On Thursday, a rumor spread regarding a possible newQuakegame being developed. A semi-reliable leaker claimed they’d heard about the new game’s development, said to be co-developed betweenDoom’s id Software andWolfenstein’s MachineGames. That rumor has now developed in an exciting way. A QuakeCon schedule update that’s now been deleted has provided evidence that not only is a newQuakegame in development, but it’s a throwback to classicQuake.
The leak in question showed a panel description for an event named “Let’s Talk Quake,” which has since been removed from the officialQuakeConwebsite. It’s tentatively planned to air on Friday, August 20, at 5:30 AM PT/8:30 AM ET and will last an hour. The description starts with the statement, “Quakeis back.” Further into the description, it explains that MachineGames will discuss new content that it has “contributed to this revitalized edition.” Suffice to say, there’s a lot to read into this leak.
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While the description of thenewQuakegameisn’t specific, there’s a clear message to be found. “Revitalized edition” implies that the game will be a remastered or repackaged compilation of one or more classicQuakegames. Additionally, it’s clear that MachineGames will be adding new content to this revitalized edition ofQuake. What kind of and how expansive this content from MachineGames will be is up to fans to discover.
Quakefans shouldn’t necessarily be overly excited about this, yet. It may be a much smaller-scale game thanQuakefans would like to imagine. For context, at QuakeCon in July 2019 Bethesda announced andre-releasedDoom,Doom 2, andDoom 3across multiple platforms, each updated in small ways to broaden the experience. There’s precedent for what Bethesda could be doing again, only this time withQuake. This could just be a way of making all theQuakelibrary easily accessible for a new generation.
Putting together new editions of classic Bethesda games is all the more important to the company now that it has beenacquired by Microsoft. Bethesda has a back catalog of dozens of games, many that aren’t readily available or accessible. Updated versions ofQuakenot only does makes those games widely available, but allows Xbox to put those games on Xbox Game Pass across all platforms. Therein lies a lot of the value of Microsoft’s acquisition.
Until the newQuakegame orQuakebundle is announced, it’s possible that the leak isn’t accurate. While the leak comes from an official source, it could have been a test post or listing and isn’t accurate. Either way,Quakefans should look forward toQuakeCon’s start on Thursday, August 19, when its opening keynote airs at 11:00 AM PT/2:00 PM ET.
