The Xbox Developer Direct 2024 was a cornucopia of reveals, footage, and information about what’s coming to Xbox this year. We got a formal reveal of 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 on Visions of Mana, and an in-depth look at Ara: History Untold. But fans also spotted something else on MachineGames’ whiteboard: the words Quake 6, right next to the iconic Quake logo. Naturally, they’re freaking out.
The tease was first spotted on the Quake subreddit, and speculation for what a new Quake might look like has already started. You can see the logo and title for yourself in Machinegames’ Official Gameplay reveal at about 11:36 in, or in the screenshot below.
The odd thing about all of this is that there isn’t officially a Quake 5… unless you count Quake Champions, a free-to-play, hero shooter take on the classic IP. It could just be a jest on MachineGames’ part.
If it’s not, though, the only developer more qualified to work on a new Quake is probably series creator id Software. In addition to bringing id’s other-other-classic-shooter-franchise-not-named-DOOM to modern audiences with their take on Wolfenstein, MachineGames also has a history of working on Quake. The studio made two expansions for the original Quake – Dimension of the Past and Dimension of the Machine – which were included in the 2021 remaster. Machinegames also developed 28 new campaign levels and a new Deathmatch level for last year’s remaster of Quake 2. If anyone besides id is going to develop a new Quake, Machinegames seems like a natural choice.
We’ve reached out to Machinegames for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
Will Borger is an IGN freelancer. You can find him on Twitter @bywillborger.