Todd Hollenshead Q&A

id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead sits down to chat with the guys over at Worth Playing for a spell, and what results is a fairly frank and quite interesting run down on Hollenhead’s views of the industry. They discuss his thoughts on MMO’s and the possibility of  id breaking into the market (nil), the fact that videogames need to distinguish themselves from the influence of the motion picture medium (shades of Jaffe), online distribution of games, and of course future titles and his feelings about how the DOOM movie panned out (Quake movie anyone?).

Here are a few tasty snippets:

WP: Can we assume that all future id titles will be slated for simultaneous release on both the PC and Xbox 360?

TH: ET:QW is only in development for the PC currently. The next Wolf game is using the 360 as its primary development platform, but will be released on the PC as well. We’re looking at PS3, 360 and PC for our internal project, but it’s too early to guess on whether we’ll have all of those ready to go at the same time. It would be nice if it works out where the launch is simultaneous, but I don’t know if that’s feasible.

WP: In regards to the new intellectual property that you are working on, will this be your next announced title, or is it still a ways off?

TH: The new IP project is the main focus of the development team at id. We have the other projects that we’re working on, like Wolf, ET:QW, and our efforts in the mobile phone games, but those are all using other teams as the primary development resource. I’m not sure when we’ll begin discussing details of the new IP, but it will be the next game developed entirely by id and it WILL be cool.

WP: In light of the success of the DOOM movie, have you considered making QUAKE into one?

TH: The DOOM movie was a blast. Universal just sent me the DVD, but I need to get Karl (Urban) and The Rock to autograph it for me! The next movie deal that I want to focus on is Wolfenstein. I think it could make a great film. It’s been optioned previously, but now we have the rights back again. I’m hoping that once the game development gets some exposure that interest in Hollywood will perk up. I think QUAKE could make a cool film too, but the story across all the games isn’t as consistent as what’s behind Wolf and DOOM. That makes it a more difficult sell to Hollywood, where many may think of QUAKE only as a multiplayer game franchise. Continuing to build the story with games like QUAKE 4 will hopefully help out.

You can read the rest of the interview after the jump.
id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead sits down to chat with the guys over at Worth Playing for a spell, and what results is a fairly frank and quite interesting run down on Hollenhead’s views of the industry. They discuss his thoughts on MMO’s and the possibility of  id breaking into the market (nil), the fact that videogames need to distinguish themselves from the influence of the motion picture medium (shades of Jaffe), online distribution of games, and of course future titles and his feelings about how the DOOM movie panned out (Quake movie anyone?).

Here are a few tasty snippets:

WP: Can we assume that all future id titles will be slated for simultaneous release on both the PC and Xbox 360?

TH: ET:QW is only in development for the PC currently. The next Wolf game is using the 360 as its primary development platform, but will be released on the PC as well. We’re looking at PS3, 360 and PC for our internal project, but it’s too early to guess on whether we’ll have all of those ready to go at the same time. It would be nice if it works out where the launch is simultaneous, but I don’t know if that’s feasible.

WP: In regards to the new intellectual property that you are working on, will this be your next announced title, or is it still a ways off?

TH: The new IP project is the main focus of the development team at id. We have the other projects that we’re working on, like Wolf, ET:QW, and our efforts in the mobile phone games, but those are all using other teams as the primary development resource. I’m not sure when we’ll begin discussing details of the new IP, but it will be the next game developed entirely by id and it WILL be cool.

WP: In light of the success of the DOOM movie, have you considered making QUAKE into one?

TH: The DOOM movie was a blast. Universal just sent me the DVD, but I need to get Karl (Urban) and The Rock to autograph it for me! The next movie deal that I want to focus on is Wolfenstein. I think it could make a great film. It’s been optioned previously, but now we have the rights back again. I’m hoping that once the game development gets some exposure that interest in Hollywood will perk up. I think QUAKE could make a cool film too, but the story across all the games isn’t as consistent as what’s behind Wolf and DOOM. That makes it a more difficult sell to Hollywood, where many may think of QUAKE only as a multiplayer game franchise. Continuing to build the story with games like QUAKE 4 will hopefully help out.

You can read the rest of the interview after the jump.