id Software is a producer of FPS games. They are known for their Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake series. The company was founded in Mesquite, Texas, in 1991. The company's name refers to id, one of the three Freudian personality structures. On June 24, 2009, the id software website announced the official announcement of the acquisition of the company by American game publisher ZeniMax Media. ¹⁾

When creating the next technical breakthrough, including Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, ShadowCaster, Doom, Quake, Quake II and Quake III, as well as the technology used in making Doom 3, id Software also created their own game engine for each of their games. The engines are licensed to other developers after being first used for id Software's in-house titles. ²⁾

id Software was an early leader in the gaming market for Linux, and the Linux games of id Software have become some of the platform's most successful. Many id Software games have received the Linux Journal Readers' and Editors' Choice awards. Doom (the first id Software game to be ported), Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Doom 3, Quake 4 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars are several id Software games ported to Linux. ³⁾

One of the first MS-DOS games with smooth horizontal scrolling was Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons, a Nintendo Entertainment System-style platform game. The title and follow-ups were published by Apogee Software and gave ID Software popularity as a shareware developer. It is the id Software series with which designer Tom Hall is most closely associated. On December 14, 1990, the first Commander Keen trilogy was published. ⁴⁾

On May 5, 1992, the company's breakout product was released: Wolfenstein 3D, a first-person shooter (FPS) with smooth 3D graphics in video games that were unprecedented, and with violent gameplay that many gamers found engaging. id Software produced Doom, Doom II: Hell on Earth, Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena, Quake 4 and Doom 3 after basically creating an entire genre with this game. Both of these first-person shooters featured increasingly higher graphical technology standards. ⁵⁾

iD Software released Doom on December 10, 1993, 18 months after their release of Wolfenstein 3D, which would again set new standards for visual quality and graphic violence in video gaming. Doom featured a graphic-quality sci-fi/horror world that was never seen on personal computers or even video game consoles. Doom became a cultural sensation, and a new wave of outrage decrying the risks of violence in video games would finally launch because of its violent theme.⁶⁾

Quake's release marked the third landmark in the history of id Software on June 22, 1996. To build critically praised graphics for its time, Quake fused a cutting edge full 3D engine, the Quake engine, with a distinctive art style. The audio was also not overlooked, hiring Trent Reznor, frontman of Nine Inch Nails, to promote special sound effects and ambient music for the game. The game paid a slight homage to Nine Inch Nails the form of the band's logo appearing on the ammo boxes. ⁷⁾

In May 2007, Todd Hollenshead revealed that id Software had started working on an entirely new series that would use a new engine. Hollenshead also said that the title will be entirely produced in-house, becoming the first game to do so since Doom 3 in 2004. John Carmack demonstrated the latest engine named id Tech 5 at the 2007 WWDC. The title of the new game was announced as Rage later that year at QuakeCon 2007. ⁸⁾