id Software creative director Tim Willits isn't quite ready to write off digital distribution for its upcoming race-infused adventure shooter Rage (PC, 360, PS3), despite the game's large reported size.

"We have not written off digital distribution for Rage," Willits told 1UP. "We haven't figured out what we want to do yet. But I do want to fix the fact that John [Carmack] said [digital distribution is] not going to happen. What I'm saying is that's not true."

Willits explained the source of the confusion as the oft-confused state of Rage's final form on disc: "John Carmack made a comment about the media size, which unfortunately wasn't exactly correct because we haven't crossed that bridge yet. He said it was going to be too large to download, and I was thinking to myself, 'You know, uhhhhh, people can do lots of things.'"

The Rage designer even alluded to considering the game for Valve's popular Steam digital distribution service. "Our relationship with Valve and our stuff on Steam has been very successful for us," he said.

Willits also took the opportunity to explain the plot for Rage, expanding on the previously known themes of post-apocalypse and lawlessness. The details, reproduced from the 1UP interview, follow... Read more

Yesterday, Rage lead designer and id Software employee Tim Willits quickly shot down a report claiming that that content had been cut from the upcoming shooter due to the limiting size of Xbox 360 DVDs.

Following the mix-up, I had a chance to sit down with Willits and put the issue to rest, as well as several other controversial topics related to Rage (PC, 360, PS3)--many of which were originally raised by id Software president John Carmack.

"As far as game content, I will swear on the lives of my children that nothing was cut," said Willits in an early shoot-down of the rumor.

But what of the compression issue? During his QuakeCon speech in August, Carmack put pressure on Microsoft to drop its royalty fees for additional Xbox 360 discs in order to free up more space for the game's content, saying the title would look worse on the Xbox 360 due to compression. Now Willits says the whole thing was a classic misunderstanding.

"Microsoft is not being dickheads," he said. "It was a simple kind of miscommunication. Microsoft does not charge a royalty per disc, but there is a cost of... Read more

The limitations of the DVD medium and Xbox 360 hardware have not forced id to cut content from all versions of Rage (PC, PS3, 360), the studio has told Shacknews.

Following a report that id had removed "significant content" from all versions of the shooter so the game would fit onto two Xbox 360 DVDs, id Software's Tim Willits denied that the Xbox 360 version required the studio to sacrifice its vision for the game.

"There was NO CONTENT removed from RAGE because of the 360--NONE AT ALL," wrote Willits. "We feel the 360 is a great platform and will provide a fantastic Rage experience."

id has previously stated that the Xbox 360 version of Rage will look worse than its PC and PS3 counterparts due to the limitations of the DVD medium. The studio had hoped to circumvent this by spreading the 360 release across three DVDs, though Microsoft's royalty rates apparently make anything beyond two discs financially impracticable.

Willits' unedited response follows:

During my talk today I mentioned that we originally wanted to have around 5 or 6 smaller wasteland environments but later decided... Read more

Update: id's Tim Willits has informed Shacknews that the information contained within the 1UP article is inaccurate, with a more detailed explanation available here.

Original Story: id Software lead designer Tim Willits now says that significant game content has been scaled back in all versions of the company's upcoming shooter Rage due to the size restrictions of the Xbox 360's aging DVD format.

While the expansive shooter was initially going to feature multiple wastelands, it now features only two major areas that are split into multiple instances, according to 1UP.

"I wouldn't say the overall story was changed in any way in order to fit on the Xbox 360 version, but how the player experiences Rage's story has been altered," said Willits during a speech at the Austin Game Developers Conference.

id has been critical of Microsoft's royalty rates for extra Xbox 360 discs, leading to the company's decision to cram the game onto two DVDs.

"The PC is limitless in the amount of data you can put on it," added Willits. "The PS3 has about 25GB. But the Xbox 360 roughly has 6 to 8 GB of data. We're hoping we can squeeze the game down to two discs for the 360 version."

Steadily decreasing PC software figures have prompted acclaimed Doom and Quake creator id Software to focus more on consoles than PCs for the future, id president John Carmack has revealed.

"It's hard to second guess exactly what the reasons are. You can say piracy. You can say user migration," Carmack told Tom's Games at this year's QuakeCon. "But the ground truth is just that the sales numbers on the PC are not what they used to be and are not what they are on the consoles."

The statement follows remarks made by id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead at last year's Game Developer's Conference, where he claimed that that "piracy has pushed id as being multiplatform" at last year's Game Developers Conference.

"We still think the PC is a market worth supporting, but we're not making decisions around the PC," Carmack added. "It's probably more of the junior partner in... Read more

Midway through the second hour, even most of the die-hard nerds started to leave.

On stage was a man who, by all accounts, did not need to be there. Wealthy, successful, busy programming rockets and enjoying family life--id Software president John Carmack has plenty of excuses to be a recluse, not the least of which is his admitted lack of "people skills."

But there he was regardless, lecturing away on a Thursday night, professor to his students. Seemingly undeterred by his thinning class, he moved from topic to topic in Picard-like fashion, holding the microphone as the rock king of computer programming.

