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Tag: Doom

  • Microsoft Buys Game Maker ZeniMax for $7.5 Billion

    Microsoft Buys Game Maker ZeniMax for $7.5 Billion

    Microsoft on Monday announced plans to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, one of the largest, privately-held game developers and publishers in the world. The ZeniMax library includes game franchises such as The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom, and Rage, among many others, Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will acquire ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion in cash.

    “Gaming is the most expansive category in the entertainment industry, as people everywhere turn to gaming to connect, socialize and play with their friends,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “Quality differentiated content is the engine behind the growth and value of Xbox Game Pass—from Minecraft to Flight Simulator. As a proven game developer and publisher, Bethesda has seen success across every category of games, and together, we will further our ambition to empower the more than three billion gamers worldwide.”

    “This is an awesome time to be an Xbox fan. In the last 10 days alone, we’ve released details on our two new consoles which go on pre-order tomorrow, launched cloud gaming in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and now we’re making another investment in the most critical part of our strategy: the games,” said Phil Spencer, executive vice president, Gaming at Microsoft. “Generations of gamers have been captivated by the renowned franchises in the Bethesda portfolio and will continue to be so for years to come as part of Xbox.”

    Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media was founded in 1999 by Chairman and CEO Robert A. Altman; Bethesda’s structure and leadership will remain in place.

    “This is a thrilling day for this company, our employees, and our fans. We have enjoyed a close partnership with Microsoft for decades, and this deal is a natural progression of those years working together,” said Altman. “The big winners today are our fans. We are continuing to develop our slate of AAA games, but now with Microsoft’s scale and entire Game Stack, our games can only get better.”

    Phil Spencer, head of Xbox at Microsoft, discusses the company’s acquisition of game maker ZeniMax and how this impacts gaming and the Xbox platform:

    Adding ZeniMax Games To Xbox Is Incredible

    Gamers love great games. The Xbox console is going on preorder tomorrow for the next generation. Just last week we added Game Pass cloud streaming so that people can play this Game Pass library across all of their Android phones. Then obviously Game Pass which is the largest game content subscription out there with 15 million subscribers and growing. So getting to work with ZeniMax to bring their amazing collection of games to GamePass is just an incredible opportunity for us.

    Our plan is to leave it alone. ZeniMax has an amazing track record of building great games. Our goal is to make ZeniMax the best ZeniMax they can be. ZeniMax will be working individually with their studios on the great platform technology that we have, getting their creators feedback into the things that we need to go build. That’s just a critical flywheel for us innovating, just the feedback from the world’s best creators on our platform.

    Committed To Bringing Game Pass To iPhones

    When you get large scale general compute platforms like mobile phones people should have access to the great content and services that are out there. We remain committed to that. There are over 3 billion people who play video games today and many of them play on phones. We’re committed to bringing Game Pass to all mobile phones out there including Apple phones. We will continue to have conversations and I’m sure we will be able to get to some resolution.

    Our biggest issue (with the Apple app store) isn’t a financial issue. Our biggest issue is that cloud game streaming apps are actually not allowed in the way that Game Pass is built for other platforms. For us, this is about gamers having great access to the content from the creators they love on the devices they own. Play the games that you want with the community that you want to play with the devices that you have. That’s our goal.

    COVID Impacted Game Production

    People with sheltering in place and work from home, we’ve seen incredible engagement in the gaming community over the last few months. We’re really proud with the way that gaming has been able to play such a pivotal role for people. Games today are hundreds of people coming together to build these massive games. It’s important that we’re conscious of the safety of our teams. COVID has had an impact on production and you’re seeing that out there.

    When you look at this launch and people’s appetite for gaming right now we are very bullish on how are preorders are going to go tomorrow. We have the most powerful console on the market. We have the most affordable console on the market. We’ve got things like Xbox All Access that allow people to join this next generation of gaming for $24.99 a month with no upfront costs. You get a console and Game Pass. In times like this, I think that accessibility of price point and offer is really important.

  • John Carmack Stepping Down As Oculus CTO To Focus On AI Research

    John Carmack Stepping Down As Oculus CTO To Focus On AI Research

    John Carmack is a legend in the video game community, having co-founded id Software and taken the lead on ground-breaking games such as Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein 3D, Rage and others. More recently, he has held the role of CTO at Oculus VR.

    Now, in a Facebook post, Carmack has announced he is resigning his position to pursue AI research. He plans on being a “consulting CTO” for Oculus, but only in a modest role.

    “Starting this week, I’m moving to a ‘Consulting CTO’ position with Oculus.

    “I will still have a voice in the development work, but it will only be consuming a modest slice of my time.

