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Rage taught id Software they "showed stuff too damn early"
Posted: 07.08.2012 13:05 by Simon Priest Comments: 6
Tim Willits of id Software has talked a little about the misfiring Rage and the upcoming Doom 4. The studio has learnt a harsh lesson when it comes to marketing dos and don'ts.

They gave glimpses of the shooter "too damn early" which ended up warping fan perception. He also admits they're "definitely a NVIDIA shop," and ATI issues hurt them.

"I wanted to strangle him. It’s QuakeCon! Everyone f*cking loves Rage here, shut up!” joked Tim Willits on John Carmack's Rage apology at QuakeCon, where he "stabbed himself a little".

"The lesson learned is we need to make sure developers have ATI cards. We worked with NVIDIA for so long, we worked with ATI a long time, but we’re definitely a NVIDIA shop. So we said alright, everyone needs to have some ATI cards in here. But really, if it was a DirectX game it wouldn’t have been a problem,” explained Willits.

Driver issues aside, Rage didn't impress many. What started the problem between expectation and what was actually delivered is the way id marketed Rage: "One thing we did learn with Rage, one of the thing that changed was going from no publisher to working with EA to working with Bethesda, we learned that we showed stuff too damn early."

"I’ve said in some talks I was so worried that people would not understand the vehicle-based combat so I talked about it first,” continued Willits. "We knew we were doing first-person, we’re id! Of course we’re doing first-person!"

However the early talk of vehicles "skewed everyone’s ideas so much we had to play catch up. So we talked to EA and, heck we even talked to Activision originally about it, so it went through the publishers, and we teamed up with Bethesda. So when we’re ready to show stuff, we’ll have a plan,” he said, referring to Doom 4.

Willits is confident that Bethesda can help id market the next Doom as well as they did The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which the veteran developer considers to be "perfect. So hopefully we can do that again."

John Carmack did confirm two things at least for Doom 4 during his keynote: "Everyone knows what Doom is,” he told the crowd. “There are demons and shotguns.” Check out the full interview between Tim Willits and Penny Arcade.

Source: Penny Arcade

Comments

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Aug 07, 2012
herodotus
What a bunch of bullscookies. They did the same with "STALKER" and while the parts that were promised and not delivered had gamers and reviewers lamenting their loss, it still was a critical and popular success. "Rage" was just plain bad, though I'm afraid Id lost my respect with "Wolfenstein" prior to this.
If Id were to concentrate on not only making the next title AMD-friendly (as ATI officially no longer exists as a separate brand name) but PC-friendly and not just ported it would go down a real treat.
I think Id would be pleasantly surprised if they actually put the time, resources and cash into developing a PC-dedicated version of the next game.
By danfreeman (SI Core) on Aug 07, 2012
danfreeman
I am one of the lucky few who managed to play the game with no problems whatsoever,and to be honest i kinda liked it.It`s true that a lot of stuff were just bad like the stealth mechanics,it`s made by Id the creators of Doom and Quake,stealth isn`t in their vocabulary,but the shooting was good thanks to Id and since that`s most of the game it gets a pass from me.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Aug 07, 2012
herodotus
It's matter of taste I guess (I don't know how you could stand the plastic-looking blood effects), and there's been a few games critically and popularly trashed that I've enjoyed.
Overall though, there was really just nothing original about "Rage" and even the vehicle 'moments' are reminscent of attempts made in "Quake 4" to mechanise the player.
I saw it for $5 the other day and even at that price I just couldn't be bothered.
By danfreeman (SI Core) on Aug 07, 2012
danfreeman
I know what you mean hero,it`s not a good game however you look at it,i guess it`s more of a guilty pleasure kind of thing.
By HenoKutus (SI Core) on Aug 08, 2012
HenoKutus
There was no spirit in the game,no dark atmosphere we were all expecting,stupid races and running back to the same places!
A shame,they had better made Hexen 3!
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Aug 08, 2012
SiyaenSokol
I actually enjoyed Rage. Though I agree it wasn't the best game, I actually enjoyed much of the game. I do agree that it wasn't the average Id game, but I am still looking forward to DOOM IV.