Trumping all other significant news is the acquisition of id Software by Bethsoft parent company ZeniMax Media, not only because of its unexpected suddenness but also because of the questions that the news provoked. Speaking to id co-founder John Carmack and CEO Todd Hollenshead, Kotaku got answers to some of the 'whys' of the sale.
"We're really getting kind of tired competing with our own publishers in terms of how our titles will be featured," said Carmack. "And we've really gotten more IPs than we've been able to take advantage of. And working with other companies hasn't been working out as spectacularly as it could. So the idea of actually becoming a publisher and merging Bethesda and ZeniMax on there [is ideal.] It would be hard to imagine a more complementary relationship. They are triple A, top-of-the-line in what they do in the RPGs. And they have no overlap with all the things we do in the FPSes."
Wolfenstein and Rage, byproducts of publishing agreements with Activision and EA Partners, will not change, but Hollenshead indicates that the acquisition will let id grow its teams on games like the next Doom and Quake Live. Ultimately, id will be able to handle all its own IPs internally. "We can build the pipeline and have a regular pipeline of releases," explained Carmack.
This really does seem to be a complementary merger of resources, with both companies having their own specialties and with id not having to worry about which publisher they'd be working with next or what IP they'd have to concentrate on.
