Carmack Says No New IP From id For the Next Ten Years

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Carmack Says No New IP From id For the Next Ten Years


id Software [http://www.idsoftware.com] technical guy John Carmack says it's unlikely the studio will come out with a new IP in the next decade because it already has more franchises than it knows what to do with.

When you think of id, three games immediately leap to mind: Wolfenstein [http://www.amazon.com/Doom-3-Pc/dp/B00006C2HA/ref=sr_1_4?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1281623144&sr=1-4]. Good reason for that: Those are the only three games the developer has made since 1992. It's not exactly a runaway stampede of franchises but for Carmack and company, it's enough.

"We do already have more IPs than we can exploit," the legendary programmer said in the latest issue of Official PlayStation Magazine. "I doubt we're going to do another IP. 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 [http://www.rage.com/] onto that - and I don't want five teams here. Three is scary enough."

"Obviously if Rage is a success then we'll want to do a Rage 2," he said. "If people love it, you want to give them more of it."

Committing to doing nothing new in the next ten years might come across as a bit odd but id seems to have done pretty well with its strategic decisions so far, so if Carmack thinks this is the way to go, I'm willing to roll with it. Besides, it's not as though new IP from id is really "new" in any meaningful sense. Quake and Doom are just about indistinguishable at this point and Wolfenstein is really just Quake (or Doom) with the Strogg dressed as Nazis. Rage looks cool but I think anyone hoping for much more than a post-apocalyptic Quake (or Doom, or Wolfenstein) is probably in for disappointment. So, no new IP for the next decade? I think that'll be okay.

Rage is currently expected to come out next year for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Doom 4 is in the works too, but no release schedule has been announced.

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=259706?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS]


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Rigs83

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Feb 10, 2009
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It's all about the gameplay at id so i don't mind if they milk they few ips they have as long as they milk gold out of the utters of ultra-violence.
 
Jul 22, 2009
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They said they were announcing a new game at 8.30 GMT tonight.

If it's not a new IP then I'm placing my vote on a new Quake iteration.
 

Weaver

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Apr 28, 2008
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I'm confused as to why they bother running 3 teams at once, instead of just one focused team to get games done one at a time.

If ID has the money to roll 3 teams at once then power to them I guess, but I always pictured them as a smaller dev studio.
 

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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If you're not a shooter fan, you won't care about what id does. If you are, you will. There aren't many developers as committed to a "pure" experience as id. Doom 3 was a disappointment, yes, Quake 4 was good but not inspired; haven't played the most recent Wolfenstein but that was Raven anyway so it doesn't really count.

I remain hopeful.
 

Jared

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Jul 14, 2009
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Well, I suppose we acn all be ready for something with 2 on the end of more from them for a long time...

They do have alot on there plate though, so, I suppose its ok. Want moar borderlands!
 

Furism

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id has never really been in the market of making games. They make engines, put together some content and release a game to show off the engine. Then they license the engine to other developers. Exactly like what Epic does with the Unreal Engine, really.
 

DaxStrife

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Nov 29, 2007
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As soon as I read that headline, I got an image in my head of a bunch of game devs in a conga line chanting, "Sequels, sequels, se-quels!"
 

Unrulyhandbag

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Oct 21, 2009
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Just give me a new commander Keen game already, reckon that rage engine will make the vorticons look nice this time round. :p
 

Dectilon

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Sep 20, 2007
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"...because it already has more franchises than it knows what to do with."

I think this would apply even if they only had one.
 

Tron-tonian

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Mar 19, 2009
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It's not like the IPs are anything impressive - Id does game engines, and slaps a game around them. Other companies use that engine to turn out impressive games (which helps Id's bottom line). The games that Id produce are just showcases for the engine, generally lacking in any real gameplay innovation.
 

JediMB

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Andy Chalk said:
Quake 4 was good but not inspired; haven't played the most recent Wolfenstein but that was Raven anyway so it doesn't really count.
Raven did Quake 4 too.
 

JediMB

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Tron-tonian said:
The games that Id produce are just showcases for the engine, generally lacking in any real gameplay innovation.
No. Just no.

Wolfenstein 3D was the original run-and-gun first-person shooter.

Doom redefined it, and added very gameplay-relevant features like light and darkness, explosive weaponry, etc.

Quake was the first to do "true" 3D, which affected level design and gameplay immensely. Quake II fine-tuned this, doing away with 2D explosions and such.

Quake III created the multiplayer-focused FPS, and Epic Games has been milking the genre ever since. (Granted, UT was released first, but Q3 was announced first.)

As for Doom 3... Carmack would probably go on about the shadows and shits, but personally I fell in love with how interfacing with computers and such in the environment was handled. Very smooth.
 

Tron-tonian

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JediMB said:
No. Just no.

Wolfenstein 3D was the original run-and-gun first-person shooter.

Doom redefined it, and added very gameplay-relevant features like light and darkness, explosive weaponry, etc.

Quake was the first to do "true" 3D, which affected level design and gameplay immensely. Quake II fine-tuned this, doing away with 2D explosions and such.

Quake III created the multiplayer-focused FPS, and Epic Games has been milking the genre ever since. (Granted, UT was released first, but Q3 was announced first.)

As for Doom 3... Carmack would probably go on about the shadows and shits, but personally I fell in love with how interfacing with computers and such in the environment was handled. Very smooth.
I'll give you Wolf3d, as the original, but that's about it, and even then, it was more the tech that drove it then the actual gameplay. Doom was more "shoot stuff, get key, repeat". Quake was more of the same but in 3d (see the bit about Id making great engines, not games). Quake3 was just skipping the single-player game and making an engine focused on multi-player - name something they added to gameplay (not tech or maps) that wasn't there pre-Q3.

Doom3? Hey, it's Doom. But in 3d! And no @#$% tape!

Games that Id has produced have advanced the tech. Games like Duke3d and Half-life advanced *gameplay* and showed how great games could be using the tech Id provided.
 

veloper

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If ID add good innovations to the gameplay, whatever IP or story is tacked on, isn´t very important.
 

Daverson

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More Quake! Or Wolfenstein, but I'd prefer Quake...

I love DooM, but, let's face facts, Quake 2 was undeniably the first "modern" FPS, DooM's story just isn't "big" enough to appeal to most gamers today, I can't really see DooM 4 being any better than DooM 3. Not to say it'll be a bad game, it just won't be a great game. IMO Raven and Splash Damage have shown the Quake IP can make for a pretty good stomping ground, so why not more? =D

Demons just don't make good antagonists in an action driven story, in horror, yes, but DooM has always been about action before horror! The only way it could really continue is by dispensing with the Demons altogether, or a huge-ass retcon.

Wolfenstein (I haven't played the new one, so I'm basing this on RTCW) is a great IP, but the whole "Nazi's are doing bad stuff! Oh noez!" is a bit overdone these days...