more games based on their IP faster. They aren't so keen on 3rd parties doing such games for them -- i.e. they want to do these games in-house. However id is also not setup to grow headcount quickly since that's never been their thing. It's also a significant risk if they tried to do this themselves with their own money. Hence the buyout by ZeniMax. It gives id the resources and infrastructure they need to greatly expand the amount of games they can develop in a given amount of time in an area ZeniMax (Bethesda) has no overlap in (FPSes).

[Sheepherder]

No more licensing costs to Gamebryo so they are the real losers.

Fuck em.

[Tale]

Why do people care about Romero? He's so irrelevant and has been for a long time.

Holy shit. I just looked up Romero's teen bride's website rhaluka.com to see what she's been getting up to. I was going to say that's why I still cared about Romero - entertainment value for marrying a hot Romanian teenager he met on the internet. There's a whole world of entertainment in the photos you can find of their life together (google Rhaluka).

So I read the chatbox and someone mentions the word "deported". Scroll down in the chatbox and Romero is there, confirming "no joke" his teen bride got deported in December last year and he's fighting the INS to bring her back.

[schild]

Didn't they get married? Wonder why she got deported. Or rather, how.

[Trippy]

It's probably like Green Card and she/he messed up the interview somehow.

[Tale]

Bring her back!

More holiday snaps: http://rhaluka.smugmug.com/

[Tale]

Didn't they get married? Wonder why she got deported. Or rather, how.

Had a look through his Twitter backscroll - he appears to play WoW 24/7 and then there's this:

9:09 AM May 15th from TweetDeck
i'm continually amazed at the idiocy of the homeland security immigration department

Maybe she's a terrorist!

[Azazel]

He's very much a miniature pro-wrestling element in the game industry.  Like if maybe the Iron Sheik ran a plumbing company.

The Iron Sheik is still around and fucking hilarious by the way.

Opie and Anthony had a great interview with him lately where he badmouthed Hulk Hogan and threatened everyone he didn't like that he'd "fuck their ass" with his ten inch cock and break their back and put them in the camel clutch.

That's pretty much every interview and tv appearance he's made over the last 5 or so years.