John Carmack Just Left id Software to Focus on Oculus VR
John Carmack will focus entirely on Oculus VR.
We can’t help but say woah! WHAT?!?
Polygon received an official statement from Bethesda announcing that id software co-founder and technical director John Carmack has handed in his resignation. According to the statement, Carmack will now focus all his attention on the role of chief technical officer at Oculus VR, which he assumed back in August.
"John Carmack, who has become interested in focusing on things other than game development at id, has resigned from the studio," reads a statement from Tim Willits, studio director at id Software. "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," Willits concludes.
Pete Hines, vice president of PR and marketing at Bethesda Softworks, added that Carmack has long been interested in the work at Oculus VR and wishes to spend time on that project. "The technical leadership he provides for games in development at id Software is unaffected," he added.
Carmack hasn’t said much on Twitter, only saying that he wanted to remain as a technical advisor for id Software, but it didn’t work out. The decision to leave entirely was probably for the best anyway, he said, as the divided focus was challenging. "If they don't want me to talk on stage at Quakecon next year, we'll just have to fill up the lobby like the old days," he tweeted.
Carmack follows president and former CEO Todd Hollenshead who left id Software this summer after a 17 year tenure. Id Software, made famous by the shooters Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake, was founded by Carmack in 1991 along with John Romero, Tom Hall and Adrian Carmack. The studio’s latest game is DOOM 3 BFG Edition, which scored a 59 for the PC and a 67 for the console edition on Metacritic.

Well they did just have id make them a new engine so ES will probably be using this: http://gaoom.com/2013/11/14/zenimax-parent-company-bethesda-filed-trademark-application-void-engine-powered-id-tech/
I don't know. RAGE was pretty bad at launch because the game required very specific OGL drivers and neither AMD nor NVidia had them. Was a fun work around though.
I respect John Carmack but in recent years he seems to have lost interest in PC gaming.
This guy is a genius, so the world needs him at cutting edge research. We will all be benefited from his decision. I, for one, welcome his position.
Cheers!
I just got my Oculus Rift dev kit in the mail a week ago, and let me tell ya, it is amazing.
I had really high expectations when I ordered my development kit, but once I got it up and running it's capabilities exceeded my expectations by a lot.
It's one of the best things that's ever happened to PC gaming, ever.
John Carmack is one of the industry's greatest minds, especially when it comes to PC hardware and capabilities. It says a lot about the Oculus when someone of that caliber leaves the company he created to work on the rift.
This is good news, for sure.
but I would stand for it.
It seems really promising and amazing. I cannot wait for the consumer friendly version. any ETA about it?
How much does the DK cost?
but I would stand for it.
It seems really promising and amazing. I cannot wait for the consumer friendly version. any ETA about it?
How much does the DK cost?
There is no consumer release ETA, but our best guesses place it somewhere in 2015. They want to give us developers a chance to create games specifically for the rift, and to get released games working with it before they throw it out to the consumer.
There is nothing worst than throwing out a piece of hardware that has near zero software support. It would be a huge failure. So they're giving us time to work with it.
The dev kit has a really low resolution and is $300. It's not advisable to purchase one unless you're actually planning on using the SDK to develop games for it.
The consumer model will have plug in play support, a much better looking high resolution screen and by then will have a lot of games optimized to use it.
What are you talking about? One of the best parts of the Oculus rift is how surprisingly light weight it is. You can wear it for hours and not even be bothered by it.
Back in the day, VR headsets were really heavy because the screens were basically CRT tech. With the advent of ultra thin HD LCD screens, like the ones your smartphone uses, the weight is a non-factor any more.
In fact, the first thing I noticed about the rift when I unpacked mine was how light weight it is. It barely weights more than a pair of ski-goggles.
could you make us a small review/first impression as a consumer and developer please?