John Carmack and ZeniMax settle their $22.5 million beef

The legal dispute between John Carmack and ZeniMax that began when Carmack sued the company in March 2017 has come to an end. Carmack said on Twitter yesterday that Zenimax "has fully satisfied their obligations" related to its acquisition of id Software in 2009, and each party has withdrawn its claims against the other. 

The dispute arose shortly after ZeniMax was awarded $500 million in its lawsuit against Oculus VR, filed over allegations—which a jury agreed with—that Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey had violated an NDA prior to working with ZeniMax on VR technology in 2012-13. Carmack, who joined Oculus as CTO just prior to his departure from id Software (he worked at both companies simultaneously for a brief period), claimed that ZeniMax had failed to make the final payment on the acquisition, and thus owed him $22.5 million.    

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Carmack said nothing about the specifics of the settlement, but he did point out that the matter is completely separate from the courtroom between between ZeniMax and Oculus. A judge cut ZeniMax's big win in half earlier this year, and Oculus said at the time that it intended to appeal the remaining claims against it. 

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.