It’s been revealed previously that id Software has no plans to license out its megatexture-driven id Tech 5 middleware, effectively ending a long-standing tradition. But company co-founder and programming lead John Carmack tells Gamasutra he never wanted to be involved in the software licensing business, despite the copious amounts of games that spawned from the original Doom and Quake engine.

Apparently, in the early days, id conjured up some ridiculous licensing terms to dissuade other companies from adopting the tech. Unfortunately for Carmack, requests still came in droves.

It was never really a business that I wanted to be in. In the very early days, people would pester us, and we would just throw out some ridiculous terms, and we were surprised that people were taking us up on it.

Further, Carmack cited the drain on resources of having to provide support to outside teams. He also said while making “radical changes” is manageable with a small team, there’s a glut of responsibility that comes with such a move when several teams are using a shared codebase.

“If it’s your own team, you can make the sensible decision of ‘It’s going to be worth it. It’s going to suck for a while, but we can make our way through it.’ But you don’t want to do that to other people.”

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