Hollenshead Leaves id Software After 17 Years
Bethesda has confirmed that Todd Hollenshead has departed.
GameSpot reports that after 17 years, Todd Hollenshead has departed id Software LLC. He originally signed on as CEO in 1996 during the studio's glorious Quake days, and then was reappointed as president in 2009 as part of the ZeniMax acquisition. Bethesda confirmed his departure on Wednesday.
"After many years with the studio, Todd Hollenshead decided to leave id Software to pursue other personal interests," Bethesda said in a statement. "While Todd was not part of the development teams, he was an integral part of id Software's success as the business head of the studio, and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors."
The news arrives after Bethesda confirmed that the Doom 4 team was forced to reboot the project because it was not living up to id Software and Bethesda's expectations. That meant trashing three years of work and re-doubling their efforts on a "rebooted" version beginning in 2011. The screenshots leaked in late February 2012 were long out of date before they hit the Internet, leading to a belief that they were part of the original project and have nothing to do with the new Doom 4 (similar to what happened when 3D Realms closed its doors).
Bethesda and parent company ZeniMax also reportedly canceled Rage 2. Sources told Kotaku back in April that because the first game received tepid critical and commercial response, executives at parent company ZeniMax decided to get more involved with id Software's development process. Over the next few months, ZeniMax met with id Software's leadership and not only downsized Rage DLC plans, but killed the Rage 2 project. Individuals working on the latter were shifted over to the troubled Doom 4 project.
Id Software's most recent release is 2012's Doom 3: BFG Edition which was largely focused on bringing the aged shooter up to speed on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (although the PC version had perks too). Prior to that, the studio launched Rage in 2011, its first new IP since launching the Quake series in 1996.
At the time of this article, Todd Hollenshead had not stepped forward to tell fans what he's doing next. His Twitter account has also been silent since June 12.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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vider I guess that Zenimax business practices where not on par with Hollenshead view on the matter.Reply
Zenimax has yet to release a good product, Oblivion was rushed out the door (see the amount of fixes that where introduced into the last community unofficial patch and you'll see what I'm talking about), so was Skyrim (poor console fans).
Sad :"( sniff sniff -
nlreynolds80 While I also pick up a whiff of the stench of internal politics here, I must wholeheartedly disagree with your assessment of Zenimax having yet to release a "good product". Oblivion had its serious shortcomings, but not because of it being rushed. Sorry, but five years development is NOT "rushed'. Furthermore, you are just flat wrong about Skyrim being rushed. It is a very stable and well-polished game - albeit a bit mainstream - but definitely not rushed.Reply -
alextheblue Skyrim was a good game overall, and they kept patching it like they do with all Elder Scrolls titles and (although it was playable for me at launch) it rapidly improved. Rage on the other hand had a terrible launch all around. So while I like id, their recent efforts have involved a lot of floundering about blindly. At this point, Zenimax taking a more active role could only improve things, because there's nowhere to go but up. Doom 4 was so bad they had to start over.Reply
With that said, I would like to believe id still has a future, given their starry past. -
10hellfire01 Reply11053232 said:While I also pick up a whiff of the stench of internal politics here, I must wholeheartedly disagree with your assessment of Zenimax having yet to release a "good product". Oblivion had its serious shortcomings, but not because of it being rushed. Sorry, but five years development is NOT "rushed'. Furthermore, you are just flat wrong about Skyrim being rushed. It is a very stable and well-polished game - albeit a bit mainstream - but definitely not rushed.
I have to agree. I even remember it being tossed around that work with regards to Skyrim began a few months before Oblivion released. Obviously it wasn't development, but I find at least even 4 years a hell of a lot. And many seem to forget the size/magnitude of these games. The amount of game testers needed for this would be massive. With a game the size of CoD, yes, it would bother me, but with such an awesome and experienced modding community, as well as a developer that keeps an open ear to problems, it doesn't really bother me.
What you think is good though is your opinion. In terms of the market, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, and New Vegas were very successful and rated very well. Yeah, I had my issues too, but I still enjoyed my hundreds of hours in each game...compared to other AAA games which consist of nothing at a full price.
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wysir This is sad news, not only has Todd been the face of id (outside of Carmack), he was also the face of Quakecon.Reply