John Carmack on the mistakes around Quake that ruined id software
John Carmack reflects on mistakes made around the release of Quake, including a failed studio expansion, an inefficient game engine licensing model, and internal conflicts that contributed to the decline of id Software.
Background
John Carmack is the legendary co-founder and lead programmer of id Software, the studio behind Doom and Quake. He has long argued that id's biggest mistake was treating each Quake game as a standalone "project" instead of a continually updated "product." By building a new engine from scratch for Quake 2, Quake 3, etc., id fragmented its player community and forfeited the compounding network effects that come from iterating on one platform over years. This "project vs. product" thesis later became the industry norm (think Minecraft, CS:GO, Fortnite). The tweet refers to internal resistance Carmack faced at the time (late '90s / early 2000s), the eventual decline of id as an independent force, and its acquisition by ZeniMax in 2009. Carmack left in 2013 to focus on virtual reality at Oculus.