When id Software announced during E3 last month that it had partnered with Electronic Arts to publish the developer's new title Rage, it was a surprise to some. After all, id had enjoyed a long partnership with Activision, which published Doom 3, id's last title developed in-house, as well as Quake 4 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

But id decided to go with EA for Rage, which is a brand new intellectual property for the developer that combines first-person shooter action with vehicle racing and combat. During an interview with Tom's Games at QuakeCon 2008, id CEO Todd Hollenshead explains how his company selected EA to publish Rage and why id's relationship with Activision is still strong. Hollenshead also talks about plans for Quake Live, in-game advertising, and the business of running id Software.

Id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead at QuakeCon 2008.

TOM'S GAMES: Backpedaling to E3 for a moment, what was your reaction when Activision's president Mike Griffith pronounced Wolfenstein "Wolfen-steen"?

TODD HOLLENSHEAD: Yeah...I did cringe a little bit when he said that, with "Wolfen-stine" being the proper pronunciation, of course. Just like it's "id," not "I.D."

TG: Hopefully that's not a metaphor for id's relationship with Activision.

HOLLENSHEAD: No, not at all. I think people from the East Coast pronounce it "Wolfensteen," and you could make the case that Germans would probably cringe at Wolfenstein since it's supposed to be "Voolfen-shtine."

TG: How long was the publishing deal for Rage with EA in the works for? I know you had been looking at different publishers for Rage for a while.

TODD HOLLENSHEAD: Yes, that's true. We actually started the publisher discussions for Rage at least a year ago, in terms of initial discussion. So it was something that did take quite a while to get the deal finalized. Although we had an agreement in principal, we didn't sign the actual contract until the Friday before our E3 press conference with EA. That press conference obviously had some influence on the importance of getting the contract done; we were down to the small stuff at that point, too.

TG: So what does this mean for Activision?

TODD HOLLENSHEAD: We really have done all our big deals on a game by game basis. And there's this perception that we were going to do every deal with Activision, but the reason we have done so many deals with Activision is because every time we would go out and look at who the best publishing partner was. And we had multiple suitors for a lot of titles. At the end of the day, for a number of reasons, Activision was always the right choice. Choosing EA for Rage doesn't mean we won't like Activision anymore, what it means is that for this game at this time, EA was the best publishing partner for the game.

TG: Because you do all of your big publishing deals one game at a time, have you ever felt pressure from Activision to sign a multi-title deal?

TODD HOLLENSHEAD: Our philosophy is that we've tried to do all of our deals on a game-by-game basis, and we've been pretty clear on communicating that. We feel that independence is an important thing for id, and to truly be independent you need to be able to exercise your right to choose a publisher. Part of the reason our relationship with Activision works so well is because they understand that we are an independent developer, and they didn't feel entitled to anything. I can't put a percentage on it, but almost no one else in the business runs things the way we do with publishers. They typically sign multi-title deals with a given partner, at least for a specific title or given amount of time. We have always preferred to do it differently, and we have a number of reasons for that. Some of those reason benefit us, and some of those reasons benefit the publisher. If we're working with a publisher that doesn't respect that, then that's obviously an issue. Activision respects that, and by nature of the Rage deal, EA respects that, too.

TG: The ink on your contract with EA is barely dry, but how has your experience with them been so far?

TODD HOLLENSHEAD: We have worked with EA over the years on a number of things, with this being our first headline deal with them. We worked with them on the mobile business, going back to Doom RPG in 2005, and from a technology licensing standpoint we have worked with them for some time now, going back to Medal of Honor. They also published Quake III on the PS2 for us, so we've had a relationship with those guys in those areas, and if we weren't satisfied with the relationship in those areas, then that would have had an impact on our willingness to sign with EA for Rage. Things tend to be the most perfect at the very start because there hasn't been opportunity to come to many disagreements, so I would say we're still in the honeymoon phase on Rage.

TG: Why did you pick EA in the first place?

TODD HOLLENSHEAD: In making the selection of a publishing partner, we believed it was important to find someone who's in tune with your philosophy. Part of our filtering process is asking the potential publisher "what do you think about how the relationship should work?" and how specific aspects like marketing, content, etc. If we're in disagreement there, then we're in for a rocky relationship down the road.

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