John Carmack reveals the real reason he left id Software, Quakecon speech to be decided


Back in November, we informed you about John Carmack leaving id Software. Since Zenimax Media (the company that owns id Software) and Carmack did not reveal the real reasons of his departure, we were wondering why the big daddy of FPS has left the company he co-founded. Until now. Speaking with USA Today, Carmack unveiled why he left id Software.

As Carmack told USA Today, the negotiations between Oculus VR and Zenimax Media fell apart, thus Carmack was not able to use – as tech demos – Wolfenstein: The New Order or Doom 4 for the headset of the Oculus Rift. Given the fact that this deal was off, Carmack was somehow forced to leave id Software in order to continue his work with the Oculus VR.

“I would have been content probably staying there working with the people and technology that I know and the work we were doing. But they couldn’t come together on that which made me really sad. It was just unfortunate. When it became clear that I wasn’t going to have the opportunity to do any work on VR while at id software, I decided to not renew my contract.”

And that is that. If id Software was still an independent studio, Carmack would be still working on both companies. And that’s basically what most of us feared the moment Zenimax Media announced its acquisition of id Software.

This also gives us an idea of what this new ‘id Software’ is. In short – and that’s just us speculating on this – the id Software you knew is long gone. As with most classic studios, all that remains is the name and a history of great titles. Its soul, however, is simply not there anymore.

In other news, Carmack has already offered to give his traditional talk at this year’s Quakecon. According to Carmack, it’s up to Zenimax to accept it or not.

Quakecon 2014 will take place Thursday, July 17 – Sunday, July 20 in Dallas.

Here is hoping that Doom 4 will be worth the wait, whenever it gets released, and that Zenimax won’t do anything stupid with Carmack’s speech!