Quake Live Name Change Explained
While the web-based Quake game was originally titled Quake Zero, the name was abruptly changed to Quake Live without any explanation whatsoever. That was until today, when John Carmack of id Software revealed that the name was changed due to a domain name squatter.
“This was an idea we had mere weeks before QuakeCon,” said Carmack. It was then an anonymous individual had purchased the Quake Zero internet domain names.
“They offered us a considered buyout option for it,” he added. “We just decided heck, we’re only a few months into development of this, we’ll just change the name.”