written on Wednesday, June 24, 2009
No gaming. I kept up on the PA boards, well, just the gaming board, really. I listened to some podcasts. I read some news. Mostly I didn't care.
I probably should. id software was bought by ZeniMax (the company that owns Fallout 3 devs Bethesda). The short version appears to be that id couldn't get publishing deals they liked any more. The big three publishers (EA, Ubisoft, and Activision) all make their own FPS games. Why would they want to put time and effort into promoting a game where they'd have to share the profits with the developers? I'm assuming that since ZeniMax is a smaller publisher that's pushing hard to make a name for itself (they recently flew a bunch of enthusiast press out to London specifically to point out that they publish more than Bethesda games), they were probably willing to give id better terms than anyone else would.
It's kind of sad. I enjoyed thinking of id as fiercely independent. Back in the early days of 3D, John Carmack frequently stood up to Microsoft and 3D accelerator makers to keep them from screwing gamers over with sloppy standards and implementations. The fact that id was privately held meant they also didn't have to answer to shareholders. It seemed part of a package. Now John Carmack has a boss, at least on paper. I think they'll give him a wide berth, but it's not the same. But business is not about my feelings.
The most important thing about id at this point is that their new engine runs on consoles. There may finally be something giving the Unreal Engine a run for its money, which can only benefit the industry at large.
But UE3 has a head start measured in years, so I don't expect gamers will feel any impact for half a decade or so.
I'm halfway through the Republic Commando books. Near the end of the second book, there were a few more threads than I cared about. I found myself trying to absorb facts rather than trying to really keep the story straight. Karen Traviss' habit of saying things obliquely, making the reader put together information through inference, didn't help. You know it's bad when you read something, are certain you didn't understand it, and just don't care. I soldier on.
Zeno Clash will be on sale for half price this weekend. I expect I'll have a review up within the week.
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