During Activisions's financial quarterly conference call, company execs updated their 2003 release calendar and the long anticipated id Software first person shooter Doom III was not among the games planned for release this year. During the conference call, the execs stated that for planning purposes they have Doom III pencilled in for the fourth quarter 2004 fiscal year (Jan-March 2004) but added that id Software, not Activision, dictates when the game will finally be released.
Although this is not an official statement, it gives us a pretty good hint that next-gen Doom won't become available this holiday season... which would give us plenty of time to dedicate to Half-Life 2 still slated for this Sept. 30th. On a positive note however, it's been made clear that id guys have the call, I would expect a pretty solid game once it makes the store shelves.