Team Beef’s unofficial VR ports of classic Id Software games are undoubtedly fan favorites, letting you go head-first into a rash of ’90s retro titles like the original DOOM.Now, Id Software co-founder and former Oculus CTO John Carmack says he tried lobbying the Microsoft-owned studio for the chance to get those ports offered as official VR versions on Quest, but was unfortunately denied.
“I tried — we had a conversation with the powers that be at Id Software, and I even offered to personally guarantee a million dollars in sales if they would allow Team Beef to sell full versions of the classic titles officially on the store,” Carmack says in an X post. “I had some hope, but that was still too small potatoes to make anything happen in a Microsoft company.”
While Carmack’s wording to “personally guarantee a million dollars” seems more like a strong vote of confidence in the games’ general marketability to Quest owners, and not an explicit offer to plonk down personal cash as such, when Carmack speaks, people tend to listen.
Having co-founded id Software in 1991 alongside John Romero, Adrian Carmack, and Tom Hall, Carmack helped revolutionize PC gaming with groundbreaking real-time 3D graphics and multiplayer modes, leading to the release ofWolfenstein 3D (1992),DOOM (1993), and Quake,QuakeII, andQuake III Arena—all of which were later unofficially ported to VR headsets by Team Beef.
None of those were the first VR ports of Id Software’s iconic titles though. At E2 2012, Carmack got a chance to go hands-on with an early Oculus Rift prototype runningDoom 3: BGF Edition,a remastered version of the iconic shooter released in 2004.
This was one of the pivotal moments in Carmack’s career, prompting him to leave Id in 2013 and join Oculus a few months later—notably a year before Meta (then-Facebook) acquired the VR headset startup for $2 billion. Carmack went on to lead Meta’s mobile VR efforts in addition to taking on the roles of the division’s Chief Technical Officer and consulting CTO leading up to his departure from Meta in late 2022.
As for Team Beef, the modding group has also unofficially ported a laundry list of other titles, includingCore Design’sTomb Raider (1996) and Valve’s Half-Life series, but is also currently working withFlat2VR Studios to officially port flatscreen shooterWrath: Aeon of Ruin (2024) to PC VR headsets.
It’s a shame Team Beef isn’t getting a proper crack at releasing official ports, instead relying on Patreon donations to support their work, as there’s clearly an appetite for retro-style shooters on the Quest platform.
One such modern interpretation is Bevan McKechnie’s COMPOUND (2022),whichis estimated to have generated $1.4 million in gross revenue on PC VR alone, according to Steam Revenue Calculator. This notably doesn’t take into account its ostensibly greater reception on Quest, which currently at a [4.8/5] rating garnered from over 700 users.
Again, for Microsoft, figures in the low-millions can basically be considered rounding errors; the company has also largely shied away from having any real involvement in VR gaming. And no, we don’t think the upcoming Xbox-branded Quest headsetor Microsoft Cloud Gaming really count.
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Christian Schildwaechter
I even offered to personally guarantee a million dollars in sales if they would allow Team Beef to sell full versions of the classic titles officially on the store
I'm pretty sure that was indeed an "explicit offer to plonk down personal cash as such", because this is a typical kind of deal with game publishers. For example Epic gets timed exclusivity for (some) new games on their store by guaranteeing a minimum of sales. This reduces the risk of a flop for the developers and often allows them to invest more, even if Epic themselves do not support the development directly with money like a publisher would. It's also a pretty good deal for Epic if the game indeed sells well, because they then got the exclusivity and didn't really have to pay anything for it.
Carmack has enough money to be able to pay Microsoft a million, which would be the equivalent of 40K/50K copies sold at USD 25/20. I have no doubt either that Team Beef would to sell this many, so he probably would never have to pay a dime for such a guarantee. Unfortunately USD 1mn or 50K in units sales is indeed nothing for Microsoft. Some time ago they stated that for them to consider a game worth developing, it needs to have the potential to sell at least 10mn copies.
So again assuming a USD 20/25 price, Carmack would have to guarantee Microsoft USD 20mn-25mn in revenue instead, and this time, he'd actually have to pay most of that out of his own pocket. Carmack has proven several times that he is willing to put his money where his mouth is, but this would probably be too much, even if he would consider it. Several sites claim his net worth is around USD 50mn, and usually these estimates are rather high compared to reality.
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Arno van Wingerde
What I do not get in this case: The port has already been made, they get money, not a whole lot for MS, but still… what's not to like? Does MS want to do anything with these games, what might they loose?
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sfmike
They didn't want to do anything to promote VR which was on the chopping block the first quarter it didn't bring in a couple hundred million bucks.
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Christian Schildwaechter
It's probably about brand protection and liability. "Doom" and "Quake" are extremely valuable IPs, and getting a license for them either very expensive or impossible. Microsoft isn't as paranoid about brand image as Disney with Star Wars, but it will take some significant incentive for them to even consider a deal.
The current situation works just fine for them: people get to play Doom in VR thanks to Team Beef, gamers still have to pay Microsoft for the original game to get the content files, and Microsoft cannot get in trouble for any changes introduced in a licensed port (like the swastika in the original Doom map causing a ban in Germany). Doing nothing means they don't have to pay any developers/lawyers, don't need to license their precious IP, and if Meta one day wants an official (improved) Doom VFR for Quest, can still charge them millions.
So the question really is less what Microsoft has to lose from allowing Team Beef to offer the already finished full games, and more what they have to gain. Carrmack guaranteed USD 1mn revenue for all of Team Beef's ports combined. Meta would keep 30%, and even if MS got 50%, leaving only 20% for Team Beef, that's a mere half million. Lightyears away from a "significant incentive", when just doing nothing provides most of the same benefits and more.
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DiegoSynth
Exactly. Plus developers / publishers are usually not accepting fan made stuff for all what you've mentioned plus it would completely discredit them.
It's the same with bands and tribute bands / covers. I mean… it's property of the author, so if you cannot / don't wanna bother to close it down, you won't give it credit either. It's makes sense.
Carmack has been…not very centered during the last several years. I wish he found back his way, as he' super capable, just not as a politician, but as a technical asset. His soft skills are probably…not his strong suit.
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石雨濛
You won't be making money on the garbage Meta Store. id knows better which is why they rejected Carmac's garbage offer.
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sfmike
You can't present quality to shareholders because they only care about the green. That's what predatory capitalism has come to. Look to China for innovation as that's what I took away from the recent CES show.
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Lots of articles about Carmack lately
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DiegoSynth
Yes, but none of them is good :-/
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ZarathustraDK
Who cares, Snake is more important to gaming growth than Doom anyways…
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Dr. Static
Microsoft has embraced releasing on ps5 since Carmack approached them. Maybe they would be more receptive if asked again?
Xbox has a new direction every 6-8 months, so maybe it will work with their current vision?
Microsoft really hates VR though. It wasn't enough to abandon their wmr headsets, they went the extra step and bricked them. You'd also think VR support in Forza would be a no brainer
