In an intriguing development in the gaming world, John Carmack revealed that he made a bold attempt to bring Team Beef’s VR ports to the official Quest store. Carmack, who is well-known for his co-founding role at id Software, offered a hefty $1 million sales guarantee to entice the company into allowing these classic game ports to be sold through legitimate channels.
Team Beef has a knack for transforming beloved PC titles into standalone VR experiences. Their impressive lineup includes revamped versions of Doom, Doom 3, and Quake, to name just a few. The process currently involves purchasing these classics on PC and side-loading them onto your Quest using SideQuest, alongside Team Beef’s specially tweaked code.
A fan recently reached out to Carmack in an online conversation about Team Beef’s VR version of Quake 3, urging him to make it “canon.” While Quake 3 was once Carmack’s brainchild during his tenure at id Software, things have changed since the company was sold to ZeniMax in 2009, which subsequently became a part of Microsoft in 2021. This chain of events has left Carmack without any direct influence over the intellectual property.
Carmack’s response to the fan was straightforward. He explained that he did have discussions with decision-makers at id Software and had even offered to put a $1 million sales guarantee on the line for the ports to see the light of day on the Quest store. This offer, however, didn’t quite hit the mark. “I had some hope, but that was still too small potatoes to make anything happen in a Microsoft company,” Carmack noted.
Interestingly, about a year prior, Carmack had mentioned getting id Software staff to experience the VR enhancements, and he seemed optimistic back then. Despite his efforts and the monetary incentive he proposed, it appears these initiatives weren’t quite enough to push through the corporate hurdles.
