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id went with Zenimax to avoid "big corporate changes" involved with an EA or Acti buy

johncarmack

John Carmack's told VentureBeat that id was sold to Zenimax as going with an EA or Activision acquistion would have meant getting sucked into the corporate machine.

"The two obvious choices [of id buyers] were Electronic Arts and Activision," said the fabled developer.

"They’re the two giants of the industry. But we knew that we would have to go through big corporate changes if we went with them. We know the developers at the studios owned by those companies. And while they have good things to say, there is no doubt about it that things would change at a company of that scale.

"If we had gone to one of those companies, we would be one more studio. We would be a prized studio. But we wouldn’t even be their only shooter studio."

Zenimax confirmed yesterday that it had sold to the Bethesda parent, effectively ending one of the greatest indie stories in the games industry.

Read the full thing through the link.

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Patrick Garratt

Founder & Publisher (Former)

Patrick Garratt is a games media legend - and not just by reputation. He was named as such in the UK's 'Games Media Awards', the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award. After garnering experience on countless gaming magazines, he joined Eurogamer and later split from that brand to create VG247, putting the site on the map with fast, 24-hour a day coverage, and assembling the site's earliest editorial teams. He retired from VG247, and the games industry, in 2017.

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