doom-iv posts

id Software made headlines three years ago when it announced Rage, its first game that wasn't based on a previous id property since the original Quake was released in 1996. But it looks like id is going to be sticking to its franchises for a while and not branching out in all new territory anytime soon.

Computer and Video Games quotes Carmack as saying, "We do already have more IPs than we can exploit. " id launched the Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake shooter brands, all of which are among the most well known PC gaming franchises in history." Carmack says don't look for id to add to that line up beyond Rage, saying " It's scary to say it, but maybe not in the next decade even, because we want to support Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake - and hopefully we can add Rage onto that."

Big day today with the announcement of BioShock Infinite, although we are wondering why Irrational Games has announced a title that won't be released until sometime in 2012. Speaking of which, we are a little disappointed that there was no Doom IV news from QuakeCon today. It's been over two years, id. Throw us a bone here:

• As previously announced, Puzzle Quest 2 and Burn Zombie Burn are both now available to download and purchase on Steam.
• A massive new update for Global Agenda is now available via Steam with lots of changes to the Agency Vs Agency system.
• A new update to the beta for Counter-Strike Source is also available.
• Want an open beta for Men of War: Assault Squad? Then get its Steam community page to reach the 10,000 member mark.
• John Carmack and Richard Garriott talk about rockets and space travel.

When id Software first announced its plans for its next first person shooter Rage back in 2007 it also marked the debut of its all new id Tech 5 graphics engine. In the past all of id' Software's graphics engines have been available for license by third party developers. Indeed, in May 2009 id's head man Todd Hollenshead said that they had "seeded tech out to a few licensees" for id Tech 5 already.

Now it looks like there's been an about face on those plans in the wake of id's acquisition by ZeniMax Media later in 2009. Eurogamer reports from QuakeCon 2010 that Hollenshead has confirmed that id Tech 5 will "be used within ZeniMax, so we're not going to license it to external parties." It looks like the only way a third party developer will gain access to the technology will be if its game is published by ZeniMax's publishing arm Bethesda Softworks. Besides Rage, the id Tech 5 engine will be used for id's other big upcoming game Doom IV.

It's going to be a big day tomorrow. Irrational will finally reveal its next game and id might make one or more announcements at QuakeCon 2010. We have our coffee ready.

• id Software's John Carmack says the next Doom game "shouldn't take as long to ship as Rage." Since the next Doom game was announced over two years ago id had better hustle up.
• Carmack has also found out about Twitter. An example post: "AV output on ios devices is giving me some grief." That's pure Carmack speak.
  
• Impulse has just added Plants Vs Zombies Game of the Year Edition to its line-up.
• Pre-order HAWX 2 via Steam and you get Blazing Angels 2 (a $19.99 value) for free.
• Pre-order Kane and Lynch 2 via Direct2Drive and you get Deus Ex Game of the Year for free.
• New Steam updates are available for Killing Floor and Counter-Strike Source Beta.
• Another Elemental dev journal entry has been released.
• A new hero for Heroes of Newerth has been revealed with the great name Flint Beastwood.
• Razer has announced a new (and very green) gaming headset called the Orca.

It's been while since id Software officially announced their plans for QuakeCon 2010. The free LAN-gaming event is still scheduled to happen on August 12-15 in Dallas but the site still has not started registration for the event. However a recent post by a QuakeCon organizer indicates that there may be a big change coming when registration begins.

According to the forum post, while QuakeCon 2010 will still be free to attend, including being able to set up in the Bring Your Own Computer area, "we're going to have a premium registration option for the BYOC" for a portion of the available seats. There are no details in the forum posts on how much this option will cost but it does state, "it's impossible that the new option will 'crowd out' the free seats." We have emailed id Software's owners Bethesda Softworks to get more info on this new QuakeCon 2010 registration option and also when registration for this year's event will actually begin.

id Software is still at least a year away from releasing their next game major retail game Rage but they are also working on the next installment in the Doom shooter franchise (which may or may not be called Doom IV). There's next to nothing known about the game (other than it will use the id Tech 5 graphics engine) but id's creative director for Rage Tim Willits already has some high hopes for the title.

In a chat with Xbox360achievements.com Willits states, "It's gonna be cool. It's gonna be awesome. Hopefully, it'll be even more awesome than Rage." High expectations indeed. Perhaps we will learn more about the game when QuakeCon begins in August.

Last week we did an extensive look at all of the big PC game titles that are currently scheduled for release this year (at least that's the plan; release dates can and likely will change for many of those titles). But there are also many games that have already been announced are not on our 2010 list. The reason? We just don't think they will ship out before the year is over.

However that's no reason to at least hope against hope. We decided to pick 10 previously announced games that we don't think will be released in the next 12 months but we do wish would make it. Of course, one or two of the titles on this list may actually surprise us and come out by the end of 2010. But at the moment the odds don't look good. By the way, we picked 10 games that are all officially announced. We could add a ton of other games that we know are in development but are not yet ready to become public (Blizzard's next-gen MMO, the next Infinity Ward game, etc) but that's a much longer list that we will get to later.

Click on the image above to continue reading 10 PC Games We Wish Were Coming in 2010

As we run out of hours before the end of 2009, our minds are already thinking about what might happen in the next 12 months. Last year at this time we gave our predictions on what the PC game industry might do in 2009. Some of our predictions were proven to be correct and others, well, not so much.

So now it's time to do it all over again and look into our rather hazy crystal ball and give some predictions on what events mght happen in 2010. Will we bat 1000 this time or will our predictions miss by a mile. In 12 months we should know.

Click on the image above to continue reading 2010 PC Game Predictions

If you were wondering if there was going to be any news about id's next major Doom game (also known as Doom IV) you are going to have to wait at least one more year. During id Software's QuakeCon press conference today, id's head man Todd Hollenshead stated that the developer is still not ready to chat about the game yet . . . but hinted strongly that they will finally reveal some info at QuakeCon 2010 next year.

During the keynote speech by id's master programmer John Carmack following the press conference, Carmack gave the smallest of hints about the game, saying the next Doom title is the first game they have worked on since Doom II that they didn't have to create new technology. The game will share the same id Tech 5 graphics engne with id's next game Rage.

Yep, that headlne is correct. Bethesda Softworks's parent company ZeniMax Media had announced that it has acquired Dallas-based developer id Software, creators of some of the biggest PC game franchises of all time (Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein). Financial terms were not disclosed but the press release states that id will continue to operate under its founder John Carmack with the press release stating, "All the principals at id Software have signed long-term employment contracts."

Bethesda Softworks will now be the publisher for all of id Software's upcoming games with the exception of titles that already have publishing agreements. That means Rage will continue to be published by EA but Doom IV will now be a Bethesda Softworks title. We hope to have more info on this unexpected business deal later today.

Update: Kotaku has a little more info on the deal, revealing that id had actually approached ZeniMax Media about being bought out and that acquistion talks had started months ago. With the deal now complete id will be able to add teams to their game projects. It also quotes id founder John Camack as saying, "We're really getting kind of tired competing with our own publishers in terms of how our titles will be featured." The new deal with ZeniMax will solve that problem with Carmack saying, "They are triple A, top-of-the-line in what they do in the RPGs. And they have no overlap with all the things we do in the FPSes."