The number four comes after three, right? Normally, yes. In the world of video games, however, it's not necessarily the case. Developers have taken on the "because I said so" school of thought in naming games, and id Software is among the best pupils of the philosophy. More in the full article.

We know that some of you got pretty excited when we mentioned that Doom 4 was announced back in May. That said, id's Todd Hollenshead and John Carmack recently revealed some new information on Doom 4. It's not a lot of info, but we like what they're saying, at the very least. More after the jump!

If you're a fan of the Doom franchise then here's some good news! id Software has announced that they're working on Doom 4 already. Interestingly enough, the game might be headed multiplatform on the company's new proprietary engine. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

Activision, Vivendi, NCsoft, and Her Interactive have already dropped from the E3. It seems that another company is going to jump ship from the upcoming event. From the looks of things, id Software might soon follow suit as they are unsure about their plans for E3. Find out more in the full article.

Video gaming site Shacknews recently scored a huge interview with id software's Todd Hollenshead and Tim Willits. In it, both men talk about Rage, id's upcoming title for the Mac, PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms.

First off, the setting. Rage takes place after a comet hit Earth and wiped out civilization. While civilization tries to rebuild itself, players will take on the role of the hero as they try to help the remnants of humanity fight back against the new regime that's risen.

Surprisingly enough for an id title, there's a lot of racing involved in Rage. Players can soup up their cars with modifications and upgrades then head on to different towns where they can take part in races. Players will also need their car to travel around Rage's world getting missions, playing through instances and even stopping in the middle of nowhere to admire the scenery.

Of course, Rage also includes a lot of shooting. As Hollenshead said, there's a certain level of anarchy in the game as represented by the "A" in the game's logo. Side content is also a big thing in Rage, and the game looks pretty big judging from the interview. Willits references Bethesda's Oblivion by saying, "You can go and just do all the missions in the story, like in Oblivion, or you can go do other missions."

On the multiplayer side of things, Hollenshead said that he expects the game to be online on consoles. There will be co-op but versus multiplayer has yet to be decided on. According to Willits, the plan is to let players "find someone who can go on and do some co-op missions. If you finish a few, you can go do something different yourself, then go find someone to do the rest."

To find out more about Rage, click on the Read link below. The full interview's a pretty interesting read so check it out.

If you loved Doom in the past and you're enjoying the classic demon-blasting FPS again via digital download from the Xbox Live Arcade, you're going to be happy with a recent confirmation coming in from id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead.

Hollenshead said that following the success of Doom, Quake III Arena is already under development for the online service. No tentative release period was announced, but it's pretty exciting nonetheless.

Doom and Quake are both franchises stemming back from the 90's which saw the rise of the FPS genre. Once called "corridor shooters," the games initiated by id grew into a more free and vibrant field which gave birth to some of today's greatest games.

In related news, it was reported in 1up recently that Quake Zero is also in the works. No specific platform has been announced but one possible clue is that it'll be built on the same engine as Quake III.

The project is slated to be a stripped down and rebuilt version of the old title with some new added elements. Plans stand right now to make it a web application so that it takes up minimal cost. This one should be free to play. We'll keep you posted for more.

Though it's probably a stunner to hear from the makers of Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake and all other iterations of the first-person shooter forerunners, id Software decided that it was high time they laid down their side of the gaming violence controversy, oft opposed by one crusading Florida lawyer.

  

If Take Two wasn't high in the possibly politically-driven campaign against games, it was Doom that critics often placed the blame on for violence sparking from video games. The Columbine massacre was one such tragedy linked to id Software. Caught in the middle of all the heated discussion, id appeared to have let out a heavy sigh in an interview with Games Industry and speak out on gaming from the gamer's perspective.

"I think the media is always looking for stuff to make headlines, and they sensationalize things. They take something that they know will make news and they run with it and then figure out whether it's true or not later," said CEO Todd Hollenshead.

More on id Software's opinions of hostility against gaming right at the Full Article!

Id Software, creators of the epic Quake and Doom franchise, has revealed that a new gaming franchise is in the works. "We are working on an all-new franchise: it's not Doom, it's not Quake, it's not Wolfenstein, it's not Enemy Territory, it's not even Commander Keen," says Todd Hollenshead, CEO for id Software. "It is a new id brand with an all-new John Carmack engine and I think that when we show it to people, once again they'll see, just like they saw when we first showed Doom 3, that John Carmack still has a lot of magic left."

John Carmack, the programming genius who created the phenomenal Doom (and can anyone remember Wolfenstein 3D?), is now working on something that Hollenshead emphasizes is different from Doom, Quake, and other id Software titles. "It is a new id brand with an all-new John Carmack engine and I think that when we show it to people, once again they'll see, just like they saw when we first showed Doom 3, that John Carmack still has a lot of magic left."

When asked about some details regarding this new project, Hollenshead prefers to keep mum about it. "The new stuff that we're working on does have a brand new engine that John has been working on, actually is still working on today. We can’t really talk any details about it; we'll see about when the timing is right for an announcement. We like to be able to talk about stuff that we can show at the same time and it's not really ready to show yet."

Whatever it is, we bet that it's well worth the wait. In the meantime, there's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars to look forward to.

Rumors of GSC Game World using graphical assets from Valve's Half-Life 2 and id Software's Doom 3 for us in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl have apparently been debunked.

The water textures that were mentioned in our post on the issue were apparently gotten by BOTH Valve and GSC Game World from Marlin Studios. Marlin provides all kinds of textures for a variety of uses, including stuff like sci-fi textures and even Elvis.

As for the light texture that was allegedly taken from Doom 3, reports say that it's "just a standard Impact Light texture, rather than referring to the Doom 3 monster."

id Software Todd Hollenshead has already expressed concerns about the whole issue, but also noted that "it would be improper to make any decision about a course of action until we find out whether the claim is true." We guess waiting for more details to come to light paid off.

GDC 2007 had a panel on piracy. And even if you believe that they're just whining about the supposed "cost" of piracy to the business, if GDC has a panel on that, then THEY, the devs, believe it's a problem for THEM, the devs. Take id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead, who, according to Joystiq's coverage, points to internet piracy as the reason why Enemy Territory: Quake Wars has gone multiplatform.

Why? He says that console piracy is minimally relative to PC piracy. "By a large factor."

Here we go again. The nitty gritty of the economics of piracy to developers is more complicated than you think, which all depends on the popularity of the game in various territories, enforcement if intellectual property laws in those territories, the financial health and development portfolio of the developer... you get the drift, right? And our take is that ethics... is ultimately the responsibility of the guy practicing it, not to the guys preaching it.

Short version to chew on, though: professional devs need to eat, too. Easier job if you've got Gears of War in the bag and Unreal Tournament 3 in the side pocket, perhaps - pirates might as well be tilting at Catalan windmills. And while Quake Wars comes from a long-running franchise, if its developer is looking to consoles as part of a loss-mitigation strategy...