Release date poll

[Deathmatcher]

I know, this is a lame question that has been discussed 1000 times before, but I would like to know: What do you think about the "summer 2004" release date? Is it true? When will Doom3 (pc) be out, in:

1: June
2: July
3: August
4: September

5: Later than Sep.


----
personally, I think it`s 3 to 4

[Russell_P]

Old, old, old, old, old!

A more interesting poll would be How many members do you think the Doomworld Forums will have on the day before Doom3's release?. I'll take a stab at 5000.

Maybe we should run some sort of sweepstake?

[Lutrov71]

Later than September.

[Skeletor]

how many members do we have now?

anyways i would say august

[Janderson]

Around three point five thousand.

June.

[unknown imp]

August, around the end of the month..

[Lord FlatHead]

Well I don't know, because I'm not an employee of either id Software or Activision. But all the rumors lately have been saying July or August - which is fine by me.

[Arno]

My bet is on August.

And I'd expect around 7,000 forum members the day before the release.

[DoomUK]

As long as I've got my shiny new Geforce 6800 just prior to the games release then July/August sounds fine.

[grutsch]

end of july

[Disorder]

Early August.

[Revenant!]

mid July

[Amaster]

Middle of August to early September.

[Sephiroth]

i want to say later than september. though we have been told mid july, 7-20th. however this is information i should not be sharing but like they are gonna know. and this is what we have been told, so i dont know who said it. the last time i checked our site it was july 14th.

however if Id does not release by september, Id is added to best buy's shit list. valve and 3drealms are up top as far as gaming goes. infact i think both ATI and best buy are very upset with valve over HL2. they are putting alot more faith into Id though. however i have said it before most game companies have shity buisness sence or structure and that includes Id. they have been luck so far. but i seem doom 3 is showing the cracks.

all i can really say is wait an see. i will say that by the time doom III is released i think the features will not be so new and shocking.

[Grazza]

When it's done(tm).

[chilvence]

Sometime in the future.

[Skeletor]

i will say that by the time doom III is released i think the features will not be so new and shocking.

They already aren't. I think we've seen everything. The graphics engine, some of the weapons, gibbing, lighting, etc. What else is there to see? All I'm expecting is to walk around a facility and shoot zombies and demons and get the shit scared out of me. I guess the only thing that we haven't really seen is hell, just very sketchy screenshots of it.

about valve, they pretty much showed off everything with their 20 min previews on the game.

[Coopersville]

I say late August.

But I'd be getting the XBOX version and don't care about that. I vote around late October to mid-December for its console version.

[Sephiroth]

i think the console release is gonna be out within a week or 2 of the PC version.

honestly i think they are done with doom3, and had been for some time. well other than some last minute testing and patching. i wouldn't dout if most of the game had been finished in febuary.

anyways dont see a date beyond 2004, if it does go into next year. well i would say Id really screwed up

[Melfice]

Sephiroth said:

i think the console release is gonna be out within a week or 2 of the PC version.

honestly i think they are done with doom3, and had been for some time. well other than some last minute testing and patching. i wouldn't dout if most of the game had been finished in febuary.

anyways dont see a date beyond 2004, if it does go into next year. well i would say Id really screwed up

I agree with you about them being done, and my opinions in various threads reflect this. IMO its all about marketing stragegy. As for the console version, here's hoping it'll be out that soon, as I alng with Coopersville will be getting it for my X-Box.

[edwhatever]

...has anybody seen the number of staffers at ID? It appears to be not very many folks working on this thing which, to me, means slooowww rate of production, fixes, etc. Or is this the standard # of staff to produce a game? I don't know, I won't pretend to. Just curious if this could be what keeps the game off the shelves and in our greedy hands. I mean, if one guy has done all the art or whatever and another guy is behind in some other department, can the art guy step in or it's "sorry, pal. I don't have the skills to do the job." Just a thought...

[Melfice]

wtf are you going on about?

[niguel]

tomorrow.

[Sephiroth]

there are many things hinting that the game has been done for the most part. the one that really tipped my off was when splash damage dumped their enemy territory project, i think at the time they where talking with Id about doom III and where asked if they wanted to work on parts of it.
they saw they would make far more money on that than any rtcw addon pack.

another is the fact that the console and PC version are really suppose to hit the shelves together, at the same time. the X-box may have the best hardware as of now, but still they really need to cut and trime alot of stuff down so it would run good. for them to develope the console version they need a 99% completed engine and at least a good portion of the single player game, at least all texture, modles and maps. sounds could be finished later.

just going on guesses here, so here they go
doom III single player and engine was for the most part finished last year, end of summer to mid fall. work on muiltiplayer began in early summer, some time just before ET's release i imagine.
also within that time frame codeing work and ground laying work really took off for the X-box.
sounds, last minute debugging, testing amd tweaking continued until april-may. now it is just a matter of marketing.

