id Software

Pioneers of the first-person shooter genre.

Antoine Turmel from Saint-Nazaire, France · CC BY-SA 2.0

id Software LLC is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack.

Quick Facts

Founders

John Carmack
John Romero
Tom Hall
Adrian Carmack

Key franchises

Doom
Quake
Wolfenstein
Rage

Proprietary engines

id Tech series (e.g., id Tech 1 through id Tech 7)

Headquarters location

Richardson, Texas, United States

Lore & Background

id Software made important technological developments in video game technologies for the PC (running MS-DOS and Windows), including work done for the Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake franchises. The company was involved in the creation of the first-person shooter (FPS) genre: Wolfenstein 3D is often considered to be the first true FPS; Doom popularized the genre and PC gaming; and Quake was id's first true 3D FPS. In June 2009, ZeniMax Media acquired the company. In 2015, it opened a second studio in Frankfurt, Germany. ZeniMax Media was acquired by Microsoft in March 2021. In July 2026, the majority of id Software employees were reputedly laid off.

Reader's Guide

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Did You Know?

The company writes its name with a lowercase 'id', pronounced as in 'did' or 'kid'.
The name 'id' originally came from the phrase 'in demand', but later a connection was made with Sigmund Freud's psychological concept of id.
The founders met at Softdisk in Shreveport, Louisiana, and initially formed a group called Ideas from the Deep (IFD).