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.
- Founders
- John Carmack, John Romero, Tom Hall, Adrian Carmack
- First Major Release
- Wolfenstein 3D (1992)
- 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, including work done for the Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake franchises. The company was involved in the creation of the first-person shooter genre: Wolfenstein 3D is often considered the first true FPS; Doom popularized the genre; 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.
In Their Own Story
The terminal hummed with a low frequency as the cursor blinked over the source code. In the digital void between sectors, the geometry of the world waited to be rendered. A single command executed, and suddenly, the darkness fractured into polygons. Walls rose from the floor, textured with grime and rust, while the distant roar of a demon echoed through the newly formed corridor. It was not just a game; it was a new reality constructed line by line, where speed was life and every frame counted.
Reader's Guide
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Did You Know?
- The name 'id' originally came from the group 'Ideas from the Deep' (IFD), dropping the 'F' to leave 'id'.
- The company writes its name with a lowercase 'id', pronounced as in 'did' or 'kid'.
- John Carmack developed an efficient way to rapidly side-scroll graphics on the PC in September 1990.
- The first Commander Keen game was released through Apogee Software in December 1990.
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