holy shit. I LOVE the doom music and this was super depressing/infuriating to read.
TLDR for people who didn't read: Marty Statton, Studio director of ID, created an impossible schedule for Doom Eternal. The music creator called out the issues, was ridiculed and ignored, then was proven correct. So Id studios ended up not paying him for half his work, screwed up the OST, and blamed it all on the music contractor (Mick Gordan). Marty also threatened to hang the balance of any refunds of the game on Mick (the musician) even though Mick was begging for a contract to start work on the OST when it was revealed to be part of the deluxe package at E3 without Mick's knowledge or a contract in place to produce the OST.
Definitely considering sailing the seas on their next game unless they replace that Dbag
just to rub salt in the wound, all the music awards that the musician won in Doom 2016 and doom eternal, he never got to touch. They were received by the dickbag manager and kept in the studio.
Probably. I played it and it just feels very very clunky to me. If DOOM 2016 was about the combos, DOOM Eternal was about the movement, DOOM Dark Ages is about.... block timing with guns?
There's a reason it didn't get nearly as much buzz as the other two shortly after it came out. I didn't see streamers playing it much. I didn't hear anyone talk about it. It was just like OOH DOOM DARK AGES IS COMING OUT and then.......silence.
You could make the argument of "but what about the developers", but if this is how they treat their main music producer, I highly doubt their dev team are treated any better.
That sucks, Mick Gordon is the reason I decided to play Doom at all. Here is the story: I largely ignored Doom my entire life and only decided to play Doom (2016) and Eternal during the pandemic while playing VRChat and someone had a Doom Eternal avatar that started playing the games music whenever you pulled out the weapons. When I pulled out the BFG and heard BFG division for the first time, that was the exact moment I knew I had to play this game and have enjoyed it so much since.
Bethesda actually sided with Gordan and drew up the contract for him to work on the Eternal OST, which was Bethesda's authority to do as the publisher. Id and Bethesda may be sister companies, but Bethesda as the publisher holds a hell of a lot more power over the project than people seem to believe.
Id marketed Gordan's name and attachment to the Eternal OST before they even approached him about working on the Eternal at all and then explicitly refused to let him work on the OST until he had to go straight to Bethesda about it. It wasn't until very late in the whole ordeal that Bethesda started siding with I'd, after lawyers got involved.
kinda true, but I wouldn't phrase it as "bethesda siding with gordon" because it sounds like Bethesda agreed to write a contract mostly to get more work out of him on unrelated projects. It was more of an opportunistic opportunity than a true "taking his side"
Bethesda making up the contract with Gordon was explicitly because of promises made and marketing already done by ID.
Even freelancers have the right to sue for breach of contract and fraud. Corporate types like Marty always act like they can do whatever they want simply because they have money and lawyers, which is why most often the cases come from inside the house so to speak. Gordon provided work so fantastic that he almost instantly became a recognized name to even non-gamers and helped build the proverbial house that ID is using in their current efforts.
Bethesda has always been like that one person in a group project that does nothing and puts their name on it, and everyone prefers it because they saw thwir peojects where they did do something and saw how bad of a trainwreck it was. I like fallout 4 and Skyrim, but they still didn't stack up against actual obsidian fallout titles.
Actually they do own id Software, since 2009. And not only did they slander the name of Mick Gordon but they also called him a liar when Mick tried to out the bad working conditions. So yeah, maybe they do need to be held responsible.
I feel like the term "equal grounds" doesnt truly exist in the corporate realm lol but fuck it then, Microsoft owns all of them so then it's THEIR fault. Better?
When you want to open a window, you might face opposition, but if you suggest tearing down the roof, the other party might just open the window themselves.
Going after chain of command is always the right move.
Except Bethesda is the publisher for every doom game since eat least DOOM 2016 Which means they had more power in any decisions/negotiations with Gordan than ID software at the end of the day. I don't know why you are working so hard to defend a company who's last release was garbage.
Never heard someone be so confidently wrong before. Bethesda are the bigger scum in that situation than ID because it proves they don’t give a shit about workers.
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u/JohnCallOfDuty Aug 29 '26
Doom