John Carmack officially leaves id Software

For decades, John Carmack and id Software have gone hand in hand. Today, the studio confirmed that the game industry luminary is leaving id completely. "John Carmack, who has become interested in focusing on things other than game development at id, has resigned from the studio," said id studio director Tim Willits in a statement to Gamasutra. Best known for his programming skills in video games, Carmack has also been involved in engineering rockets at his own Armadillo Aerospace, and recently became CTO of hot VR company Oculus. Carmack was most recently tech director at id. Originally, when Carmack announced in August that he joined Oculus, he said he was splitting his time up between the VR company, id and Armadillo. "John’s work on id Tech 5 and the technology for the current development work at id is complete, and his departure will not affect any current projects," said Willits. "We are fortunate to have a brilliant group of programmers at id who worked with John and will carry on id’s tradition of making great games with cutting-edge technology. As colleagues of John for many years, we wish him well." Carmack co-founded id Software in the early 90s. His work at the studio led to the creation of the Doom and Quake franchises, which helped shape the industry as we know it today. In two separate tweets, Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) said, "I wanted to remain a technical adviser for Id, but it just didn't work out. Probably for the best, as the divided focus was challenging. "If they don't want me to talk on stage at Quakecon next year, we'll just have to fill up the lobby like the old days. :-)"