John Romero Remembers How Sierra On-Line Nearly Acquired id Software In One Of Gaming's Biggest "What-Ifs"
What if King's Quest developer Sierra On-Line had purchased id Software before it had a chance to make DOOM? It's a fascinating "what-if" in gaming history, and it might have happened if Sierra founder Ken Williams hadn't balked at the extra $100,000 needed to close the deal.
John Romero, who founded id Software and played a key role in designing DOOM, related the story of Sierra's near-acquisition during a talk earlier today at GDC 2022. In the course of discussing the development of Wolfenstein 3D — which was completed in less than six months — Romero took a detour to recall Sierra's offer to purchase id Software.
According to Romero, id Software came to Sierra's attention after Romero sent Ken and Roberta Williams a copy of one of the studio's Commander Keen games. Ken Williams was impressed and invited the id Software to California to "talk business."
At the time Sierra On-line was a PC development powerhouse, having found great success with the King's Quest series and a host of other releases in the mid-to-late 1980s. Romero recalls being impressed by Sierra's picturesque studio, which had more than 200 developers and was nestled in a town not far from Yosemite National Park. By contrast, id Software had just four employees.
The id Software showed Ken Williams an early version of Wolfenstein 3D, and Romero recalls being "dumbfounded" by his response.
"After about 30 seconds of watching, he wanted to show me the new game they were working on, Red Baron Online," Romero said. "I was dumbfounded. Like, here's the future, the start of a new genre: the first-person shooter. And Ken could not pay it any notice."
Williams, for his part, was reportedly shocked to hear that id Software was making $50,000 per month from its
Read more on ign.com
