Microsoft’s 2024 Developer_Direct streaming event was full of new info for four of the company’s upcoming first-party titles for the next 12 months. However, it looks like Microsoft might have put in a quick, but still noticeable teaser, for another unannounced first-party game in the video presentation.
Starting at around the 44:43 mark of the 2024 Developer_Direct video, as part of the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game reveal, the camera lingers on a whiteboard at what we assume to be located at developer MachineGames. On the far left, there’s an unmistakable Quake symbol on the board, and we see “AKE 6” right above it.
The way the camera pauses on that whiteboard for a couple of seconds makes it fairly clear that MachineGames, and also Bethesda Softworks and Microsoft, wanted people to notice the Quake symbol and the name above it. It’s looking like MachineGames is also working on a new game in the first-person shooter series.
Of course, MachineGames is well versed in working with id Software IP, as the developer has already made a number of critically acclaimed games in the Wolfenstein series. The team also made new episodes for the first two Quake games when they were remastered and released for the PC and modern consoles (Quake: Dimension of the Machine in 2021 and Quake II: Call of the Machine in 2023).
id Software developed the first three games in the sci-fi themed Quake series, starting in 1996. Quake IV, released in 2005, was mostly developed by Raven Software. A spin-off game, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, was developed by Splash Damage and released in 2007. The game that’s considered to be the fifth mainline title in the series, the multiplayer PC shooter Quake: Champions, launched in 2017 in early access, and was co-developed by id and Saber Interactive. It was turned into a free-to-play game in 2018 and continues to get content updates.