[15] ZeniMax received in July a $105 million investment from StrongMail Systems for the id acquisition, it's unknown if that was the exact price of the deal.

[20] On November 22, 2013, it was announced id Software co-founder and Technical Director John Carmack had fully resigned from the company to work full-time at Oculus VR which he joined as CTO in August 2013.

One of the nights, id Software put together an impromptu game known as "Wac-Man" to demonstrate not only the technical prowess of the Keen engine, but also how it worked internally.

Beginning with Wolfenstein 3D, he felt bothered when third-party companies started "pestering" him to license the id tech engine, adding that he wanted to focus on new technology instead of providing support to existing ones.

[38] In conjunction with his self-professed affinity for sharing source code, John Carmack has open-sourced most of the major id Software engines under the GNU General Public License.

Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake engine ports are ubiquitous to nearly all platforms capable of running games, such as hand-held PCs, iPods, the PSP, the Nintendo DS and more.

[44][45] Other projects include Yamagi Quake II,[46] ioquake3,[47][48] and dhewm3,[49] which maintain the goal of cleaning up the source code, adding features and fixing bugs.

On August 4, 2011, John Carmack revealed during his QuakeCon 2011 keynote that they will be releasing the source code of the Doom 3 engine (id Tech 4) during the year.

[53] They continued this policy with the Wii U but for Nintendo Switch, they collaborated with Panic Button starting with 2016's Doom and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

A large number of songs in id Software's early games (such as Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D) were composed by Bobby Prince in IMF format.

The majority of all id Tech 4 games, including those made by other developers, have a Linux client available, the only current exceptions being Wolfenstein and Brink.

[65] Besset explained that id Software's primary justification for releasing Linux builds was better code quality, along with a technical interest in the platform.

[71] Despite no longer releasing native binaries, id was an early adopter of Stadia, a cloud gaming service powered by Debian Linux servers, and the cross-platform Vulkan API.

The company's breakout product was released on May 5, 1992: Wolfenstein 3D, a first-person shooter (FPS) with smooth 3D graphics that were unprecedented in computer games, and with violent gameplay that many gamers found engaging.

Doom became a cultural phenomenon and its violent theme would eventually launch a new wave of criticism decrying the dangers of violence in video games.

Audio was not neglected either, having recruited Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor to facilitate unique sound effects and ambient music for the game.

Furthermore, Quake's main innovation, the capability to play a deathmatch (competitive gameplay between living opponents instead of against computer-controlled characters) over the Internet (especially through the add-on QuakeWorld), seared the title into the minds of gamers as another smash hit.

In 2008, id Software was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for the pioneering work Quake represented in user modifiable games.

In August 2007, Todd Hollenshead stated at QuakeCon 2007 that a Return to Castle Wolfenstein movie is in development which re-teams the Silent Hill writer/producer team, Roger Avary as writer and director and Samuel Hadida as producer.

Doom was notorious for its high levels of gore[91] and occultism along with satanic imagery, which generated controversy from a broad range of groups.

[94] While Doom and other violent video games have been blamed for nationally covered school shootings, 2008 research featured by Greater Good Science Center[95] shows that the two are not closely related.

Employees of id Software are quoted in The Official DOOM Player Guide about the reaction to Wolfenstein, claiming it to be ironic that it was morally acceptable to shoot people and rats, but not dogs.

[101][102] Following this, public outcry against Gordon reached a level where he received explicit death threats and graphic messages of intent to harm him and his family.

[103] On November 9, 2022, Mick published a 14,000-word article on Medium[104] explaining his side of the story as a defensive rebuttal of the nine outlined accusations in Stratton's post (described as "an extensive series of lies"), substantiated with various forms of evidence including photographs of emails, receipts, and file metadata to verify his claims.

[22] John Romero saw the horizontal scrolling demo Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement and immediately had the idea to form id Software on September 20, 1990.

Afterward, Romero co-founded The Guildhall in Dallas, Texas,[114] served as chairman of the CPL eSports league,[115] created an MMORPG publisher and developer named Gazillion Entertainment,[115] created a hit Facebook game named Ravenwood Fair that garnered 25 million monthly players in 2011,[116] and started Romero Games in Galway, Ireland in 2015.

[117] Both Tom Hall and John Romero have reputations as designers and idea men who have helped shape some of the key PC gaming titles of the 1990s.

Tom Hall was forced to resign by id Software during the early days of Doom development, but not before he had some impact; for example, he was responsible for the inclusion of teleporters in the game.

When he finished work on that game, he found he was not compatible with the Prey development team at Apogee, and therefore left to join his ex-id Software compatriot John Romero at Ion Storm.

He was asked to resign after the release of Quake II, and he then moved to Electronic Arts where he gained industry notoriety with the development of his own game American McGee's Alice.