XBLA Quake III Arena "very close" to being finished

id hero John Carmack's told Joystiq that an XBLA version of Quake III Arena is almost done, although he's failed to provide a specific release date. From the site:

Despite being first spotted on the ESRB's leak-prone website nearly two years ago, and officially confirmed at QuakeCon over 18 months ago, id's John Carmack assures us that Pi Studios – developers behind the Xbox Live Arcade release of classic multiplayer shooter Quake 3 Arena – is "actually very close to finishing that up." He didn't identify any specific reasons for the delay, but said that the developer had "different things come up at different times" like having to "shift people onto different projects."

The news comes as Quake Live opens up its beta to all.

More through there.