Id Software Announces a New Game Engine

With releases for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 scheduled for the end of this calendar year, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars now seems to be comfortably on autopilot. With this joint project between id Software and Splash Damage soon to be complete, it now seems as if id has been freed to work on yet another engine to be used with another brand new franchise.

At a London event earlier this week, id CEO Todd Hollenshead was the first to reveal the news to GamesIndustry.biz.

"We are working on an all-new franchise," he stated. "It's not Doom, it's not Quake, it's not Wolfenstein, it's not Enemy Territory, it's not even Commander Keen! It is a new id brand with an all-new John Carmack engine, and I think that when we show it to people, once again they'll see, just like they saw when we first showed Doom 3, that John Carmack still has a lot of magic left."

Since creating Doom 3, Carmack has had his hands full porting games such as Doom RPG and Orcs & Elves to mobile platforms. But in comparison to those relatively minor projects, this newly announced game would be their first major independently-developed title in nearly three years.

Hollenshead also states, however, that Carmack is still feverishly working on the engine, which he hopes will be used "across a wide range of applications and different games within [id's] suite of franchises". As it is still in its early development stages, Hollenshead was not at liberty to discuss details, but promises to make a formal announcement when the time is right.