Hollenshead on Quake IV, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
Seminal studio id lets slip a few details.
Speaking at the launch of the Xbox version of the chronically over-hyped Doom 3, id Software frontman Todd Hollenshead made some interesting comments about the acclaimed studio’s future plans, outlining the debut of Quake IV and the current thinking towards next-generation console gaming.
Speaking of id’s annual “dress like you’re from The Matrix or The Crow and do some virtual shooting” QuakeCon event, Hollenshead confirmed that the long-awaited Quake IV will be there in playable form. “We'll have Quake IV multiplayer to play. And because it's also the 10-year anniversary of QuakeCon, we'll have a few other surprises as well,” he assured gathered press.
Then, the bombshell hit that id will almost certainly see multi-tiered console offerings in the coming generation of TV games. Speaking of the possibility of full-scale console support, Hollenshead said, “Well, that's really more of a financial question than anything else. Over the past few years, PC game sales have either declined a little bit or stayed relatively flat, while console game sales have seen mostly double-digit growth. I don't know if we'll be releasing multiple SKUs at the same time, but as for PS3 and Xbox 2 and so on, yes, we will continue our development effort on the consoles. John Carmack has been playing around with the tech on the new consoles for a bit now. I obviously can't talk about that as it's all under wraps, but I think developing for multiple consoles will happen at id."
This is good news for id Software and illustrates the revived intent at the firm, where for a while it seemed as though the studio had somewhat lost the drive that made it the one time bastion of PC gaming. Doom 3 suffered from too much hype, with the title simply unable to live up to the wild expectations of the PC FPS community. Delays in bringing it to market also saw any edge the title had somewhat blunted.
Check back to SPOnG in mid-August for full coverage of QuakeCon.
Speaking of id’s annual “dress like you’re from The Matrix or The Crow and do some virtual shooting” QuakeCon event, Hollenshead confirmed that the long-awaited Quake IV will be there in playable form. “We'll have Quake IV multiplayer to play. And because it's also the 10-year anniversary of QuakeCon, we'll have a few other surprises as well,” he assured gathered press.
Then, the bombshell hit that id will almost certainly see multi-tiered console offerings in the coming generation of TV games. Speaking of the possibility of full-scale console support, Hollenshead said, “Well, that's really more of a financial question than anything else. Over the past few years, PC game sales have either declined a little bit or stayed relatively flat, while console game sales have seen mostly double-digit growth. I don't know if we'll be releasing multiple SKUs at the same time, but as for PS3 and Xbox 2 and so on, yes, we will continue our development effort on the consoles. John Carmack has been playing around with the tech on the new consoles for a bit now. I obviously can't talk about that as it's all under wraps, but I think developing for multiple consoles will happen at id."
This is good news for id Software and illustrates the revived intent at the firm, where for a while it seemed as though the studio had somewhat lost the drive that made it the one time bastion of PC gaming. Doom 3 suffered from too much hype, with the title simply unable to live up to the wild expectations of the PC FPS community. Delays in bringing it to market also saw any edge the title had somewhat blunted.
Check back to SPOnG in mid-August for full coverage of QuakeCon.
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Comments
shediesinred 5 Apr 2005 19:03
1/4
ID is a joke, the only games they make are sequals, they havnt made an original game since the companys inception. Doom, Quake... and thats it. Name ONE new game they have made in the last 5 years. They suck.
kid_77 5 Apr 2005 19:11
2/4
shediesinred wrote:
ID is a joke, the only games they make are sequals, they havnt made an original game since the companys inception. Doom, Quake... and thats it. Name ONE new game they have made in the last 5 years. They suck.
They haven't. Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein.
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Joji 5 Apr 2005 22:56
3/4
True id have been sailing on the winds of their past efforts for some time now. I thought that Doom 3 looked okay but at heart it's another sequel PC fanboy pleaser.
Some original content is sorely needed and Mr Carmack will be aware of this. Lets hope his next game isn't another FPS game because id software is now typecast as being about nothing else but that genre.
Would also be nice to see some of ids work end up multiformat too.
Come on Carmack, sort it out.
Some original content is sorely needed and Mr Carmack will be aware of this. Lets hope his next game isn't another FPS game because id software is now typecast as being about nothing else but that genre.
Would also be nice to see some of ids work end up multiformat too.
Come on Carmack, sort it out.
Jay 6 Apr 2005 11:01
4/4
So what? I've never been particularly fond of any of id's games - new concepts or sequels - but that's not the point. The fact of the matter is that Carmack and the lads knock out cracking game engines, which, when licensed out, can go on to create a wealth of good games. The Quake engines were all defining factors in the evolution of the FPS genre over the years, and the future availability of the Doom III engine can only mean we can expect great things to come - it doesn't really matter that the game itself is pretty dull.