[Edward Kirk]

John Carmack of id Software, creators of the classic game Doom, says that their company is currently working on an original game to be released exclusively for the iPhone and iPod Touch. He also notes that they were hoping to have it done in time for the App Store's launch, but that scheduling and resources didn't line up in time to make it happen.

"I really regret not having something at launch," says Carmack. Still, he adds that they are looking forward to releasing their game for the Apple handheld.

"We have a title we want to develop exclusively for iPhone," he says. "I'm not announcing anything specifically, but it would be a graphical tour de force."

Anna Kang, president of id Mobile, notes that "it would not be a new IP,"but would instead fit in with one of their earlier titles, which includes Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein, and Orcs & Elves.

Carmack also praises the iPhone line as particularly appealing, in part because it allows games to be dozens of megabytes in file size due to it's large storage capacity, rather than the kilobytes that most phones' on-board storage allows for. He also says that the iPhone is unusually powerful for it's size.

"The iPhone, as a device, is in the same generation power-wise as the PS2 or Xbox," he says. "The graphics are a little lower but the RAM is a lot higher. … You could easily spend $10 million on an iPhone game, but the market just can't support that yet."

He also said that they are looking into the possibility of creating a Massively multiplayer (MMO) game through cellphones. "I want to go step by step -- where we do a multiplayer game, then multiplayer with some persistence, then maybe further," Carmack said.

[via Forbes]

[warlock]

I can't wait for it to come out. If its really comparable to PS2 an Xbox ill be amazed. but from what ive seen from 'id' i wouldn't be surprised.

Originally Posted by warlock

I can't wait for it to come out. If its really comparable to PS2 an Xbox ill be amazed. but from what ive seen from 'id' i wouldn't be surprised.

I think it's important to point out that id has been making cell phone games for quite some time now. Don't expect a Quake-type game; it's most likely going to be closer to their other cell phone games, rather than to their PC games.

[Edward Kirk]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I think it's important to point out that id has been making cell phone games for quite some time now. Don't expect a Quake-type game; it's most likely going to be closer to their other cell phone games, rather than to their PC games.

This is not true. It is apparent from John Carmack's statements in the interview that this is going to be much more graphics intense than their other mobile games, and will most likely more closely resemble some of their games for the PC, so a Doom or Quake variant is not out of the question by any means.

Originally Posted by Edward Kirk

This is not true.

And you know that because you *are* John Carmack, right? He explicitly said that the market would not yet support expensive games. Anyway, I'm not trying to argue, just pointing out that "id" doesn't automatically mean "Doom" and that the cell phone games market is nothing new for id.