zenimax posts

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).

One of Electronic Arts' biggest third party publishing deals is now no more. ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks and the owner of id Software, has just announced that they will take over as the publisher of id's next game, the first person shooter Rage.

Rage was first announced in 2007 during QuakeCon and at E3 in 2008 Electronic Arts announced it would handle the publishing duties for the game. However ZeniMax went ahead and bought id Software in June of 2009. At the time both ZeniMax and EA stated that the publishing deal for Rage would go unchanged. Neither EA nor ZeniMax has announced the financial specifics of this new publishing transfer, with ZeniMax saying only that, "The ongoing development of Rage is unaffected by this development."

[Via email press release]

Although there is no official statement from either party yet, a post on the Fallout Wikia page claims that Bethesda Softworks has been denied a preliminary injunction in their current court fight against Interplay over the Fallout game license.

As we have reported previously, Bethesda Softworks and its parent company ZeniMax Media have sued Interplay, claiming that Interplay did not have the rights to re-release the previous games in the Fallout series (ZeniMax bought the Fallout IP from Interplay several years ago and of course released Fallout 3 last year). If this new report is correct, Interplay can continue to sell the older games in the series and work on "Project V13" (the name that is being used for Interplay's likely Fallout MMO project) until the lawsuit is settled in court.

[Via No Mutants Allowed]

There's nothing like starting a new work week with a good old-fashioned "we aren't going to identify our sources" rumor. In this case, the "rumor" is buried in a Gamesindustry.biz newsletter that's reprinted at Eurogamer. The editorial talks about digital game distribution and how it may (or may not) take over from the brick-and-mortar game distribution business.

It's all stuff that has been hashed out before, but then the writer states near the end of the editorial, "However, it's also worth watching closely what happens to Steam in the coming months. Unconfirmed industry scuttlebutt suggests that Zenimax - the parent company of Bethesda, which made headlines back in June when it acquired legendary PC studio id Software - is still on the acquisition trail, and has been making eyes at Half-Life creators Valve across the bar. "

Um.....ok.

This is what's known in journalism as "burying the lead." Of course the writer doesn't go into any more details (where he heard this news and when) but news about any move by any company to buy out Valve, arguably one of the most influential game developers in the industry, should be front and center instead of near the end. Naturally we have emailed both Valve and Zenimax to get their official statements on this matter. Zenimax's PR head quickly emailed us back saying they did not wish to comment.

[Via Blue's News]