    “As for what I am going to be doing with the rest of my time: When I think back over everything I have done across games, aerospace, and VR, I have always felt that I had at least a vague ‘line of sight’ to the solutions, even if they were unconventional or unproven. I have sometimes wondered how I would fare with a problem where the solution really isn’t in sight. I decided that I should give it a try before I get too old.

    “I’m going to work on artificial general intelligence (AGI).

    “I think it is possible, enormously valuable, and that I have a non-negligible chance of making a difference there, so by a Pascal’s Mugging sort of logic, I should be working on it.

    “For the time being at least, I am going to be going about it ‘Victorian Gentleman Scientist’ style, pursuing my inquiries from home, and drafting my son into the work.

    Runner up for next project was cost effective nuclear fission reactors, which wouldn’t have been as suitable for that style of work. 😊”

    If Carmack’s new focus has even a fraction of the success he’s enjoyed in the gaming industry, the AI field will likely reap significant benefits from his participation.

  • Wolfenstein: The New Order Launches May 20

    Wolfenstein: The New Order Launches May 20

    Last year, Bethesda announced that it was putting its acquisition of id Software to good use by developing a new Wolfenstein game. That game would soon be known as Wolfenstein: The New Order and is a reboot of sorts set in a world where Nazi Germany won World War II. At the time, we weren’t given a release date outside of some point in 2014, but now we know it’s coming sooner rather than later.

    Bethesda announced today that Wolfenstein: The New Order will be out on May 20. The new game, developed by MachineGames, is a single-player only affair that promises “a deep game narrative packed with action, adventure and first-person combat rendered in stunning detail with id Software’s id Tech 5 engine.”

    So, what’s this about a deep narrative? Here’s how Bethesda describes it:

    Wolfenstein: The New Order once again centers around the series’ iconic war hero, B.J. Blazkowicz and this time faces alternate version of the 1960s in which the Nazis won World War II. As the only man capable of rewriting history, with the help of a small group of resistance fighters, infiltrate their most heavily guarded facilities, battle high-tech Nazi legions, and take control of super-weapons that have conquered the earth – and beyond.

    Its synopsis doesn’t sound quite as “deep” as they’re promising, but it certainly looks like a blast to play:

    As part of the announcement, Bethesda says those who preorder Wolfenstein: The New Order will get access to the Doom beta. Yes, that Doom – the Doom that’s been in development at id Software for six years now. If you want to know more about the beta, check out the official Web site.

  • Doom 3 BFG Edition Launches Today

    Doom 3 BFG Edition Launches Today

    If you’re exhausted from loot-heavy first person shooters like Borderlands 2 or the stealthy and morally ambiguous gameplay in Dishonored, perhaps it’s time to to revisit the roots of FPS gaming and simply shoot monsters.

    Bethesda today released Doom 3 BFG Edition, allowing gamers to relive the mayhem of the Doom franchise. All three Doom games and the Doom 3 add-on Resurrection of Evil are included in the package, but Doom 3 has been re-mastered and can now be played in 3D. In addition, Doom 3 now has improved rendering and lighting, 5.1 surround sound, a new checkpoint system, and achievements/trophies to earn.

    Aside from all the technical upgrades, Bethesda has included eight new Doom 3 levels titled “The Lost Mission.”

    Doom 3 BFG Edition is now available in the U.S. on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for $40 or on PC for $30. The package goes on sale in Europe on October 19.

    Check out the launch trailer below and see if you’re ready to take on the legions of hell once again:

  • Doom 3 BFG Edition Announced, Contains New Levels

    Doom 3 still remains one of my favorite shooters of all time. It created a perfect atmosphere that was true to the original games while bringing some new ideas to the table that made the game far scarier than it ever should have been. A lot of id fans have been waiting for Doom 4 since then, but today’s announcement will have to do.

    Bethesda announced on their blog today the existence of Doom 3 BFG Edition. As you can probably guess, it’s going to be one of those HD remakes that are all the rage these days. Of course, most HD remakes consist of just making the game look crisper on HD resolutions. id promises to make Doom 3 actually look and play better by adding a number of improvements to the game.

    The changes coming to the actual gameplay are welcomed after the initial game did have some disappointing low points. The annoyance of having to either wield a flashlight or a gun is now gone with an armor-mounted flashlight that allows for the player to illuminate the admittedly too dark hallways of the game while shooting every thing that moves. The game will also introduce a checkpoint save system so that players won’t get frustrated by having to start entire levels all over again.

