John Carmack, co-creator of iconic first-person-shooter Doom and one of the smartest minds in video games, has resigned from the development studio he helped co-found.
As seen as on IGN, Carmack is stepping away from the company where he served as lead programmer on Wolfenstein 3D, Quake and Rage. Id’s official statement, via parent company Bethesda, follows:
“John Carmack, who has become interested in focusing on things other than game development at id, has resigned from the studio. John’s work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete, and his departure will not affect any current projects. We are fortunate to have a brilliant group of programmers at id who worked with John and will carry on id’s tradition of making great games with cutting-edge technology. As colleagues of John for many years, we wish him well.” -Tim Willits, Studio Director, id Software
This latest move comes after Carmack took on the role of head of technology at Oculus VR, which makes the buzzed-about Rift virtual reality headset. Though Willits essentially says that Id’s always-strong technology development is on a steady course, Carmack’s departure certainly marks the end of an era.
I wanted to remain a technical adviser for Id, but it just didn’t work out. Probably for the best, as the divided focus was challenging.
— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) November 22, 2013
Comments
15 responses to “Doom Co-Creator John Carmack Leaves Id Software”
Wow. What a pioneer of the gaming genre, and an absolute hero.
Kinda saw it coming.
Good enough excuse to play a “commemorative” round of Doom, methinks.
tried the oculus dev kit – didnt care for it
Damn i’m torn now, JC’s or Zens take on the Oculus?
damn i’m not caring what you do
Makes sense to me. I think he excels in new emerging fields (his engines were amazing), but with gaming hardware as it is, there wasn’t much more innovation that could be done.
The only big thing I can recall id coming out with in the last few years has been megatextures, and that just isn’t as cool as the advancements they made in gaming in the years prior to that.
I think it spells promising things for the Rift, which is great because that thing makes me feel ill after a short time playing. There’s still a long way to go before it feels comfortable, but I’m sure he’ll have a lot to do with making it a whole lot better.
Well, that’s it, Doom 4 is (INCOMING PUN) doomed. I mean, it was already doomed but this isn’t going to help.
Not an optimist :/
Ah, it is a bit silly to say Carmack’s involvement would change the final product too much. He was a programmer, not one of the level designers or whatever.
But still, there’s no place for a game like Doom in today’s FPS market. Games need their cutscenes and their characters and their story development and their linearity and their two guns and a grenade and no key cards. We saw what happened with Doom 3.
It might not be impossible to make a proper Doom 1/2 sequel in 2013+, but damn if it ain’t gonna be a hell of a challenge.
It would be good to go back to the Gun-your-way-out-of-hell Classic high-speed shit-your-pants doom of old. One thing with the classic Doom’s, you never knew if you were going further in to hell, or getting out! (when ya first played them)
Thats why they have restarted development twice on doom 4.
Id arent gonna release the game unless it is a doom game and feels like a doom game. It isnt hard to do it, but Id softwares problem was that the second build was to much like CoD, in the way it was extremely linear and too scripted.
That gives me hope that id know what they are doing this round of development.
Awesome. Taking the chance. That’s Carmack for ya.
Let’s be honest here. Has id even been relevant in the past few years? The past decade? They gave us Doom 3 which people mostly just rag on nowadays, and Rage which I don’t think I’ve ever heard a good word about. I’m honestly surprised the company still exists. They sure must’ve made a lot of cash back in the good old days to still be around.
heres a good word for rage… the game looks amazing, pitty the video card vendors couldnt keep up with sorting their GPU drivers out properly.
i think everyone who has actullay played through the game will also agree that the character animations are mind blowingly incredible… i have yet to see any game even compare…. the way those mutants move….
A decent trade. He’s leaving id for full-time work at Oculus, which can only make the device better. This device absolutely needs to hit the ball right out of the park on release, since it’ll also be fighting against the public’s perception of stereoscopic 3D, and Carmack is the best man for the job.