From the looks of it, legendary development studio id Software is working on a new version of its proprietary game engine – id Tech 8.
The Texas-based studio is responsible for some of the most popular shooter franchises in the gaming industry, including the Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake series and a new version of the studio’s game engine appears to be on its way. At least, according to a resume from an engine programmer at the studio. On Linkedin, the programmer, who has been working at id Software since 2019, briefly mentioned “id Tech 8” in the about section. This reference has been edited and now only reads “id Tech”. Luckily, gaming industry job spotter ‘Timur222’ screenshotted the reference, although this tweet has also since been deleted. A screenshot from the industry job spotter can be found below:
“decided to remove the Id tech 8 post of mine”, he now writes on Twitter. “Been asked”.
2020’s Doom Eternal was the first game to make use of the most recent version of id Software’s engine – id Tech 7. Prior to the game’s launch, id Software already talked about considering upgrading the engine. “But when we’re talking about getting DOOM Eternal out there and getting it out as close to on time as possible and at the highest polish and quality, we kind of had to pull back on that effort”, Executive Producer Marty Stratton said in 2020. “So it is something that they’re like literally just about ready to start looking at again and actually have some interesting ideas. I don’t want to go too far down that path because who knows what exactly we do, but there’s more that you can use the technology for than just, you know, the reflections, the shadows, and the real-time lighting. They have some really cool ideas that I think will not only just make it a better experience for players, but actually, you know some of what they’re talking about will make it better and easier to create experiences for developers.”
Interestingly, back in 2021, Xbox boss Phil Spencer teased that id Software’s game engine could be used by Xbox Game Studios going forward. “The other thing that we haven’t really talked about is the future of idTech and what could that mean inside of Xbox”, Spencer said. “Obviously, you know, we’ve got a ton of studios doing a bunch of different work. I love the way Marty Stratton talked about how they’ve collaborated with our Bethesda studios on idTech and I just think about that to the next level. Like, what can we do inside of our organization with idTech, which is one of the world’s best game engines out there, and just make it a tool that so many developers can use to realize their vision.”
We’ll update you as soon as more information about id Software’s game engine comes in.
