id taking a break from mobile to work on Doom 4

QuakeCon is happening in Texas this weekend, and id software head John Carmack has been giving interviews to the press on hand. He told The Verge that id software has decided to step away from mobile development long enough to focus on the forthcoming Doom 4.

"We did make the decision to close up our mobile development," says Carmack, "which saddens me a lot ... I hope we get back to mobile in various ways in the future, but the big real aim is blockbuster, AAA titles, and for id that means Doom 4, it means that we get the whole company behind that after we get Doom 3: BFG Edition out the door, essentially everybody will be focused on Doom 4 as a project." In the past, id has had some solid success on the App Store, both with ports of old id games, as well as versions of newer games like Rage. But it looks like for the moment, id is done with putting out new releases on the App Store.

I wouldn't worry too much about this. Clearly, Carmack knows and loves Apple's mobile platforms, and its a common practice in big studios to focus the team on a sigle project, especially when its as big as Doom 4. For now, the team may be focusing in on an AAA title, but I don't think it'll be long at all before we see some more mobile work coming out of id and its developers.