Todd Hollenshead, the president of id Software, has left the company after 17 years. The departure marks another milestone in a tumultuous time for the game studio that has made first-person shooters such as Doom, Quake, and Rage.
The chief executive officers of id Software were known early on as the “biz guys.” But Hollenshead was a longtime head of the company who handled all of its business matters while the development was handled by others such as graphics wizard John Carmack.
ZeniMax Media acquired id Software in 2009 and ran it alongside Bethesda Softworks, a game publisher it also owns. After that, Hollenshead was more like a middle manager in a larger company.
In a statement, Bethesda Softworks wrote, “After many years with the studio, Todd Hollenshead decided to leave id Software to pursue other personal interests. While Todd was not part of the development teams, he was an integral part of id Software’s success as the business head of the studio, and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors.”
Hollenshead joined id as CEO in 1996 and became president of the division after the ZeniMax deal. In 2011, Rage debuted after many years of development, but the title was a disappointment on both a sales and a critical level. The company said it was focusing its efforts on Doom 4, but that game has had a troubled development as well. ZeniMax and Bethesda recently revealed that developer Machine Games has been working on Wolfenstein: The New Order, based on id’s long-running Wolfenstein series.