machinegames posts

On Monday Big Download posted up the first part of our two part look at upcoming games that are so secret you aren't supposed to know about them yet. These were the titles we are labeling as "Code Black" games (formerly as Black Ops games). These are the titles have have been mentioned only in passing or as a listing on an online job description but have yet to be formally announced to the public.

But there are still a ton of such games that we have yet to talk about, including some that have more recently come to light. What are these games and what do we really know about them? In the second part of our Code Black games feature we will once again try to open the doors and slide the windows out so we can see a little more about what these games are about.

Last August at QuakeCon, id Software said it was not going to license out its id Tech 5 graphics engine to third parties unless those developers were working on games for its parent company ZeniMax Media. Today ZeniMax, in confirming earlier reports that it had acquired Sweden-based MachineGames, also stated that the developer's first game will use id Tech 5.

That means MachineGames will be using the same graphics tech that' was developed by id's John Carmack for use in 2011's upcoming shooter Rage and also the next game in the Doom series. There are no other details on what MachineGames' first title will be like

ZeniMax Media, the parent company of game publisher Bethesda Softworks, has been on a spending spree lately. The company announced its acquisition of Arkane Studios last August and in October it announced it acquired the Japan-based Tango Gameworks. Now there's word that ZeniMax has bought yet another developer.

While the company has yet to reveal it officially, Develop has posted up word that business documents seem to confirm that Zenimax has bought Machinegames, a new developer formed last year by former members of Starbreeze Studios, the makers of the acclaimed first person action game The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. If this is indeed true the privately owned ZemiMax now owns six game development studios (Bethesda Game Studios, ZeniMax Online Studios, and id Software are the other three dev studios).