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According to Eurogamer, it was stated that id Tech 5, the engine powering id's upcoming RAGE, will not leave the confines of developers owned under ZeniMax.
This doesn't mean that all third party developers are completely left without a shot at id Tech 5. However, it does mean that if third party developers want to use the engine, it must be published by Bethesda Softworks.
Todd Hollenshead continues on to compare their business model with id Tech 5 with that of Epic's Unreal Engine.
There is really no saying what, if any, impact this will have on mods or SDK releases to the general public.
"It's going to be used within ZeniMax, so we're not going to license it to external parties," Hollenshead told Eurogamer at QuakeCon 2010 in Dallas today.
"It's like, look, this is a competitive advantage and we want to keep it within games we publish - not necessarily exclusively to id or id titles, but if you're going to make a game with id Tech 5 then it needs to be published by Bethesda, which I think is a fair thing."
"It's like, look, this is a competitive advantage and we want to keep it within games we publish - not necessarily exclusively to id or id titles, but if you're going to make a game with id Tech 5 then it needs to be published by Bethesda, which I think is a fair thing."
This doesn't mean that all third party developers are completely left without a shot at id Tech 5. However, it does mean that if third party developers want to use the engine, it must be published by Bethesda Softworks.
Todd Hollenshead continues on to compare their business model with id Tech 5 with that of Epic's Unreal Engine.
"I think that [Epic] made a strategic choice to focus on the middleware service stuff, and we never pretended to be focused on technology licensing.
"It was that we made the technology for our games, and the philosophy was that with the one team the technology was wasted if you're just using it on one game, so we wanted to be able to license it out to a small number of developers.
"Epic's made a good business out of that so kudos to them, but I wouldn't change the way we've done things."
"It was that we made the technology for our games, and the philosophy was that with the one team the technology was wasted if you're just using it on one game, so we wanted to be able to license it out to a small number of developers.
"Epic's made a good business out of that so kudos to them, but I wouldn't change the way we've done things."
There is really no saying what, if any, impact this will have on mods or SDK releases to the general public.