Nearly five years after it was officially announced and nine years after the release of Doom 3, we've heard precious little about the development of Id Software's Doom 4. It seems that silence has masked a troubled development cycle that has been restarted at least once and is currently not all that close to being finished.
Kotaku talked to a number of unnamed sources "with connections to the Id Software-developed game" and lays out a tale of mismanaged resources and distractions. Chief among these distractions was Rage, the 2011 release that developer Id thought would put it back on top of the first-person shooter heap. When that game was savaged by harsh reviews and low sales, Id reportedly halted plans for DLC and a sequel and refocused the entire company on Doom 4, which had largely languished during the work on Rage.
“I kinda think maybe the studio heads were so distracted on shipping Rage that they were blind to the happenings of Doom, and the black hole of mediocrity [the team] was swirling around,” one source told Kotaku.
Internal politics reportedly sapped the focus that was supposed to come post-Rage, with one source describing a "power struggle" during the merging of the Rage and Doom teams within Id. Other sources reported the departure of top talent on the game throughout 2012, and a game design that quickly evolved into a disorganized, sprawling mess. Id parent company Zenimax, meanwhile, has reportedly been pushing for Doom 4 to be as big as Skyrim (from Zenimax's Bethesda) and has warned Id to get the project moving, "or else."
Officially, Bethesda's Pete Hines admitted that "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." Unofficially, the game is now being targeted for the next generation of consoles and doesn't seem likely to be ready any time soon.
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