Get a red marker and cross next-gen action game Rage off the early draft of your kid's Christmas list. According to id Software, it won't be arriving in stores this year.

Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id, said that the game will arrive on the PS3, PC, and Xbox 360 in 2010 at the earliest. "When it's done and fun" is the phrase project leader Tom Willits used last summer. To be fair to id, they're pretty busy lately; they just debuted Quake Live and they've helping Raven Software with Wolfenstein.

Rage is said to be a first-person shooter and driver hybrid. It's set in a post-apocalyptic near future, where a comet has struck Earth and made a mess of everything. It sounds a lot more ambitious and story-driven than id's past efforts so they'll need all the extra time they can get their hands on.