ZeniMax Media
More info
- Creator
- Robert A. Altman, Christopher Weaver
- Released
- 1999
- Type
- Game publisher (holding company)
- Owner
- Microsoft (since 2021)
The holding company sitting above Bethesda, id Software and Arkane — bought by Microsoft for $7.5 billion in 2021.
Formed in 1999 by lawyer Robert A. Altman and Bethesda founder Christopher Weaver as an umbrella over Bethesda Softworks. Between 2009 and 2010 it bought id Software, Arkane Studios and MachineGames and set up Tango Gameworks, which put Doom, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Dishonored and Wolfenstein under one roof. ZeniMax Online Studios shipped The Elder Scrolls Online in 2014.
In 2017 ZeniMax won a $500 million jury verdict against Oculus and Facebook, arguing that John Carmack had walked out of id with VR know-how; the figure was later cut down. Microsoft bought the whole group in March 2021, and whether future titles would be Xbox exclusives instantly became a forum genre of its own.