id Acquisition Blew Cliff Bleszinski's Mind

As a lot of you might have heard, two weeks ago, ZeniMax Media, the company that owns Fallout 3 and The Elder Scrolls developer Bethesda, revealed that it had acquired famous first person shooter developer id Software.

We've heard representatives from the two entities talk about this move, and now popular video game designer Cliff Bleszinski, the creator of the extremely popular Gears of War franchise, comes to share his thoughts on the recent sale of the studio.

He reveals that he was really shocked by the news, and that his own company, Epic Games, was quite close to id Software, as two of their titles were engaged in a grudge match in terms of fans and popularity.

“My mind is blown. id was always the studio I had my eyes on in the early days as far as wondering if we could be as good as them if not better,” Bleszinski tells Develop. “When we had Unreal Tournament they had Quake 3 which is one of those legendary showdowns between two games. To see this happen to the id guys just blows my mind. To see the old standbys go through these kinds of changes – like with 3D Realms closing up Duke Nukem – it’s really shocking. We all came from the same mold from the shareware days; these studios have been around forever, and to see them acquired like that is a surprise.”

But even though the designer was a bit shocked by the move, he reveals that it will be a good thing for the studio as it now has the ability to focus on more projects at the same time and continue to deliver great experiences. “It will add stability, it will help them leverage their properties more; but in the meantime it’s so surreal. As they say, the one constant is change,” he concludes.