In Bethesda's Indiana Jones and the Great Circle reveal, if you freeze frame on a brief shot of a whiteboard in the office of developer MachineGames, you might spot a teaser for Quake 6 - an FPS revival fans have wanted for 19 years.
Well, more specifically, you'll see "AKE 6" spelled out on the board, but the letters are sitting just above the old Quake logo, so I think we can safely make some assumptions about what the full word is meant to be. Check out the video below at the 11:35 mark if you want to see for yourself. The whiteboard also features a few sketches for what appear to be puzzles in the new Indiana Jones game, but hey, I guess they could be, like, target practice arenas for a new Quake.
You should not take this as an indication that MachineGames - or any other Bethesda studio - is necessarily working on a new Quake right now. This could easily be a quick little Easter egg meant to draw some buzz among classic FPS fans on social media, and the mission has definitely been accomplished on that front. But if Quake 6 is in the works, well… It's been a long time coming.
The last numbered entry in the series was Quake 4, way back in 2005. The fifth Quake title, then, would be Quake Champions, originally released into Early Access in 2017 before its proper launch in 2022. Champions initially courted controversy from longtime series fans for its introduction of Overwatch-style hero abilities, but eventually the general reception mellowed to something like 'pretty good' - but still, it was never able to maintain a robust playerbase.
With successful reboots for Wolfenstein and Doom both now under Bethesda's belt, a similar revival for the third pillar of FPS gaming is exciting to imagine - doubly so if you think about what MachineGames could do with the project. The studio recently delved into that world with brand-new content in the excellent Quake 2 remaster. Just, uh… is Wolfenstein 3 ever going to happen?
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