Might QuakeCon's Big Announcement be Quake 5?

Oh my. One of our game-related contacts, Evolve PR, has posted an interesting tease on Twitter, leading to speculation that id Software may announce the development of Quake 5 next month at QuakeCon 2012. If true, Evolve PR's involvement would indicate that the game may be outsourced to another developer much like Quake 4 was mostly handled by Raven Software.

"Going to QuakeCon? We'll be revealing the revival of a much-loved classic PC shooter at the show. What could it be?" Evolve PR teases on Twitter.

But according to Evolve PR, the Twitter tease has nothing to do with the Quake franchise. "I think the root of the rumor is that [Evolve PR] said we'd be unveiling the return of a classic shooter... but... that's about it," the company told Tom's. "People kinda ran with it... in the wrong direction."

Naturally we couldn't get at least a hint of a clue, but for now the Quake 5 rumor has been eradicated at least on Evolve PR's front. Whether id Software actually plans to announce another Quake installment is currently unknown -- that would be officially announced by Bethesda, not a 3rd-party PR firm.

The current Quake rumor is likely fueled by comments made by John Carmack over a year ago who confirmed at the time that another Quake title was not in the works. Yet he admitted that there were "strong factions" within the studio that want to create another Quake title, one that goes back to the gritty, Lovecraftian roots that started it all.

"We went from the Quake 2 and the Quake 4 Strogg universe," he said. "We are at least tossing around the possibilities of going back to the bizarre, mixed up Cthulhu-ish Quake 1 world and rebooting that direction. We think that would be a more interesting direction than doing more Strogg stuff after Quake 4. We certainly have strong factions internally that want to go do this. But we could do something pretty grand like that, that still tweaks the memory right in all of those ways, but is actually cohesive and plays with all of the strengths of the level we're at right now."

"People shouldn't worry that we're ever going to orphan or abandon Quake," id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead added. "We are huge fans of the game internally."

Until now, it's assumed that id Software would officially reveal Doom 4 during QuakeCon 2012 next month. Despite the Evolve PR rumor misfire, we're still hoping the team will announce the development of Quake 5 regardless. Still, what does Evolve PR plan to announce during the show? The return to Commander Keen? Catacombs 3D? The Twitter tease actually doesn't say the revival is id Software related...