Rage Engine 'id Tech 5' Will Only Be Licensed to Bethesda-Published Games

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id Software's flashy new engine id Tech 5, which is powering Rage, will not be licensed to third party developers unless their game is published by id's fellow ZeniMax Media subsidiary Bethesda, CEO Todd Hollenshead has told Eurogamer.

"It's going to be used within ZeniMax, so we're not going to license it to external parties," Hollenshead explained. "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."

Bethesda's development arm, of course, is behind the RPG series The Elder Scrolls and, more recently, Fallout 3--sprawling open-world games which could well benefit from the large and unique worlds that id Tech 5 is built to enable.

Licensed id technology has powered a huge number of third-party games over the years, ranging from Rise of the Triad and Half-Life to Call of Duty and Brink. id wizard John Carmack yesterday demonstrated id Tech 5 running at 60fps on an iPhone.

From The Chatty
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    August 13, 2010 7:13 AM

    I'm getting more excited by the day to see this tech in person. I've always respected Carmack's engine work but the man is a damn genius after that iPhone demo he showed yesterday, even if it was just a tech demo.

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      August 13, 2010 7:15 AM

      Ditto.

      I'm really eager to see this next Rage presentation.

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      August 13, 2010 8:01 AM

      translating pictures to textures was not a genius move? hes been a genius for a while in my book

      • reply
        August 13, 2010 8:42 AM

        Oh yeah, I've always considered him the brightest of the bunch as far as game engines go, but his work on the iPhone has just stuck a chord with me for some reason. Hell even Doom II RPG is amazingly well-designed.

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