E3: Doom III to be a small-screen summer blockbuster

13 May 2004 16:34 GMT / By Kenneth Henry

The conventional wisdom is that no-one wants to play games in summer, so for years the industry created a self-imposed release drought from the end of June up to the August Bank Holiday. In the case of Tron 2.0, the delay went on for a whole extra month and the potential audience of the game vanished.

Perhaps encouraged by Warcraft III The Frozen Throne and Neverwinter Nights Shadows of Unrentide both selling a million copies each from a summer release last year, Activision confirmed that Doom III will receive a summer release in 2004, and although the date wasn't specific we hope that makes it during July or August.

If the originators of the science-fiction FPS plant their latest, guaranteed-bestselling sequel in summer, here's hoping the fallacy is put to rest once and for all throughout the industry- after all there's no football and only last summer presented consistently good weather. Late at night people will still be renting movies and playing games, so it makes sense to sell them what you've got if they're not going on holiday.

One thing's for sure- we'll put a couple of extra fans in the case and review this game whenever it arrives.

Full tags

Gaming, PC games, FPS, id Software