RAGE delayed to 2011

RAGE delayed to 2011
Wesley Yin-Poole Updated on by

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RAGE, the hotly anticipated PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 first-person shooter from legendary developer id Software, has been delayed to 2011.

id, a developer famous for taking longer than most to make games, said RAGE has been pushed back because new owner Bethesda afforded the studio the time and money “to do better stuff”.

RAGE, unveiled in 2007, was set to be published by EA before Fallout 3 creator Bethesda bought id Software in December 2009. Under EA, it was slated for release this year.

Following Bethesda’s high-profile acquisition of id Software, it changed RAGE’s release date to ‘TBC’.

However, during a Gamers Day event in France last week, id announced that RAGE will now be released next year.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com after the announcement, lead designer Tim Willits took the opportunity to explain the game’s delay to patient fans who will no doubt be disappointed that they will have to wait even longer than expected for id’s next title.

“In the past we worked and released it when it’s done,” he said.

“But there were always pressures to try to get it done as quickly as possible – some internal, some external.

“The great thing about being a part of the Zenimax/Bethesda family is they’re like, listen, you guys make the best game you can make. We won’t get in the way, and we’ll get you what you need. So John Carmack [technical director] can focus on making awesome, and we can focus on making the game as great as we can.”

He added: “We’ve actually added some stuff that we weren’t planning on having. But we were like hey, we have this opportunity, we have more resources, let’s see if we can go better on this. Ultimately that works out better for the fans. Then plus we also looked at our line-up and where things were slated to ship, which also has some input.

“But really the big factor is they’ve given us the opportunity to do better stuff and to make it even more polished. If we screw this up it would be horrible. It is a brand new IP. We have a lot riding on this and we need to make sure it’s awesome.”

Two games are confirmed to be in development at id: RAGE and Doom 4. Currently, Doom 4 is without a release date. Willits dodged questions on when we’ll see more of the anticipated follow-up.

RAGE, which is being developed on id’s long-awaited next-generation game engine, id Tech 5, looks absolutely stunning. Be sure to check out our impressions from Bethesda’s Gamers Day preview event, as well as loads of new screen shots, right here.