Having just played some QuakeLive, it hit me… All this work in producing a new engine–even if it’s browser based, which is a novelty in itself–the reworking an old game like Quake 3 to demo it… There just isn’t any monetary value for id software. So why bother at all, aside from the fact that Quake 3 it may have been the greatest game ever and probably deserves the work–nobody really cares. New rendering and networking engines crop up all the time. And then I realised, QuakeLive will be the first game of its calibre EVER that truly cannot be copied, pirated, cracked or hacked (well, maybe hacked is an option insofar as compromising accounts or cheating goes). There simply isn’t anything to copy or upload to FTPs, all the code remains at the remote end!

So, I imagine id software are feeling pretty good about themselves right about now, how hard a sale is it–how many games development companies can afford to not want to safeguard their work and maximise their earning potential? Great, great idea… Oh, and you can show browser adverts. That’s your upsale right there. What’s next, in-game advertising? Surely not…