John Carmack, former CTO of Oculus and co-founder of id Software, revealed that he is still willing to commit $1 million of his personal money to create VR versions of Id’s most famous retro titles – especially now that Microsoft has laid off much of the studio’s staff.
Having left id Software in 2013 to join Oculus as CTO and fuel the VR consumer revolution, Carmack is still one of the industry’s most vocal advocates. Even after stepping down as CTO in 2019 and leaving Meta in 2022, he continues to advocate for open platforms and wider adoption of XR.
Last February, Carmack announced that he would be supporting VR modding group Team Beef, noting that he was committed to ensuring the team had the ability to sell “full versions of the classic titles officially in the store.”
“I had some hope, but it was too small potatoes to make an impact at a Microsoft company,” Carmack said at the time. In particular, Team Beef has released a number of unofficial VR mods, including much of Id Software’s back catalog as well as official VR ports WRATH: Aeon of Ruin VR (2025) and available soon Postal 2 VR (2026).
However, after Microsoft essentially scaled back Id Software, resulting in what laid-off VFX artist Derek Best calls a “support studio,” Carmack is reaffirming the offer and hopes to make officially sanctioned VR games from Id Software possible.
“By the way, if the XBOX division is looking for change under the couch cushions, I’m still willing to provide a $1 million guarantee so that TeamBeefVR can commercialize the old open source games in VR,” says Carmack.
By “old open source games,” Carmack means classic ID software titles whose game engines, like the original, were released under open source licenses DOOM (1993), Quake (1996)And Return to Wolfenstein Castle (2001). While the underlying code is freely available, the games’ assets, including levels, textures, audio and other copyrighted content, are still wholly owned by Microsoft.
Acquired by Microsoft in 2009, Id Software has been relatively spared from Microsoft’s repeated layoffs in the gaming space, which also included Activision Blizzard in 2024 and the closure of several ZeniMax-owned studios such as Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks, making the recent cuts at the legendary developer unfortunate but overall unsurprising.
“My statement ‘Microsoft will probably be a good steward of the brand’ is not getting old, and that will certainly dampen the mood at the founders meeting at QuakeCon next month,” says Carmack. “I’m sad, but I can’t muster anger or outrage about it. I don’t have access to the books, but I suspect that Id Software was a fringe business from Microsoft’s perspective. I believe the reports that Minecraft revenue has boosted several other studios. To continue to be produced in the long term, games need to be successful, not just loved.”
Whether Microsoft actually bites remains to be seen. VR games already bring in less compared to flatscreen games, which makes them less attractive from a sales perspective. Still, the company could do it a lot more to sow goodwill as rival Sony is currently bearing the brunt of gamer frustration with its recent decision to stop producing physical discs before 2028.
https://roadtovr.com/john-carmack-1m-guarantee-id-software-vr-games/
