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Carmack: lawsuit with Bethesda publisher is done

Former id developer says he and ZeniMax have released all claims

john carmack
Owen S. Good is a longtime veteran of video games writing, well known for his coverage of sports and racing games.

John Carmack and ZeniMax Media are no longer involved in a lawsuit over the development of the Oculus Rift VR headset.

That’s according to Carmack, who on Thursday tweeted that both he and ZeniMax had released all claims related to the publisher’s acquistion of id in 2009. Another case, involving a 2017 judgment awarding $500 million to ZeniMax, is still on appeal. Carmack, in 2017, had sued ZeniMax, saying the publisher had failed to pay him $22.5 million owed him for id’s acquisition.

ZeniMax media is the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, and the publisher of the Wolfenstein, Doom, Fallout and Elder Scrolls video game franchises.

Oculus VR, now owned by Facebook, is appealing the original judgment, which involved ZeniMax’s allegations that Carmack and Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey had used trade secrets developed at id to create the Oculus Rift and its software.

ZeniMax has also sued Samsung, alleging that its Gear VR technology was created at id by Carmack and another studio executive.