QuakeCon-2013
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Families who game together stay together
My dad enjoys hunting, fishing and fighting fires. I enjoy reading, philosophy and not exerting myself too much. But while we might not have a ton in common, we do play a lot of games together. Military shooters, mostly, as he gets easily bored by many of the slower moving, story heavy games I tend to play alone. I was never going to follow in his footsteps at the fire department, and he was never going to read Kant with me. So instead, we've bonded on virtual battlefields. That's not something unique to my family. Like my own father, Steven struggles to find things in common with his children. One of his daughters is a dancer. The other is in band. But as the girls have gotten older, playing video games has brought the family closer together. "I've been an avid gamer since I was in college, and my daughters just started picking it up," he told me. "About six or seven years ago I got my oldest daughter a computer, and she and I started playing games with each other and against each other, and it just kind of progressed from there."
Bethesda's publishing model based on quality, not quantity, says Hines
Bethesda has no ambitions to become a volume-driven publisher, VP of PR and Marketing Pete Hines told us during last weekend's QuakeCon festivities in Dallas, TX. "It's not a situation where we set out to say 'Well, we need to be acquiring studios at this level,' or 'We need to be a 10,"' Hines said with regards to Bethesda's growth philosophies as a publisher. "We know for sure that we don't want to be a publisher that is publishing 20 to 30 games a year, that's not who we are." "We're more about fewer premium titles and putting our full attention behind those," Hines continued, "and if it's one a year, or two a year, or three a year or four a year, what's most important is backing the best bets, putting our full support behind those and making them great. And then, do it again." That whole "making them great" thing seems to be an integral part of Bethesda's operating procedure, as Wolfenstein: The New Order was recently delayed into 2014 for polishing. Likewise, Hines has said previously that Prey 2 has yet to meet Bethesda's quality standards, despite years in development and millions of dollars spent.
Wii U not on Bethesda's short-term radar
Wii U owners hoping for a little Bethesda-brand steampunk/open world/pseudo-historical/massively multiplayer whatever may want to start grazing other pastures, as Nintendo's console is nowhere to be seen on the publisher's horizon. "None of the game's we've announced are being developed for the Wii U, so it's guaranteed that none of those games are coming to Wii U," Bethesda VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines told us at QuakeCon, with regards to The Elder Scrolls Online, Wolfenstein: The New Order and The Evil Within. "Will any future ones come out? I can't say for sure, in our near-term focus it's not on our radar." "It's largely a hardware thing," Hines said, explaining that Bethesda's mantra is to "make the games that we want to make, on whatever platforms will support them as developed." Giving an example, he said that The Elder Scrolls Online "likely would have" been released on Xbox 360, but that it "just wasn't possible" due to hardware limitations. Specifically referencing future announcements for the Wii U, Hines said that "it remains to be seen what the future holds." This differs from the Wii U publishing reservations we've heard of from other companies, in that Bethesda's decision is based on hardware limitations, rather than the Wii U's lackluster performance at retail. EA, for instance, isn't bringing this year's installments of FIFA or Madden to Nintendo's platform due to the limited size of the console's installed user base. Similarly, Ubisoft was so confident that the Wii U would be unable to support the kind of sales it needed for Rayman Legends, that it delayed the game's release and extended its availability to other platforms.
Dishonored 66% off in final day of Quakecon Steam sale
Sunday is the final day of the Quakecon Steam sale, and it's going out with a quiet, stealthy bang – Dishonored is 66 percent off ($10.20) through August 5 at 10AM PT. Also 66 percent off are the three Dishonored DLC packs, Dunwall City Trials ($1.70), The Knife of Dunwall ($3.40) and Void Walker's Arsenal ($1.35). Still on offer today is the Quakecon Pack, which includes 45 id Software and Bethesda games for $90, normally priced at $344. The Quakecon Pack features Dishonored and its DLC, Doom 3 and all of its variants, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, the Elder Scrolls series, Rage, Wolfenstein 3D and the Quake games. Each game is available at an individually discounted price as well. During Quakecon this week, we got a peek at John Carmack's explanation of ambient occlusion and learned that the Rage franchise isn't dead quite yet.
'Rage' franchise not dead, says Willits
Rage, John Carmack's MegaTexture technical spectacle, is not the alpha and omega of its intellectual property, id Software co-founder Tim Willits told us during this week's QuakeCon 2013 event in Dallas, Texas. "I'm proud of what we did, I'm proud of the universe that we built. The franchise is not dead," Willits said. "We're not doing anything immediately with it, but when I designed the universe, I designed it in such a way that it would be easy to step back into. I'm still proud that we did something that was different – it wasn't like the games that we've done in the past." Willits also said that Rage's development fueled innovations in id Tech 5 that continue to pay off as the engine is adapted for use on next-gen consoles and in other Bethesda products. "We really tried to do one engine that worked for everything," he said. "It really helps establish a robust tech that, as John [Carmack] said last night, we're adding stuff into it based on the new consoles, and it's allowed people to make different games because the technology is flexible and robust and works on everything."
