id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead says that despite the multiplatform capabilities of the new id Tech 5, the company will continue to make a priority of developing games rather than licensing the engine.
While id is moving beyond its well-established roots as a PC developer with “seamless” support for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Mac platforms in the new id Tech 5, Hollenshead said the company’s attitude toward licensing, with a focus on a small number of studios with design philosophies similar to id’s own, was unlikely to change. “Our philosophy really hasn’t changed from what it’s always been, which is games first, licenses second,” Hollenshead said in an interview with Gamasutra. “Working on Rage and working on Doom [4], which are both id Tech 5 games, are certainly our top priorities.”
“It’s been more of kind of actually going out and targeting developers, or responding to their requests and actually going out and actually working with them on an individual basis, as opposed to a more kind of marketed, kind of broader approach,” he continued. “Our philosophy on that has been that we’d rather have a small number of good-fit, high-quality developer licensees than a bunch that aren’t really good fits or that may not be that bright of a licensee anyway.”
Hollenshead also said that while id hasn’t done much to promote software licenses so far, the development process is proceeding well and the technology is essentially proven. “The main things has been getting the tech to the ‘done’ stage, where things aren’t moving around, and people can set expectations about how they’re going to do their budgets,” he said. “It’s to that point. There’s no significant engineering risk about whether things will work or not.”
