In news that we knew in the back of our minds was coming, it has been confirmed that the EA Partners division will not be providing sales or marketing of Rage when the id Software title finally makes its way to release. Instead, the publishing, sales, and marketing will be handled by new parent company, Zenimax, the parent company of Bethesda (who recently purchased id Software).

The original deal with EAP to publish the id Software-developed Rage title was a big surprise at the time, as many described the decision of id Software to leave Activision and instead have EAP publish the title was a very puzzling deal that drew a lot of criticism when it was announced. At the time id explained the decision as the best decision for the company and the release of the title.

Since the Zenimax buyout of id Software, it was thought that the company would work to rid itself of the distribution agreement that id Software had with EAP for Rage. The move, of course, is to get the first Zenimax-distributed id Software title out the door and get some revenue to help pay off the large debt that the company took on to purchase id Software.

While Rage is close to release, it is still unknown when the title will actually be released; but it is now thought that it will arrive at some point during 2010 and most likely in the late summer to early fall time frame, from the whispers that we are hearing. In addition to Rage, id Software is also known to have a second development team working on Doom 4, which is not as far along in the development process as Rage.

While no one is officially commenting on the situation or what took place in order for Zenimax to be able to take publishing off EAP’s hands, it is likely that because of the revenue generating potential with Rage it was decided to put Rage back into the Zenimax distribution fold rather than having to share it with EAP. This will allow Zenimax to better control the sales and marketing of the game when it does finally release.