Doom 4 development: what’s going on?

Bethesda has posted an update on the development status of Doom 4, and it appears that there have been quite a few things going on behind the scenes.

The news reveals that, as fans had feared, Doom 4’s development was not going so smoothly due to the focus and direction of the team.

“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 Pete Hines, Bethesda vice president. “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.”

It’s said that the some of the negligence on the development of Doom 4 was due to the focus on id’s other project, Rage.

“Rage came out, and it wasn’t the splash success that everyone hoped it would be,” according to one source close to the game development. “Eventually what kind of came down was, [Bethesda parent] ZeniMax said, ‘Okay, look, we gave you guys a bunch of chances and you guys are having a lot of trouble managing multiple projects, so you guys are gonna have one project: Just do Doom 4.'”

The source also explained that Doom 4 is still a goal at id Software, and the developer knows that the fans are expecting it.

“They’ll keep Doom 4 going,” the source said. “They really believe that if they can get the internal strife and disorganization ironed out, Doom 4 has a lot of value… What eventually emerges could be anyone’s guess.”

The source claimed that Doom 4 is now planned for next-gen consoles.