Carmageddon website counting down to June 1

SCi's Carmageddon franchise appeared to hit a pileup it would not be walking away from in April 2008, when Eidos reportedly canceled the series' fourth run. Three years on, and it appears as if the comically violent car combat franchise will be given new wheels, as a countdown timer has begun to tick down on what purports to be Carmageddon's official website.

Carmageddon.com indicates that an announcement regarding the franchise will be made at 1 a.m. PT, on June 1. Unfortunately, it includes no additional information on what that teaser campaign is counting down to.

Though the site offers no official markings or branding, a domain-name search indicates that Square Enix, which purchased SCi-parent Eidos Interactive in 2009, initially registered the site in March 2011. However, the domain registration was updated today with a new registrant name, Driving Game IP Ltd.

While possible that the Carmageddon IP has changed hands, it seems likely that Driving Game IP Ltd. is a dummy corporation a la Bungie's recently unearthed Podophobia Entertainment. According to the domain-name information, the new company is registered to what could either be a personal residence or a milk farm in Isle of White, England. That address is less than 8 miles away from original Carmageddon developer Stainless Games.

The fourth installment in the Carmageddon franchise was first teased in 2003, before being officially announced in 2004 and scheduled for release by April 2005. 2K Games later picked up the North American publishing rights to Carmageddon 4 before it was reportedly canceled.

Square Enix had not responded to a request for comment on the matter as of press time. For more information, check out GameSpot's review of Carmageddon 3, which was released for the PC in 2000.