id Software suggests 2018 release date for Quake Champions
We interviewed id Software creative-director Tim Willits at QuakeCon, who made it clear Quake Champions won’t be rushed to release.
It was with huge excitement that id Software were able to host a QuakeCon event and actually announce a new Quake. In 21 years, the studio’s creative-director Tim Willits has never missed a QuakeCon and he was clearly proud to be able to show off Quake Champions to attendees this weekend past. finder.com.au was in the thick of it, and got a chance to chat to Willits following the presentation – we will post the full interview shortly, but here is an interesting snippet that caught our attention, pointing towards a 2018 release date for the game.
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You spoke about players wanting character progression, so does that mean there are skill trees champions can level-up through?
The question becomes "should we work on a Morrowind or Oblivion remaster, or should we work on Elder Scrolls VI?"
Well, yeah, we will be in beta for a long time. We’ll go into beta in 2017 with just a small group of people, and then it will start growing. As you would know, when these types of multiplayer games are in beta, things are going to change as some elements are not going to be right. So we’ll keep iterating and iterating until, at some point, we go to an open beta and then at some point after that, we’ll say, “done!”
Hopefully we won’t be in beta for a year, but we’ll have to wait and see. As long as we can keep growing the size [of the beta] then there will be no official release date. It’s PC only and it’s a tight focus as a competitive multiplayer shooter, so we just have to get it right. This [experience] is all Quake Champions offers, so it is pointless to rush it out.
Our take
Lock in 2018 for Quake Champions. Willits made it clear that conversations about a date have yet to even be considered, and the studio clearly expects the beta to throw up curve balls that will need to be addressed. The open-ended development window (the game began way back in 2013) helps explain the PC-only focus, too. There’s no concern about “generations” with this type of release strategy, knowing that PC gamers will update their rigs as required once the game is out.