In development for the past five years, Doom 4 has recently been given a reboot, but is still far from complete according to publisher Bethesda.
Bethesda’s Vice President of Marketing Pete Hines has confirmed that Doom 4 is still in development, with numerous other sources suggesting that the game will launch on next-generation consoles like the PS4.
“An earlier version of Doom 4 did not exhibit the quality and excitement that Id and Bethesda intend to deliver and that Doom fans worldwide expect,” said Hines in a statement. “As a result, Id refocused its efforts on a new version of Doom 4 that promises to meet the very high expectations everyone has for this game and this franchise.”
“When we’re ready to talk about the Doom 4 Id is making, we will let folks know.”
Sources speaking to Kotaku suggested that Doom 4 received a reboot in late 2011, after Id had finished Rage and decided Doom 4 didn’t live up to any of their expectations. In fact, all of the Kotaku sources said ID was full of talent, but lacked drive and direction due to politics and mismanagement in the senior members of staff.
“It was a long overdue reboot that was accompanied by internal team management changes,” one source said. “Morale got a lot better during this short time as people were encouraged to participate and there were cool ideas floating around.”
As of January last year, after the abandoning of the Rage 2 sequel, Id studios staff were asked to cancel or postpone any other projects in an attempt to get Doom 4 on the road properly.
An executive from ZeniMax, Id’s parent company, even told developers that Doom 4 “can and should be as big as [The Elder Scrolls V:] Skyrim”, especially in terms of sales and consumer impact. To put this in perspective, Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim sold 7 million copies in the week immediately after launch.
“They’ll keep Doom 4 going,” another source added. “They really believe that if they can get the internal strife and disorganisation ironed out, Doom 4 has a lot of value… What eventually emerges could be anyone’s guess.”