John Carmack says Armadillo Aerospace is in 'hibernation' following setbacks
Armadillo Aerospace was once at the forefront of efforts to foster private spaceflight, but it has been quiet ever since its STIG-B rocket crashed in January. We're now learning why: founder John Carmack has revealed that the company is now in "hibernation." The transition from contract work to vehicle building just didn't pan out, he says. Having more full-time staff backfired, as workers were bogged down in planning and reviews; the team also repeated many of NASA's mistakes in material choices, limiting its production capacity. As Carmack isn't prepared to invest more of his personal funds to keep Armadillo going, the firm will likely remain on ice until there's a new investor who's ready to pay to keep up with Branson and Musk in the space race. [Image credit: Official GDC, Flickr]
Steam sale celebrates Quakecon with 45 discounted games
Quakecon, an annual PC gaming tournament and celebration of all things id Software, is going down this weekend in Dallas, Texas but if you weren't able to make the trek, Steam is offering a less expensive means to get in on the celebration. This weekend, up until August 5, Steam is discounting several games from Bethesda and id Software's catalogs. The Doom series, Fallout games, The Elder Scrolls and Quake (obviously) series are all up for grabs on the cheap, available as individual downloads or in special predetermined bundles. Games from Bethesda's publishing side, like Rogue Warrior, Hunted: The Demon's Forge and Brink are also on sale. The Quakecon bundle, which includes all 45 of these eligible games, is priced at $90; the full list of what's up for grabs can be seen here. At this year's show, id Software co-founder John Carmack's keynote mentioned that development for the Wii U and PS Vita was an "extremely unlikely" proposition. His three-hour talk addressed a number of topics, including next-generation consoles and how he doesn't expect "radically better games enabled because of the new capabilities on the consoles."
Carmack: 3DS, Wii U, Vita 'extremely unlikely' in id Software's future
In his keynote speech at QuakeCon this week, id Software's John Carmack revealed that the company is "extremely unlikely" to pursue software development for the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo Wii U, and the PlayStation Vita platforms, citing issues with publisher acceptance and adoption rates. "I always thought that the Wii U and Vita would be great targets for Doom 3: BFG Edition," Carmack explained. "We should be able to bring that over directly, but [the platforms have] generated nothing for us on the publishing side of things, because they're somewhat marginalized platforms." "Clearly there's a difference on the handheld platforms," Carmack continued. "While the 3DS is doing okay, the Vita's really not doing particularly well." "A lot of that has to come from the fact that [...] everybody is carrying a pretty good gaming platform already, and selling a new one to them is a little bit of a harder sell," Carmack said, referring to the widespread adoption of smartphones. "I'd love to be able to develop on the 3DS and some of the other small platforms," Carmack said. "I'd like to see the games show up on the Vita or the Wii U, just to play with some of the characteristics they've got there, but it's extremely unlikely to happen. There's a finite amount of time and only so many things we can focus on."
Carmack envisions lengthy console cycle, mysterious platform configurations on the horizon
During his expansive, three-hour long QuakeCon 2013 keynote speech/dissertation on the future of basically everything in the entire world, id Software co-founder John Carmack shared his expectations for the lifespan of the newest console generation, as well as the nebulous state of our understanding of consoles in general. "I don't think there's going to be much of a push for another generation for a long time," Carmack said in response to a question from the audience. "Really, we could be doing great, innovative work even on the current generation for many more years yet. It's not like anybody's seen everything that you could do." "I'll be surprised if we see radically better games enabled because of the new capabilities on the consoles," he continued. "And, I've thought for a while we're now past the knee of the curve of the payoff benefit, so we're going to be definitely on the gradual sloping part of it going forward." Carmack added that he doesn't expect a next-next generation of consoles will be necessary until the trade-off can be made for hardware that can handle ray tracing. Should that take the form of a PlayStation 5 or Xbox 12 as we'd be accustomed to, however, is unknown in his eyes: "Whether we get something like cloud gaming owning large shares of the market before then," he said, "or people using both systems or you just play on your mobile phone and it shows up on whatever screen's near you, that could become [the] dominant gaming platform. But, a traditional next Xbox? Yeah, I think that's a long ways off, and there's a credible argument to be made that there may not be another console generation as we know it now."
Pre-registration for QuakeCon 2013 open now
Pre-registration for QuakeCon 2013 is now open and being offered alongside a few special packages. General admission is free, but extras are available at additional cost.The Swag Pack, of which there are 250 available, costs $60. It includes three different shirts (including an officially branded QuakeCon tee), a QuakeCon-branded Logitech G400 Mouse, and a $10 voucher for use on Bethesda's site.The Swag Pack is available in conjunction with a "Bring Your Own Computer" Select-a-Seat, which nets you a reserved spot in the special BYOC section for $90, with only 500 available. You can also get a BYOC seat along with just a "QuakeCon done Quick" pass, which will grant you express lane access to all of the show's panels and events. That package with a single shirt is available for $50, and 250 are available in total.Finally, if it's just a BYOC reservation and shirt you want, you'll pay $30 for one of 1,250 packages available.All package options and prices are listed in full over on the official website. QuakeCon 2013 will be held at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas, from August 1 until August 4.
QuakeCon 2013 scheduled for Aug. 1-4 in Dallas
QuakeCon, the annual celebration of LAN gaming, will be held August 1-4 at the The Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, Texas. Special rates for the hotel and overnight parking are available now, so don't dawdle.The four day festival, now in its 18th year, is North America's largest Bring-Your-Own-Computer LAN party. There's also presentations and panels from Bethesda Softworks and id Software about what the companies are up to. The event is open and free to the public but, again, don't take too much time on grabbing a hotel room if you're planning to attend.