Though the overall scent noticeably improved with each departure, the buzz within the ballroom also noticeably quieted. Near the end you could almost hear the soft death rattles of fizzling laptop batteries, exhausted journalists resorting to pen and paper, or just plain giving up. Still he rolled on. And on.

Through hour one. Hour two. Hour three.

And then he took questions.... Read more

In an interview with Shacknews, id Software's John Carmack and Matt Hooper talked up new details on the company's upcoming shooter Rage (PC, 360, PS3). Revealed last year, Rage is a post-apocalyptic shooter that will feature a significant racing component. Though Rage will not be a traditional "sandbox" game, it will see players racing across open spaces towards instances that contain traditional shooter sequences.

Few concrete gameplay details have been released since the game's announcement, but today the developers did let a few extra details slip.

Highlights:

• Two player online co-op is confirmed for consoles and PC. Console players will also have the option of split-screen co-op.
• Co-op will be an entirely separate mode that will not include the story elements of the single player campaign.
• Hooper mentioned "armor" and "inventory" systems, and indicated that there will be some type of world economy that the player can participate in.... Read more

Update: In an interview with Shacknews, id's John Carmack reiterated that the Xbox 360 version of Rage will look worse than the PlayStation 3 version.

Carmack said that the uncompressed build of Rage encompasses a terrabyte of data, and that id will need to use a "different type of compression" to fit the game on two dual-layer Xbox 360 DVDs.

When asked whether the difference will be significant, Carmack noted that "hero shots" should look similar, but that Xbox 360 players might find a rock that is more blurry when exploring the periphery of Rage's world.

Original story: id's post-apocalyptic open-world shooter Rage (PC, PS3, 360, Mac) will look worse on Xbox 360 due to the compression needed to fit the game's assets on two DVDs, programmer John Carmack revealed at tonight's QuakeCon keynote.

According to Carmack, the royalty fees to include a third disc in the Xbox 360 version would be so high that it simply isn't a feasible solution, with the programmer hoping for Microsoft to make a concession. He stressed that the issue is merely a storage problem and has nothing to do with the power of the Xbox 360 hardware, while adding that the PlayStation 3's Blu-ray format is Sony's one leg up on the competition.

Carmack also noted his belief that neither Doom 4 or Rage will be digitally distributed online, as id isn't looking into that sort of distribution for its major titles at this point.

During last year's QuakeCon talk, Carmack stated that the PlayStation 3 edition of Rage would ship on a single Blu-ray disc, with the PC and Mac versions likely to arrive in both Blu-ray and DVD form.

Nearly a year after the title's unveiling, id Software today released the first official screenshots from its post-apocalyptic open-world shooter Rage (PC, PS3, 360, Mac).

Slated to arrive "when it's fun and when it's done", the project is facing storage and royalty issues on Xbox 360, which could make that version look worse than others.

For more on Rage, check out last night's extended trailer.

Straight from QuakeCon, the new extended Rage trailer showing off even more footage of the upcoming FPS from id Software, due out "when it's fun and when it's done" on PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Mac.

You may want to turn your sound down a bit, it recorded a bit loud. We will fix that with a new encoding later tonight as well as make the full HD version available.

Please install Flash to view this Shackvideo

Shackvideo users can use the HD Stream.

Or, if you would like the highest quality, download the 720p WMV file from FileShack.

During his impromptu and unscripted talk at this year's QuakeCon, id Software's John Carmack explained why EA is publishing Rage (PC, PS3, 360) instead of the company's traditional publishing partner Activision.

"It's easy for people outside to read more into something than is actually there," said Carmack. "We did not have a huge falling out with Activision or anything."

He stressed that Valve's positive experience with the EA Partners program was "very important to us" as was the personal involvement of EA CEO John Riccitiello. and that "Valve speaks very highly of their relationship with EA Partners."

Carmack's complete explanation follows:

The way we did it with Rage is, we've actually gone out and shopped the title three times. It's nice to know that we have the position where publishers will say, sight unseen, we'll give you this many million dollars. And so we said okay, we'll think about it. We're in a nice position where we can fund our own game development.

If we had signed a deal before we did the reboot from... Read more

id Software's John Carmack today announced that work on the technology behind the company's upcoming shooter Rage is almost finished.

"We have very few things that are very significant left to be done [to the technology]," said Carmack. "We are 'light at the end of the tunnel,' going into the home stretch."

Carmack said that a change to the animation system is coming soon, and that a few tweaks need to be made to the MegaTexture system, but that the heavy lifting is mostly over.

The programming wizard reflected on the long development period for the id Tech 5 engine, which first began some three years ago.

"Here we are, three years later, still working on elements of it," he said, noting that he has spent the vast majority of his time working on Rage.

Carmack mentioned that the Rage code will mostly be carried over to Doom 4, where the focus will then be mainly on level design and creative aspects.

"We're going to have a working set of tools for them to do the most creative work with it," Carmack said of the Doom 4 team, while noting that his work on the engine won't end.

