id Software was bought by ZeniMax, the parent company behind the developer and publisher Bethesda for a minimum of 105 million dollars. Psimonk this is a spicy price tag.
It will be the nieuwsvolgende Tweakers.just-reader will not have missed the last few weeks; id Software was bought by ZeniMax, the parent company behind the developer and publisher Bethesda. Now is also known for any amount. At least, it is known that ZeniMax at least 105 million Us dollars has been paid to the developer out of Texas. 105 million is the amount that cleared was for the benefit of the acquisition. Or this will be the final amount that one has paid for id Software still only guessing, but it will be somewhere in that neighborhood.
The question is, what is id Software still worth as of 2009? To start earn id Software wagonladingen praise. They were the ones who own the fps genre have been invented and gamers the last few decades have provided exciting games that have become classics. It was id Software who as one of the first multiplayer over a local area network, and modem introduced. Id Software is an example for a lot of shooter developers.
But times have changed. Meanwhile, companies like Bungie, Infinity Ward, DICE, Ubisoft and Crytek has been busy and is the shooter genre has evolved. Halo, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Far Cry 2, Crysis… Piece for piece titles of the shooter genre in their own way to a higher level have risen, while the id Software titles in the last few years have been stopped.
The last game id Software has done was Doom III (2004) (Quake Live I do, for convenience, as not count). Quake 4 – which, let’s be honest, quite disappointing, and very little impression could make – was developed by Raven Software and also for the upcoming Wolfenstein is Raven behind the helm. For both Quake 4 and Wolfenstein id acted as producer, and a thick finger in the porridge had, but id in fact for the past five years not fully own made game released.
Bethesda (ZeniMax) buy so a developer who veeeeeeery long time about games. Rage is more than two years in development and we go on at the earliest until the end of the 2010 games. Also, does the game due to contractual obligations from at Electronic Arts. Doom 4 is the first game under the flag of the new owner would come true, but that game is not yet ready. In 2007, alluded John Carmack to Doom 4 and may 2008, it was officially announced that the game is actually in production. 2011 at the earliest seems to be real.
Of course, it is much too early to guess to the games that are so far removed from us, but Doom 4 will run on the Tech 5 engine from id Software. The same technique that Rage pushes. And to be honest, I find the images of Rage slowly been a bit overtaken by time. Please note; they are still very beautiful, but now to say earth-shattering, no. Also the gameplay seems to be again mainly a lot of ‘corridor, hallway schootout’, interspersed with race. A freeroaming game is Rage isn’t and the same can be said for Doom 4. How I know this? Because ceo Todd Hollenshead that multiple times in various interviews has said.
Bethesda (ZeniMax) has a developer in-house, whose main franchises Doom and Quake already long not more impact and shine that they once had, whose work in the line very long in waiting, whose employees are very meticulous, controlling, stubborn and arrogant (id Software is known as extremely difficult to work with, they want everything in hand and check) and that in terms of design philosophy rather stick to traditional game elements. 105 million seems to me a very spicy price tag.