John Carmack Sues ZeniMax For $22.5 Million

[Jtbrig7390]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/joh...source=twitter

Video game industry veteran John Carmack has filed a lawsuit against ZeniMax, claiming his former employer owes him millions of dollars. According to Dallas Morning News (via Kotaku), Carmack filed the federal lawsuit this week, seeking $22.5 million from ZeniMax.

Carmack, who is now a higher-up at Oculus VR, said ZeniMax owes him money from the sale of id Software to ZeniMax in 2009. Carmack left id Software in 2013 to join Oculus.

According to Carmack's lawsuit, ZeniMax paid $150 million to buy id Software. "Now, nearly eight years after the sale, it says ZeniMax refuses to pay the final installment of cash it owes Carmack or let him convert it into shares of stock," Dallas Morning News reported.

The report goes on: "At the time of the sale, the lawsuit says Carmack was the majority shareholder of id Software and received a convertible promissory note valued at more than $45.1 million. He converted half of that into shares of ZeniMax stock, which he received."

A ZeniMax spokesperson said in a statement to Dallas Morning News that Carmack's claims are "completely without merit."

"Apparently lacking in remorse, and disregarding the evidence of his many faithless acts and violations of law, Mr. Carmack has decided to try again," the statement said.

Go to Dallas Morning News to get the full story.

This lawsuit follows a decision in February when a jury awarded ZeniMax $500 million in a lawsuit over the Oculus Rift. A key issue in the case was whether work done by Carmack while at id enabled the creation of the Oculus Rift. ZeniMax, as you'd suspect, believes it did and argued that code used to power the Oculus features indications it stems from ZeniMax work.

After the decision came down, Carmack spoke out with some strong words about it.

If hes owned mney ZeniMax should pay, But if hes trying to sue because he lost the Oculus case then this will bite him in the ass.

8 years and now he cares about it...

[Jtbrig7390]

We don't know what the payment schedule was. Maybe the final installment was due at the end of last year and they have held off because of the Oculous lawsuit. The timing of this filing certainly smells funny though.

I wonder if ZeniMax will counter sue and ya this filing does smell funny, Since it coming right off the heels of the Oculus Case.

[zito]

I wonder if ZeniMax will counter sue and ya this filing does smell funny, Since it coming right off the heels of the Oculus Case.

It's def due to the Oculus case. The oculus is not doing well and any VR dev will certainly most likely devolop for the PS now

[Jtbrig7390]

It's def due to the Oculus case. The oculus is not doing well and any VR dev will certainly most likely devolop for the PS now

Well for PS or the HTC one, Seems HTC is doing ok but ya PSVR is the star of the show currently.