Quake IV No-Show To Distress Hardcore At QuakeCon

Thanks to CNN Money for its discussion of the games industry's drive to woo the most committed videogame players, as the article explains: "Hardcore gamers only make up between 20-25 percent of the industry's annual software sales, but the buzz enthusiasts create can turn a moderate hit into a monster." The piece discusses "mecca for the hardcore" QuakeCon, but reveals that "This year, most fans were hoping to get their first glimpse of 'Quake 4,' which is being developed (under id's supervision) by Raven Software. Unfortunately, they're going to have to keep waiting. id CEO Todd Hollenshead said there are no plans to show the game at this year's QuakeCon." According to Hollenshead: "We've been happy with what [Raven has] done, but it's too early to show... When we show the game, we want it to be something that's really impressive for the people who have been waiting for it."

Comments

Dissapointing.

[TxdoHawk]

As a fairly large fan of Quake 3, I keep hoping for a glimpse under the hood of the next sequel, despite the fact that I recall hearing it'll be much more focused on single-player action.

Re:Dissapointing.

[Micro$will]

despite the fact that I recall hearing it'll be much more focused on single-player action.

That's what mods are for. CTF and TeamFortress all started as free third party mods.

What now?

[Dizzle]

Where do they go from Quake 3? Quake 3 brought the mainly online FPS game to the forefront of gaming, but Unreal "X" has been outpacing them for a few years now. What is going to get me excited about Quake 4 with HL2 and D3 coming out?

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

[Mike Hawk]

So the "hardcore" get to determine development schedules now? This is quickly spiraling into the absurd.

We make fun of DNF, and fairly, because it was shown, screenshots released, etc. long ago. This is fair. The people involved did this to themselves. Doom III and HL2 are now catching some of this heat, and this is fair as well since they were both at their third E3 this year. HL2 is even worse for already being bundled with a video card that will be a generation old when the game is finally released.

But here we have a group of people trying to play it low. The game has technically been announced and thats it. Who is clamoring to see this game so bad that they are disappointed its not be shown yet? Who is being harmed so much that the press is reporting on a game that doesn't yet exist and claiming the disappointment could harm the title? That is absurd. Absurd that people feel this way, absurd that the press is reporting it.

#1 Chill out.
#2 You are not that important.

Don't be a dick just because your arbitrary notion of what a publisher or developer should deliver when is not met. Don't trash the game because you downloaded the leaked "alpha" and it doesn't run well on your system. Being "hardcore" and waiting around for the next big thing should not be something that makes you proud. If you identify yourself as hardcore, you are already about as lame as anything I can imagine. Absurd.

Re:Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

[gmhowell]

Your point number two is wrong. If hard core gamers are 20-25% of the market and influence the remainder, you really don't want those people pissed off. Doing that causes you to lose two ways. First, tossing out 25% of your sales is no good thing. In software, with such trivial marginal costs, that could be pure profit on a game as big as Quake. The other way you lose is that if these people truly are influential, you may lose one sale additional for each of the hard core gamers you piss off. So there goes 50% of your gross revenue. Ouch.

I agree that many of the 'hard core' in anything are serious dipshits. As consumers, you and I can (and likely will) ignore them with abandon. A profit-making corporation does so at the risk of their future.

Id vs id

[Andy Smith]

It has always bugged me that people write Id without the capital I, apparently for no better reason that that's how it's written in the company logo.

It looks especially bad when it's used at the beginning of a sentence.

When I wrote for gaming sites a few years ago I decided to get the correct 'spelling' straight from the horse's mouth so I checked with John Carmack.

He writes it Id so as far as I'm concerned that's how it's written.

On a similar note, a point of trivia: The manufacturer of GeForce graphics cards spells the company name nVIDIA (small 'n') in the logo, but web/magazine editors are asked to use NVIDIA (all caps) in articles. Why? Who knows. I think it makes more sense to spell it with the small 'n' because at least that gives some clue as to how the word is pronounced, ie: enn-vid-ee-aa