[Update: Still alive] DOOM 4 said to be "indefinitely postponed" due to lackluster RAGE response

[Update: Pete Hines, Bethesda Softworks' VP of PR and Marketing confirmed DOOM 4 isn't postponed, tweeting, "RE: DOOM 4 rumor, games are done when they are done and no title under development at id has been postponed--indefinitely or otherwise.]

id Software's next chapter in the DOOM series has been said to be "indefinitely postponed" due to a less than stellar launch of the recently released RAGE, an anonymous source close to publisher Bethesda Softworks told Kotaku.

RAGE's mixed reviews--low 80s on Metacritic--and technical issues surrounding it has portrayed "a serious lack of confidence in the project management at id" in the eyes of both Bethesda and its parent company Zenimax Media, and launched with a barrage of negative feedback across the PC, resulting in multiple post-launch patches.

DOOM 4 was announced quite a while ago, though was not talked about much during RAGE's development cycle. The last time we heard of DOOM 4 was back in August, when John Carmack revealed the game's single-player component was locked at 30 frames per-second.

Bear in mind, this all comes from the ambiguous "anonymous source" who claims to be close to Bethesda, though the reasoning behind DOOM 4's postponement is quite plausible.

DOOM 4 brings half the frame-rate, but twice the demons

Although id Software's upcoming shooter RAGE will run at a smooth 60 frames-per-second, their next title, DOOM 4, will only run at half of that. Mind you, John Carmack explained this is only in its single-player component, with the multiplayer locked at 60 frames.

The reason? Why, to have twice the amount of demons attacking you at one time, of course!

Carmack added that RAGE is set in 60 frames-per-second because it made sense for the game's driving scenarios, whereas DOOM 4, a game based on "just walking around," wouldn't require it.

Check out Gamasutra's full interview with John Carmack as he talks more about both RAGE and DOOM 4.

Doom 4 Update from QuakeCon 2011

While Rage is appropriately all the rage at this year's QuakeCon--seeing as how it comes out in a few months--people are beginning to still wondering where id Software's other heavy hitting title, Doom 4, has been all these years. Announced back in 2008, we haven't even had a little morsel to whet our appetites yet, and id Software president Todd Hollenshead says we still have some waiting to do.

"id Tech 5 is the basis for Doom 4, and I guess infer what you will...," says Hollenshead. "What we're really focused on is getting Rage out the door. Once we're to that point, then we want to transition to how we're going to present Doom 4, what are the talking points, how do we introduce it. Because that stuff hasn't even been determined yet. We're talking about that internally."

Hollenshead ended the topic stating, "I know everybody's interested. I am too."

Guess we still have quite a bit of waiting ahead of us, hm?