    “DOOM 3 was enthusiastically embraced by gamers worldwide at its release,” said John Carmack, Technical Director at id Software. “Today, the full experience has been enhanced and extended to be better than ever, and is delivered across all the platforms with a silky smooth frame rate and highly responsive controls. New support for 3D TVs, monitors, and head mounted displays also allows players to experience the game with more depth than ever before. We think shooter fans everywhere will love it.”

    You heard that right, folks. Doom 3 BFG Edition will support head-mounted displays. If you have the cash and the wherewithal, you can truly play Doom 3 in first-person. The support for 3D TVs is a nice touch as well for those with even more cash.

    On top of all of the aforementioned features, Doom 3 BFG Edition will contain seven new levels in the form of a new expansion called “The Lost Mission.” It will be joined by the previous expansion “Resurrection of Evil.” Rounding out the set are copies of the original Doom and Doom 2.

    While I think that id could better spend their time making an expansion to Rage or Doom 4, making a new version of Doom 3 is a nice consolation prize. I’ll definitely buy it all over again just to experience Doom with modern gameplay conventions like an armor-mounted flashlight.

    Check out the first trailer that shows off the new visuals and expansion in action:

  • Wolfenstein 3D Turns 20, Becomes Playable In Your Browser

    I am Death incarnate!

    Want to feel incredibly old? Over the weekend, id Software’s influential First Person Shooter Wolfenstein 3D Google+Reader”>turned 20. That’s right, the first time that you sat down behind the eyes of B.J. Blazkowicz and began to blast away Nazis was on May 5th, 1992. If you remember playing Wolfenstein, you were around for the “grandfather” of FPSs. Although id Software’s next release (just a year later), Doom, might be better-remembered by some of the gaming masses, it was Wolfenstein 3D that made much of what we play today possible.

    And in celebration of the game’s two decades, you can now “relive all the glory of id’s seminal shooter with a free-to-play browser version of the game,” courtesy of Bethesda. Just head to wolfenstein.bethsoft.com, pick your level and your difficulty, and start your escape from Castle Wolfenstein.

    After you’ve gotten your fill playing the browser version of Wolfenstein 3D, check out this director’s commentary from id’s co-founder John Carmack courtesy the Bethesda Podcast:

    Oh, and one more thing. Remember that iOS app version of the game that launched in 2009? Well, in honor of the 20-year anniversary, you can download it free for a limited time.

  • Doom’s John Carmack: Violent Video Games Curtail Violence

    The early first-person shooter Doom, besides taking up a lot of my adolescent time, became one of the common examples of over-the-top video game violence back in the day.

    Today, the crown for ultra-violent games falls on titles like Call of Duty and Battlefield: Bad Company – both of which have new additions coming out this fall. And according to Doom creator John Carmack, it would probably be good for your stress level to play them.

    Speaking to Industry Gamers, Carmack said that not only do violent games not contribute to violent behavior in real life, but they actually provide a release valve for aggression.

    I really think, if anything, there is more evidence to show that the violent games reduce aggression and violence. There have actually been some studies about that, that it’s cathartic. If you go to QuakeCon and you walk by and you see the people there [and compare that to] a random cross section of a college campus, you’re probably going to find a more peaceful crowd of people at the gaming convention. I think it’s at worst neutral and potentially positive.

    The debate between activist groups and the gaming community has been a heated one for some time. Doom found itself in the middle of the controversy in 1999 when it was suggested that Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were obsessed with the game. Cop killers have even used their addictions to games like Grand Theft Auto as defenses in court.

    The question “Do violent video games lead to violent kids?” has plenty of studies on both sides. Studies by Harvard University and The British Medical Journal have shown no conclusive link between the two.

    Carmack addressed this controversy as well:

    People just play games now and I never took seriously the violence in video games debate. It was basically talking points for people to get on CNN and espouse their stuff on there,” he told us.

    There was an E3 where all that was going on where I was giving interviews and the reporters would start going into their questions, and I wasn’t supposed to talk about any of that. My wife was there and she’d start kicking me when I was about to go, ‘Well, I think…’ And in the end it didn’t matter, it didn’t make any impact on things. I never felt threatened by it and it turned out not to matter.

    Violent video games have been in the news again recently. Last month the U.S Supreme Court ruled that states could not ban the sale of violent video games to minors, citing the fact that video games are protected as free speech.

    And just a couple of weeks ago it was discovered that Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik may have used Call of Duty to train for his attacks. In his 1,500 page manifesto he wrote “I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game. It is probably the best military simulator out there and it’s one of the hottest. I see MW2 more as part of my training-simulation than anything else.”

    Where do you fall in the debate? Do you think that violent video games can be beneficial by providing some sort of catharsis for the players? Let us know in the comments.