ZeniMax Media
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| ZeniMax Media | |
|---|---|
| |
| Information | |
| Type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder | Robert A. Altman, Christopher Weaver |
| Headquarters | Rockville, Maryland, United States |
| Notable Personnel | Robert A. Altman (chairman and CEO until 2021) |
| Products | Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames |
| Parent | Microsoft (since 2021) |
ZeniMax Media is an American video game holding company and the parent of the publisher Bethesda Softworks and of studios including Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane and MachineGames. It was formed in 1999 by Robert A. Altman and Bethesda founder Christopher Weaver, and it has been owned by Microsoft since March 2021.[1][2]
In VR, ZeniMax is known mainly for its dispute with Oculus VR over the early development of the Oculus Rift. John Carmack worked on the Rift while he was at id Software, a ZeniMax subsidiary, and ZeniMax later claimed that methods for correcting geometric distortion and chromatic aberration in head-mounted displays were among its trade secrets.[3] A jury rejected the trade secret claim in 2017 but found that Oculus had breached a non-disclosure agreement and infringed ZeniMax copyrights; the case was settled in December 2018.[4][5] ZeniMax studios have also released VR versions of several of their games, including Skyrim VR, Fallout 4 VR and Doom VFR.[6]
History
Robert A. Altman, a former lawyer, set up ZeniMax in 1999 together with Christopher Weaver, who had founded Bethesda Softworks. Altman was the company's chairman and chief executive until his death in February 2021.[1]
On 24 June 2009 ZeniMax announced that it had bought id Software, the developer of Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein. The company said id would keep operating as a studio under the direction of its founder, John Carmack, and that its principals had signed long-term employment contracts.[7]
Microsoft announced on 21 September 2020 that it would buy ZeniMax for 7.5 billion US dollars in cash. At the time ZeniMax was privately held and had more than 2,300 employees; the studios named in the announcement were Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog and Roundhouse Studios.[8] The acquisition closed on 9 March 2021, bringing eight development studios into Xbox.[2]
ZeniMax has been affected by Microsoft's later restructuring of its gaming division. In July 2026 Game Developer reported a Maryland filing showing 379 ZeniMax job cuts: 213 at ZeniMax Online Studios and 166 at ZeniMax Media's offices in Rockville, Maryland, as part of 3,200 planned Xbox job cuts.[9] On 22 September 2026 Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty announced that Obsidian Entertainment would move under Bethesda. Obsidian's work on its current projects, including Grounded, continues, and the studio is developing a new Fallout game.[10]
Involvement with the Oculus Rift
Carmack and the Rift prototype
At E3 in June 2012, John Carmack, then at id Software, showed a prototype VR headset called the Rift that had been built by Palmer Luckey. The demonstration ran Doom 3 with head tracking, and Luckey planned a Kickstarter campaign to produce development kits for about 500 US dollars each.[11] Carmack was chief technology officer of Oculus VR when id Software said on 22 November 2013 that he had resigned from the studio. According to id, his work on id Tech 5 was complete.[12]
ZeniMax v. Oculus
ZeniMax sued Oculus VR and Luckey on 21 May 2014 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. By then Facebook had agreed to buy Oculus for 2 billion US dollars. The complaint said Oculus had used ZeniMax's "copyrighted computer code, trade secret information, and technical know-how" to develop the Rift. The complaint centered on Carmack, a former employee of ZeniMax-owned id Software who had joined Oculus in the summer of 2013. Oculus answered that the suit had "no merit whatsoever" and that ZeniMax "did not contribute to any Oculus technology."[13]
At trial ZeniMax identified seven technologies it said were its trade secrets: distortion correction, a chromatic aberration correction method, gravity orientation and sensor drift correction, head and neck modeling, HMD view bypass, predictive tracking and a time warp method.[3] Oculus, Facebook, Luckey and Brendan Iribe were among the defendants when the Dallas jury returned its verdict on 1 February 2017. It found that Oculus had not misappropriated trade secrets, but awarded ZeniMax 500 million US dollars on other claims:[4][14]
| Defendant | Claim | Jury award (US dollars) |
|---|---|---|
| Oculus VR | Breach of non-disclosure agreement | 200 million |
| Oculus VR | Copyright infringement | 50 million |
| Oculus VR | False designation | 50 million |
| Palmer Luckey | False designation | 50 million |
| Brendan Iribe | False designation | 150 million |
Facebook was not held liable for damages.[3] On 28 June 2018 US District Judge Ed Kinkeade cut the award to 250 million US dollars, keeping the breach of contract and copyright damages and removing the 250 million dollars in false designation penalties against Oculus, Luckey and Iribe. He also rejected ZeniMax's request for an injunction to stop sales of the Oculus Rift, Gear VR and Oculus Go.[15]
Carmack and ZeniMax also had a separate dispute over payments from the id Software sale. In October 2018 Carmack said the two sides had dropped their claims against each other and that ZeniMax had "fully satisfied their obligations" to him; the Oculus appeal was not affected.[16] Both ZeniMax and Oculus had appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit when they settled on 12 December 2018. The terms were not disclosed, and Altman said ZeniMax was "fully satisfied by the outcome."[5][17]
VR games