"I want to be able to provide at least one strong graphical hook for [Doom 4]."

Though work on id's open-world first-person shooter Rage (PC, PS3, 360, Mac) is progressing, project lead Tim Willits has revealed that any possible release date is still well in the future.

Asked if Rage would hit in 2009, 2010 or 2011, Willits only responded to the 2011 inquiry, saying that it's "not that far out."

"It's not like we know and we're not saying," he explained to Eurogamer. "It's just, again, it's when it's fun and when it's done. Unfortunately that is the answer I have to give."

QuakeCon 2008 officially ramps up this Thursday in Dallas, Texas. Shacknews will be representin' at the big show, with Nick and Steve checking out such titles as id Software's Rage, the browser-based shooter Quake Live, Raven Software's Wolfenstein and others.

In addition to the usual round-up of playable games, the exhibition will also host tournaments for Quake Live and both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. Among the prizes are entries into a drawing for a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe, valued at approximately $55,000.

Attendees should also check out the Shacknews-sponsored IDGA Quakecon charity poker tournament, benefiting Penny Arcade's Child's Play Charity. Buy in is $30, and prizes include a choice between a Dell laptop and a Texas Instruments TV, an entry into the aforementioned Corvette drawing and more. Hurry over to the sign-up page, get registered and bring a smile to a child or two.

We hope to see you there as we play new games, rub elbows with developers and lose money in the name of charity.

Though powered by the same id Tech 5 technology as id's open-world shooter Rage, Doom 4 will be so detailed that it appears to run on "a totally new game engine," according to id co-founder and software engineer John Carmack.

The jump in graphical fidelity comes about as Doom 4 is targeted to run at 30 frames per second, whereas Rage will run at 60 frames per second. Carmack claims this allows id to throw "three times as much horsepower" at Doom 4.

Above, id's Rage

"[Doom 4 is] going to be a 30Hz game," he told Maximum PC. "It's going to look like a totally new game engine on there, even though it's going to be built on the four years of effort that we spent developing this generation of technology."

No platform or release details have been revealed for Doom 4, which was unveiled in a surprise announcement earlier this year. However, the id Tech 5-powered Rage will arrive on PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Mac, suggesting similar platforms for... Read more

Here is the new Rage trailer that id Software showed off during EA's E3 2008 press conference. As we noted, EA Partners will publish the game, in development for PC, PS3 and X360. Shackvideo users can use the HD Stream.

id Software today revealed that Electronic Arts will publish its upcoming titles, beginning with RAGE (PC, PS3, 360).

id's John Carmack appeared on stage to show id's support of the new publishing arrangement, noting that more RAGE details will be unveiled at QuakeCon later this month.

The agreement comes as part of the EA Partners initiative, under which EA helps publish and distribute titles for smaller, independent studios, such as Valve's The Orange Box and Harmonix's Rock Band.

"The RAGE publishing deal is the epitome of EA Partners' mission: Provide the world's best developers with access to the world's best publishing resources," explained EA Partners general manager David DeMartini.

"The team at id Software is one of the best development studios in the world. We're excited to work with id Software to give RAGE a blockbuster launch on the global stage."

A new trailer of RAGE was also shown, highlighting angry mutants and the sounds of brutal dismemberment.

Amidst an industry-wide focus on user-created content in gaming, id Software lead designer Matt Hooper stated that the company's upcoming open world shooter Rage will focus on visual and gameplay fidelity over community and content-sharing services.

"As a game player, I love [user-created content]," Hooper told Next-Gen. "But that doesn't mean at the same time I can't love a BioShock or a Call of Duty 4. You can have a focused game, and do that really well."

Hooper added that games centered around user-generated content such as modifications or maps represents a different focus, likening it to a different movie genre, while reiterating that the "important thing [is] doing something really well."

"For us personally, our biggest goal is—you can see it right now—we're pushing on the fidelity, visually. We're also pushing on the gameplay fidelity... As far as ... Read more

Will id Tech 5 be All the Rage? is a Next Generation article asking id's Steve Nix about their new technology and more.

With Rage, id Software is going in all sorts of new directions. Vehicular combat, racing, adventure components--it seems like a brand new world for the longtime FPS-exclusive studio, but CEO Todd Hollenshead and Tim Willits assure me that the game is grounded in id's existing pedigree.

I sat down with Hollenshead and Willits to discuss Rage's design elements both new and old, gameplay and setting inspirations, new attitudes to development, co-op and multiplayer, how everything in the game interconnects, id's infamous design documents, and more. Read on for this comprehensive interview on id's next big thing.

Todd Hollenshead: The way the world is constructed we didn't want people just walking around in these huge areas wondering what to do. We place these hotspots of activity, these settlements, throughout the wasteland.
Tim Willits: it's nonlinear but still story-driven. It has adventure elements, but I hate to say adventure because then people think of Monkey Island, and it's not an RPG. I wish there was some word in between RPG and adventure, where you have an inventory. You'll be able to drive around the wasteland and get out wherever you want. If you see a cave, you can explore it. You might meet a band of mutants.