The book would later influence Palmer Luckey to establish the technology company Oculus VR, and Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman to found Reddit.

It discusses id's next project, Quake, the aftermath of Romero's departure from the company, and his founding and the eventual collapse of Ion Storm, his new game development studio.

Romero is presented as having unbridled creativity and considerable skill, but he loses focus when the spectacular success of the games allows him to adopt a rock star-like public persona.

Carmack is depicted as an introvert, whose unparalleled programming skills are the core of id Software, enabling the company to create extremely sophisticated games.

However, this influence transforms id Software into a considerably less pleasant and fun place to work and causes its games to become increasingly repetitive, though technologically sophisticated.

Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture was first published in May 2003 by Random House in hardcover and ebook form.

[11] Edge described the book as being akin to a Greek drama without the pathos, adding that the story was "a cautionary tale of relationships in the games industry".

[19] Salon contributor Wagner James Au, while declaring the book to be "excellent", criticized David Kushner for giving too much credit to the technical merit of Catacomb 3-D in comparison to Ultima Underworld.

[20] Ann Donahue for Variety considered the character study of "the two Johns" to be interesting but thought the book had "problematic tunnel vision" by rarely taking a broader look at the impact Doom had outside of the gaming industry.

Titled Masters of Disruption: How the Gamer Generation Built the Future, Kushner planned to serialize the book in his newsletter and include new interviews with Carmack and Romero.

[28] In 2005, former Ion Storm chief executive officer[a] Michael Wilson sued publisher Random House Inc., claiming the book made false allegations against him making a questionable business deal to purchase a BMW with funds from the company.

In June 2019, USA Network greenlit a pilot episode of a potential series based on the book, to be written and produced by Tom Bissell under James and Dave Franco's Ramona Films label.

[33] The series would feature Eduardo Franco as Romero, Patrick Gibson as Carmack, and star John Karna, Jane Ackermann, Siobhan Williams, and Peter Friedman, directed by Rhys Thomas.