they need to work out production and distribution, just like everyone else. working at best buy has showed me more about the production and distribution end of music and games. if you think about it they will need atleast 300,000 copies of the game at release if not more, lets say 500,000. they do these in batches for the most part. the initial release is usally large, then a second release of say 150,000 3 weeks later, then maybe a year of releaseing 50,000 copies every month. each batch size and times of release need to be anticipated, un-popular, new or no name games/music may only have a start release of 75,000. some stuff may have only and initial release that year if there is no demand. the producer may make more if there is a need or want for the product. they learned after making ET back in 83-84, i think they made 12 million carts for only the esitmated 8 million 2600's. also into the mix is CD keys and other copy protections. so right now, after april-may it has been in the hands of those in charge of distributions

[Captain_obvious]

"they need to work out production and distribution, just like everyone else. "
It takes no more then 2 weeks to make enough copies for a game, and being it is activision making them, if they have nothing else to print, they could likely do it in 1. After id prints the Gold copy IT IS TOTALLY OUT OF THERE HANDS, Activision does all the work. No one at id worrys about distribution/marketing, except for granting previews, and press interviews.


"has anybody seen the number of staffers at ID? It appears to be not very many folks working on this thing which, to me, means slooowww rate of production, fixes, etc."

Actually, with less programmers it tends to be much easier to manage code. Nearly every single iD game has been produced with less/same amount of people. FYI valve has around 100 staffers for half life 2, and if anyone remebers how complete the game was in 2003 after 5 years of development...


"Id is added to best buy's shit list. valve and 3drealms are up top as far as gaming goes."

Best Buy doesnt have a Corporate shit list, they sell everything that will net profits, the same as every single retailer to have ever existed. They will have massive posters/displays for all the popular games that are going to be released, just like everyone else.

Courting retailers is not at all necessary if you have publisher. Even though the retailers have the last word, they do a by the books allocation of shelf space. If they think that doom 3 will sell 2 million copys, and half life 2 will sell 4 million, they will allocate twice as much space for half life 2. If doom 3 was the only item best buy sold, then maybe they would think like that.

"doom III single player and engine was for the most part finished last year, end of summer to mid fall."

It was stated in a February interview that they still had 3 incomplete single player maps(out of 28). Considering they have only 2 mappers, and that they have been at a constant pace of development, and that all maps take exactly the same time, as well as that they started in late 2001 developing maps. And also taking into consideration that the artists have to do there work on maps as well(custom textures 1 month~ after map is completed is finished.

28 months of development as of(02/04). / 12 completed maps per mapper = 2 months per map + 1 month of custom texture content creation. And since mappers rarely work on the same map together, We can deduce that the final map is still being worked on at this point. And should be finished in August. Although, since the mappers now know the Doom 3 engine better, it should actually be finished much sooner, as it is likely that they, along with the texture artists, have had a great increase in productivity. But at the same time, they may have been able to produce maps in early 2001

This doesnt take into account unfinished Graphics, unfinished/buggy code, which we know nothing about, except that a certain illegal copy of the game that was produced for early 2002 had roughly 9 Different character models, of which 5 where monsters.

"another is the fact that the console and PC version are really suppose to hit the shelves together, at the same time. "

According to id and nerve they should be released 3 or so months apart, with the pc version first.


OH, and it is june 14. GO TO HELL GAMESTOP!

[Deathmatcher]

edwhatever said:

...has anybody seen the number of staffers at ID? It appears to be not very many folks working on this thing which, to me, means slooowww rate of production, fixes, etc. Or is this the standard # of staff to produce a game? I don't know, I won't pretend to. Just curious if this could be what keeps the game off the shelves and in our greedy hands. I mean, if one guy has done all the art or whatever and another guy is behind in some other department, can the art guy step in or it's "sorry, pal. I don't have the skills to do the job." Just a thought...

Actually, the id team for doom3 is bigger than ever before.

The development time is also longer than ever before, though.

[Skeletor]

edwhatever said:

...has anybody seen the number of staffers at ID? It appears to be not very many folks working on this thing which, to me, means slooowww rate of production, fixes, etc. Or is this the standard # of staff to produce a game? I don't know, I won't pretend to. Just curious if this could be what keeps the game off the shelves and in our greedy hands. I mean, if one guy has done all the art or whatever and another guy is behind in some other department, can the art guy step in or it's "sorry, pal. I don't have the skills to do the job." Just a thought...

I think less staff is better. The more programmers there are, the longer and more difficult it is to merge code together.

[insertwackynamehere]

After the video game industry boycott of 2004 (which had been built up over the last couple of years) humanity went into a period of apocolyptic war, and as the programmers died they transfered thier power to the apes, through the nuclear atmosphere created in the war. And the the Planet of the Apes was born as the last bit of humanity died out, leaving few remnants.

[Coopersville]

Deus Ex 2 came out on XBOX only a week after is was released on PC. That's what keeps me hoping for a soon delivery on the console version of Doom 3.

[Melfice]

Captain_obvious said:

A bunch of stupid shit

Get a life and quit over analyzing peoples post.

I agree with what Sephiroth says, and he knows what he's talking about. He working at Best Buy with more knowledge of marketing in games has more proof and credibility behind his word and opinion than people who need to get a life that blindly break down and over-analyze a post. What do you want as a reward? A cookie, or a good bullet to the face?