Xbox Developer Direct 2024 was an abundance of demos, screenshots, and information about what’s coming to Xbox this year. We’ve got an official reveal for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a release date for Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga, more information about Obsidian’s Avowed, a surprise appearance from Square Enix with an update to Visions of Mana, and an in-depth look at Ara: An Untold History. But fans also spotted something else on MachineGames’ whiteboard: the words Quake 6, next to the famous Quake logo. Naturally, they panic.
The teaser was first spotted on the Quake subreddit, and speculation has already begun about what the new Quake might look like. You can see the logo and title for yourself in Machinegames’ official gameplay reveal at around 11:36, or in the screenshot below.
The weird thing about all of this is that there’s no official Quake 5… unless you count Quake Champions, a free-to-play hero shooter that takes on the classic IP. It could just be a joke on MachineGames’ part.
If not, the only developer qualified to work on the new Quake will likely be the Series Creator ID Program. In addition to bringing id’s other classic shooter genre, DOOM, to modern audiences with its take on Wolfenstein, MachineGames also has a history of working on Quake. The studio made two expansions for the original Quake game – Past Dimensions and Machine Dimensions – which were included in the 2021 remaster. Machinegames also developed 28 new campaign levels and a new Deathmatch level for last year’s Quake 2 remaster. If anyone other than id was going to develop a new Quake, Machinegames seemed like a natural choice.
We’ve reached out to Machinegames for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
Will Borger is a freelance journalist for IGN. You can find him on Twitter bywillborger.