During his QuakeCon 2007 press conference id Software co-founder and programmer John Carmack revealed no less than four upcoming Quake games!
For starters there’s Quake Zero. It’s a completely free webgame AKA browser-based game.
To quote: “What we’re going to do is take the Quake III: Arena code base assets, strip it down and set it up so that its essentially a free Web application [but would still likely be a separate application]. We’d have a community-based service where the game is an accessory to the Web site rather than being a standalone thing. Chunk it up for easy, quick installs, and see what we can do with sponsorships and advertising in-game. Quake Zero for zero cost. We’d try and polish it a little, but this isn’t a flashy game.”
He continued: “Many pro-gamers turn down the settings for improved performance. At this point we’ve got a game that’ll run on every computer. We’ll set it up so that it’s easy to jump in and try new things. The useful thing is that we’re bloodying this team of six coders, deploying Quake Zero and seeing what happens. We’re going to lose money on it one way or the other, but this could help us learn even more about what people give a damn about. Personally, I’d like to see five million people give it a try and any lessons learned would find their way into that Id Tech 5 version with all the bells and whistles. This could be a great beta testbed to see what works and what doesn’t. It could be huge…or it could bomb — but I think it’ll be helpful to us in the long run. That’s what I care about.”
Fueled by DOOM being a breakout hit on Xbox Live Arcade, Mr. Carmack revealed that Quake 3 Arena is coming as a digital download to Xbox 360. We saw the ESRB ratings board confirm Quake III: Team Arena back in April when they rated it M for Mature, because of “Blood and Gore, Violence.†Pi Studios (of Call of Duty fame) are developing the HD version. No release date was given.
As for a next-gen Quake Arena, Mr. Carmack said: “We’ve already started this where I’ve pulled a kernel of a team over and we’ve begun hiring others to eventually make an Id Tech 5 Quake Arena title where it’s back to the high-speed action and Quake III: Arena remains my favorite id game because it was so pure a concept. It wasn’t our most popular game, but it was popular enough.”
During Mr. Carmack’s keynote speech he mentioned that he’d really like to do a “Quake 3 Arena-themed game on the DS”. While it’s still a maybe, he was pretty confident saying “I’m pretty sure I’m going to make that one happen. My early inclination on this is to build a game that is definitely Quake Arena-themed… but leave it more or less Doom 2 style deathmatch with two-and-a-half-D.” He closed off by saying he’s a huge fan of Metroid Prime Hunters’ touch-screen control system. No other details were revealed.
Just for kicks, here’s a QuakeCon 2002 Tournament Quake III Arena match showing Fatal1ty Versus Aim:
Quotes found via 1UP, Eurogamer.