Id Software

id Software is an American video game developer based in Dallas, Texas. The company was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk, programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack (no relation to John Carmack). Business manager Jay Wilbur was also involved. id Software made important technological developments in video game technologies for the PC (running MS-DOS and Windows), including work done for the Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake franchises. id's work was particularly important in 3D computer graphics technology and in game engines that are used throughout the video game industry. The company was involved in the creation of the first-person shooter (FPS) genre. Wolfenstein 3D is often considered as the first true FPS, while the original Doom was a game that popularized the genre and PC gaming in general, and the first Quake was id's first true 3D FPS. On June 24, 2009, ZeniMax Media acquired the company, which in turn was purchased by Microsoft in March 2021 as part of XBox Game Studios. In 2015, they opened a second studio in Frankfurt, Germany.