Challenges of Growth
When asked about the challenges or problems that id has faced along its journey, this relatively young company seems to have been shielded by its good fortune to not have had anything earth shattering happen to them. “We’ve fallen into our pits along the way, luckily nothing deep enough that we couldn’t crawl our way out. Part of that is having stellar product behind us. That helps in keeping the mistakes down.”
The one aspect of the growing business that Jay pointed out as their more evident challenge has been dealing with the company’s growth and how to shape the organization for the future, “We suffer from growing pains. Growth has mainly been our biggest problem because we want to stay small. But we want to expand into new technologies and new opportunities. There’s always this constant clash. Currently we have a heavy fun-loving environment and will always keep that, but organizationally could use a tad more structure even though they are only 14 people. That is happening.” Their small size is one of their strongest attributes of their success according to Jay, and one that they will work hard to maintain. Jay chuckled as he shared this story about the industry that has happened to him more than once in his time at id, “The big guys from our competitors who come in and visit and say, ‘You know we used to have fun like this, now my life sucks.’ Every single one of them says this with a twinkle in their eye. Even before that ever happened we agreed we would not grow into that type of organization. Gotta have fun. The fun we put in and have here definitely comes out to the user side.”
Future Plans and Projects
As small as this company may wish to remain, their ambitions seem to be extremely large. id evolved from being focused on the development of their software products with others doing the shareware and retail distribution efforts, to taking on the role of the shareware distributors themselves. In the Fall their next generation of 3-D shooter and new technology is scheduled to be released that is once again anticipated to shatter the mold of computer gaming and user frenzy. Quake will employ a completely new core technology in their game motif, and with this new game launch will be plans to control even more of their own software distribution and publishing efforts. “We will being doing all their own retail with Quake. We gave DOOM to any Tom, Dick and Harry that could put it in a box and sell it. We found that we will be able to handle our own retail distribution of the shareware version. That will be our foot in the door to retail so we will evolve not only as a key developer, but a key publisher and distributor. Those systems are not hard. If you take it to it’s most simplest form we look at a CompUSA as our end customer, we now have to fill his order. That’s not difficult. We like to be in control of our own destiny.”
With the success and integration of the DOOM style games into our culture, id has found itself handling projects of the DOOM genre outside of the computer into various other sorts of media. A movie deal has been inked that is based on the concept of DOOM, and paperback books have been published telling tales of the world of DOOM. But as exciting these other opportunities are based on id’s work, these projects have proved to be challenging in orchestrating, “It’s not as rosy as it seems to handle these tangent projects. It’s great to have them come in and start dealing with them. When you’re dealing with the Hollywood business it is a bizarre world. We had to bring on entertainment lawyers from Hollywood. It wasn’t easy, it was a good experience.”
When asked if id intends to produce any other sort of software product completely separate from the 3-D shooter style, it appears that while not out of the question, id intends to keep a sharp eye focused on what it has been so successful at up until now, “It’s possible id may go on to make other types of games. It’s hard to say with the next game because the technology base will be different and the technology base is what dictates what kind of new game we do. I’m not saying it’s not possible we’ll jump tracks to other types of games, but now it’s not likely.”
Masters of their Destiny
id Software has proven to be a phenomenally successful example of an organization that stuck to what it was best at, and did not compromise on its beliefs. As Jay stated this has been the case for id since their beginnings in Louisiana, “The objective as it continues to be is to make a great game. The philosophy is more of a build it and they will come. Our goal is to make a game that we are proud of and enjoy playing. We being the typical gamer share the mind set with our buying public, and when we’re done we put it out and they want to buy it as well.” Sticking to this philosophy will undoubtedly prove to benefit id in the future. Their products have created cult followings and have become integral parts of people’s lives all over the world. The common interest of sharing the fantasy of playing in the world of an id game is consistent among many people, and actually shared by these people as they face off against each other in networked games both locally and in dial-up sessions from locations all over the country. Id Software has enjoyed the trip they have been on, and fully intend to control what they will undertake, and what direction their business will go as they continue to grow, “I’ve always felt it’s pretty apparent that we feel that our destiny is held in whatever happens within these four walls. Not as an influence of what happens because of something that is outside these four walls. It’s all what goes down in here.” – ###