In August 2017 Bethesda announced release dates for three VR titles, which came out between 17 November and 12 December 2017.[6] A fourth, Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, was developed by MachineGames with Arkane Studios and released in 2019.[18]
| Title | Release date | Platforms at launch | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skyrim VR | 17 November 2017 | PlayStation VR | PC version released through Steam on 3 April 2018, with the Dawnguard, Hearthfire and Dragonborn add-ons[6][19] |
| Doom VFR | 1 December 2017 | PlayStation VR, HTC Vive | [6] |
| Fallout 4 VR | 12 December 2017 | HTC Vive | [6] |
| Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot | 26 July 2019 | PlayStation VR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift | 19.99 US dollars[18] |
When the 2017 release dates were announced, Road to VR noted that the PC versions were marketed as Vive games and said they were likely to be playable on Oculus hardware through OpenVR or unofficial workarounds.[6]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Luke Plunkett (2021-02-04). "Zenimax Co-Founder & CEO Robert Altman Has Died". Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/zenimax-co-founder-ceo-robert-altman-has-died-1846194603. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Microsoft finalizes acquisition of ZeniMax Media". Microsoft Stories. Microsoft. 2021-03-09. https://news.microsoft.com/features/microsoft-finalizes-acquisition-of-zenimax-media/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Matt Hooper, Brian Sommer (2017-02-02). "Verdict Analysis: Why the Jury Awarded ZeniMax $500 Million in Oculus Lawsuit". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/verdict-analysis-why-jury-awarded-zenimax-500-million-oculus-vr-lawsuit-facebook-id-software/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ben Lang (2017-02-01). "ZeniMax v. Oculus Lawsuit Awards $500M to Plaintiff, Verdict Detailed in Court Documents". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/zenimax-v-oculus-facebook-vr-lawsuit-jury-verdict-ruling/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Chris Kerr (2018-12-12). "ZeniMax Media agrees to settle lawsuit against Facebook VR". Game Developer. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/zenimax-media-agrees-to-settle-lawsuit-against-facebook-vr. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 "Release Dates & Platforms for 'Skyrim VR', 'Doom VFR', and 'Fallout 4 VR' Revealed". Road to VR. 2017-08-23. https://www.roadtovr.com/skyrim-vr-doom-vfr-fallout-4-vr-release-date-launch/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Andrew Yoon (2009-06-24). "Bethesda parent company buys id Software". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2009-06-24-bethesda-parent-company-buys-id-software.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "Microsoft to acquire ZeniMax Media and its game publisher Bethesda Softworks". Microsoft News Center. Microsoft. 2020-09-21. https://news.microsoft.com/2020/09/21/microsoft-to-acquire-zenimax-media-and-its-game-publisher-bethesda-softworks/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Diego Argüello (2026-07-16). "ZeniMax Online Studios leadership included in Xbox mass layoffs". Game Developer. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/zenimax-online-studios-leadership-is-part-of-the-379-laid-off-workers. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Ethan Gach (2026-09-22). "Obsidian Entertainment Is Officially Moving Under Bethesda As It Works On Its New Fallout Game". Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/obsidian-entertainment-is-officially-moving-under-bethesda-as-it-works-on-its-new-fallout-game-2000736429. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Mike Rose (2012-06-08). "id's Carmack unveils $500 VR headset prototype". Game Developer. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/id-s-carmack-unveils-500-vr-headset-prototype. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Alex Wilhelm (2013-11-22). "Doom's John Carmack Leaves id Software To Focus On The Oculus Virtual Reality Headset". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2013/11/22/dooms-john-carmack-leaves-id-software-to-focus-on-the-oculus-virtual-reality-headset/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ "It's Official: Oculus VR Faces Lawsuit Over Alleged IP Theft". NBC News. 2014-05-21. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/video-games/its-official-oculus-vr-faces-lawsuit-over-alleged-ip-theft-n111311. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Nathan Grayson (2017-02-01). "Jury Awards Zenimax Half A Billion Dollars In Oculus Lawsuit". Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/jury-awards-zenimax-half-a-billion-dollars-in-oculus-la-1791885215. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Ben Lang (2018-06-28). "Penalty in ZeniMax v. Oculus Reduced to $250M, Motion to Halt Headset Sales Rejected". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/damages-oculus-v-zenimax-dropped-250-million-motion-halt-headset-sales-rejected/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Daniel Cooper (2018-10-12). "'Doom' co-creator John Carmack ends legal fight with ZeniMax". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2018-10-12-john-carmack-zenimax-lawsuits.html. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Jeremy Horwitz (2018-12-12). "Facebook and ZeniMax settle Oculus VR lawsuit". VentureBeat. https://venturebeat.com/business/facebook-and-zenimax-settle-oculus-vr-lawsuit. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Jamie Feltham (2019-03-27). "Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot Gets July Release, Rift Support Confirmed". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/wolfenstein-cyberpilot-release/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Bob Fekete (2018-03-14). "'Skyrim VR' Comes to Steam in April". Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/skyrim-vr-steam-april-release-date-845547. Retrieved 2026-09-27.