Despite being first spotted on the ESRB's leak-prone website nearly two years ago, and officially confirmed at QuakeCon over 18 months ago, id's John Carmack assures us that Pi Studios – developers behind the Xbox Live Arcade release of classic multiplayer shooter Quake 3 Arena – is "actually very close to finishing that up." He didn't identify any specific reasons for the delay, but said that the developer had "different things come up at different times" like having to "shift people onto different projects."

With Quake Live finally opening its doors to the public today, we asked if the two development teams – at both Pi and id Software – shared any insights into updating the FPS staple. Quake Live producer Marty Stratton said they shared "where it's made sense" – think "gameplay changes," "some ... new content," and some "new character skins" but not the newer, "more PC-centric" arenas. If they can get the finished game in front of Microsoft "within a month or two" like Carmack estimates, we may get multiple Quake 3 fixes within the year.

Check back later today for our full interview with id's John Carmack and Marty Stratton.

First it was Quake Zero, then it became Quake Live, and now we have a fresh new look at Quake Arena, id's free-to-play, browser-based iteration of Quake III Arena. As you'd expect, the visuals are decidedly simple, but still stylish nonetheless. We noticed a few instances of gameshow-like billboards peppered throughout levels; while they simply read "Quake Live" in the video, it's likely these are placeholders for in-game advertising.

The trailer beckons viewers to QuakeLive.com for more info, but the site is still serving the sole purpose of a gateway for beta signups. From what's shown in the footage, it will eventually become a very robust matching and ranking component of the game. With QuakeCon kicking off in just a couple of weeks we expect to find out more details soon.

For those of you who enjoy first-person shooters on the DS, or at least were hoping to see the genre expand, you may be glad to know that id Software is bringing Wolfenstein 3D to the dual-screened handheld. Anyone excited to shoot more Nazis?

The announcement of this game is not official, but id's John Carmack and Anna Kang told Wired about their plans in a recent interview. The husband and wife developers also mentioned that they would like to bring Quake Arena to the DS, and id's recent DS release Orcs & Elves to the Wii.