id Software re-announced the upcoming title in the Doom series, lucky number four, during the 2008 QuakeCon Convention last week. That of course shouldn’t surprise us, considering a previous confirmation from id Software of the same thing a couple of months ago, but it was probably all for the sake of those present at the convention.
“Doom is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth,” Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software said in a statement released this May. “It’s critical for id Software to have the best creative minds in-house to develop games that meet the standards synonymous with our titles.”
The Doom franchise has had numerous expansions, including the release of Doom 3 in 2004, and has captured the attention of millions of players worldwide. Doom 4 was confirmed by id Software’s John Carmack and Todd Hollenshead.
The best part about Doom 4 is that it will have a competition from another id upcoming title, Rage. Coming up on multiple platforms, Doom 4 will run at only 30 frames per second, but Carmack promised we can expect something we’ve never seen before. The release date still remains unknown, and so does the publisher’s name.
As for Rage, which will be “a shooter unlike any other, developed on (our) cutting edge technology,” as id CEO Todd Hollenshead described it, it will be the first game developed by using the id Tech 5 technology and it will run at 60 frames per second.
Rage will take gamers through the apocalyptic landscapes of a futuristic Earth affected by a massive collision with an asteroid. As Hollenshead previously explained, it will be more than a first-person shooter, il will have vehicles, and racetracks, driving and racing elements, and it will enable players to aid the villages' inhabitants in fighting both an oppressive regime and various mutants and monsters roaming the wasteland.
In mid-July, during the E3 Media and Business Summit, id revealed that Activision will not be the publisher of Rage, as most people would have expected. Instead, they revealed a new and surprising partnership with EA, despite their previous beliefs that EA was “the company that crushes the small studios.”
id, which is also responsible for other blockbuster franchises such as Wolfenstein and Quake, first revealed plans for Rage at last year's Quakeon. But despite the breakup for the Rage project, Activision continues to be the publisher for Wolfenstein.
While we’re still waiting for some release dates, and speaking of Quake, there is no hope for a sequel. Carmack confirmed there is no Quake 5 in the making, which probably disappointed a lot of fans.
In the meantime, until we see the new installments, we also found out that the company is working on Doom 2 and Wolfenstein for the iPhone, or at least is planning on bringing the game on the Apple device. More details are expected to be unveiled at a later date.