Something that popped up over on RedHerring is an interesting quick profile of id Software who is believed by Red Herring to be among the top 100 most important companies in the world. Considering how much id pioneered in the industry that isnt much of a stretch, but then I saw this bit at the end of the article which answers a question people have been asking for a while. How much money are they making?

FINANCIALS Profitable. Owned by artists Adrian Carmack, Kevin Cloud, and John Carmack. Has not accepted venture capital and has no plans to go public. Last year's revenue exceeded 1999's $22 million. Revenue in 1998 was $19 million.

Now you know. Thanks Mikey for the link. Also here's the full list for the curious. Speaking of this kind of stuff, AVault ran a story this morning about the size of the gaming industry that is kind of relevant. Here's a quote:

Myth: The Game Industry is now larger than the Movie Industry.
With enough qualifications, any statistic can be made true. The legend is specific in that the game industry now out-grosses the domestic box office grosses in the movie industry. That's one heck of a qualification. So worldwide game sales from consoles and PCs is greater than movie revenue from the box office in the United States? Big deal. Let's compare apples and apples: How does the worldwide game industry compare against worldwide movie, tape, DVD, cable and TV movie revenue? Oops, doesn't look so impressive then.

The article was pretty interesting and made some good points, but then I saw this and it made me wonder what the developers think:

"A modern, AAA title can be done with a half dozen full time people easily and then contract out for the cutscenes you need."