id Software admits uncertainty regarding plans for E3

by Jason Dobson { May 4th 2008 at 12:30AM }

Last week laid the groundwork for what promises to be at the very least a confusing E3, with a number of familiar faces jumping ship in favor of the uncertain waters below. However, the news of who would and would not be attending the show this July got a bit hazy with regards to talk of developer id Software, with conflicting reports painting the Doom masterminds as both planning to attend and turning their backs on the annual event.

Rather than seek the wisdom of the office Magic 8-Ball, we turned to id co-owner and CEO Todd Hollenshead, who conceded uncertainty with regards to the company's E3 plans. Admitted the exec in an email: "Actually, we haven't determined in what capacity we'll be attending E3 (if any), so everyone is wrong." Interestingly, his response echoed that of our own prognosticating orb, which replied simply "Reply hazy, try again."

Tags: doom, e3, esa, id, id-software, idsoftware

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

JoSav @ May 4th 2008 12:43AM

Thats cause many developers don't have anything new to show , they already showed what they are making last year for 2008 , lots of sequels.

DangerMouse @ May 4th 2008 12:53AM

There's plenty to show, but with the internet, why bother? All you have to do these days is send a mass e-mail to all the major news sites with screenshots or a video, and they take care of the rest. It's nice to see the booths and all that other shit, but it's all going to get clustered in with all the other anticipated games with the enormous amount of coverage. Good for big companies, not so great for small ones, IMO.

They're probably realizing the time, effort and loss of potential development hours isn't worth the hassle. I can understand if magazines were still the main medium, but the internet is instantaneous and reaches so many more.

BananaBoat @ May 4th 2008 4:03AM

Not to mention that E3 costs money, compared to them getting money from selling exclusive scoops on games to magazines and websites. Why pay to put up a booth and hope you get a decent amount of press, when you can have a magazine pay you to put your game on their cover (or website)? The choice was obvious for devs, who can sell exclusives (with a guarantee of a good score on them, usually) instead of putting out a demo (which takes a ton of time, and negatively influences the end product) for E3 that might get canned by every magazine and website in existence.

DangerMouse @ May 4th 2008 12:44AM

That's right bitches...YOU'RE ALL WRONG!!!!

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ May 4th 2008 1:21AM

The more news I get, the more I realize the importance of E3 back then. Whose bright idea was it to downsize everything again?

Huey2k2 @ May 4th 2008 1:48AM

Seriously, downsizing E3 was the worst decision the industry ever made.

Psaakyrn @ May 4th 2008 4:19AM

That wasn't the problem.

The problem is that E3 no longer represented the original intentions, BUT the original intentions is outclassed. By reverting back to the original intentions, E3 no longer had value, but in it's previous form, it had no positive value to the organizers either.

In short, E3 had died, and replaced with a totally different beast. A beast best served by something other that E3. (like PAX, for instance)

mail @ May 4th 2008 4:26AM

should be "with regard to" ;)

Lord Bowser @ May 4th 2008 6:22AM

Doom 3 sucked.

HighFiveJesus @ May 4th 2008 6:31AM

yeah it kinda did. as a hardcore former ID play anything, doom 3 failed to deliver on anything i was raised to expect outta them. just a pretty shallow game. quake 4 was even worse. lotta tread to make up there mr. game developer.

Zeus.:God @ May 4th 2008 1:56PM

I don't know how it sucked- because it didn't to me. It was a simple shooter, and was never meant to be anything more. I can see how Quake 4 could have been a let down for some, but I loved it. I just wish they would remake Quake and Quake 2 with the new(er) engines.

DangerMouse @ May 4th 2008 2:17PM

I can't stand that game. It was such a huge disappointment.

Zeus.:God @ May 4th 2008 2:27PM

Gah! Whatever... This talk about Doom 3 is making me want to play it again... I don't have enough room on my hard drive...

HighFiveJesus @ May 4th 2008 2:40PM

I'd play a remade quake in a heart beat.

Zeus.:God @ May 4th 2008 9:41PM

Then why not Doom 3? Its the same thing, really... Although Quake has some badass monsters. There is a mod out there for a few remade monsters and levels of Quake for Doom 3- as well as Quake 2 (Lone Soldier mod).

For anyone who is willing to play, there is the old version of Quake redone for XP- DarkPlaces Quake.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DarkPlaces

People still play, surprisingly. Respond to me sometime (any post) if you would like to play. I'll email you my Xfire.

Mr.ESC @ May 5th 2008 12:36AM

Out of Doom for the xbox 360 I never played any of the titles following the original Doom.

I was more of a quake player but then I changed to Hexen then to Half-life and so on.

Man,I would love to see a new Hexen,that game was badass.

Kujel @ May 4th 2008 1:02PM

The real problem with the new E3 is it doesn't promote games and gaming to the consumers like it once did. GDC is good for industry members to get together and talk business but that's what it's for. E3 used to be about promoting your products to the consumer in large part, take out the consumer and you take out the heart.

SoulBlade @ May 4th 2008 1:37PM

Already forgot the name of IDs next game that Carmack was talking about last year. Oh well..

E3 wasn't worth it for a lot of devs. You paid way too much for the press time received. It really only benefited the big players. It's almost like CES - you have to pay for a big booth, pay for the location, etc. It's just not worth it for devs based on the return.

DangerMouse was spot on - with the rise of the net and dedicated gaming sites, devs can reach their audience. Press events are going to benefit players like Nintendo since they target the masses. Sure, dedicated gamers pay attention to E3, but they read their websites every single day.