Doom 4 being rebuilt for next-gen, Rage 2 canceled;Id Software in trouble

[maxy]

Long read

http://kotaku.com/five-years-and-nothing-to-show-how-doom-4-got-off-trac-468097062

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-03-bethesda-confirms-work-on-a-new-version-of-doom-4-plans-for-rage-2-ditched

[Stoney Mason]

Yeah I was going to post this. Not a surprise. They haven't been right as a company for a long time. Honestly I don't think they ever will be. They should have focused on being an engine tech company.

[mjemirzian]

At this point I'd rather buy the next Serious Sam (a doom knockoff) than the next desperate attempt to turn Doom into a modern grimdark shooter.

[Great Rumbler]

Sad to see, but not surprising. Rage had some great tech behind it [when it worked right], but the game had problem with lack of focus and direction [open world? didn't work. vehicles? no real point. multiplayer? derp]. Bethesda will probably have to clean house and, unfortunately, they could mean some top people getting shoved aside.

And chain Carmack to his desk until he finish a new, awesome engine that's awesome.

[Stoney Mason]

I think them being so tech focused is the problem. Carmack has always been the tail wagging the dog. Or if they are going to be that way then the approach should be a lot more focused. One game. License the engine or make it the company wide standard ala frostbite so you are leveraging the costs. The company seems like its run as a vanity project for Carmack instead of how a real modern company should be run.

[bork]

Rage sucked.

Don't make an open world wannabe.  Don't make a monster closet game.

Just make a good fuckin' DOOM game.  One dude shooting and killing shitloads of monsters. 

[Stoney Mason]

Just make a good fuckin' DOOM game.  One dude shooting and killing shitloads of monsters.

I don't think they know how to make such a thing in a modern context without it seeming to be utterly retro and not relevant to the modern audience.

[Don Flamenco]

bring back the old level design.  what's old is new again and better than the bullshit FPS that people currently play.

[Stoney Mason]

bring back the old level design.  what's old is new again and better than the bullshit FPS that people currently play.

That may or may not be the way to do it but then I don't have millions of dollars invested in the decision. There is an audience that would welcome such a thing. I'm not sure if that audience is large enough to justify the costs they have sunk into it.

[Diunx]

Shocking news

[bork]

bring back the old level design.  what's old is new again and better than the bullshit FPS that people currently play.

That may or may not be the way to do it but then I don't have millions of dollars invested in the decision. There is an audience that would welcome such a thing. I'm not sure if that audience is large enough to justify the costs they have sunk into it.

1. Old-school level design and crazy amounts of monsters
2. 4P co-op (already been done before, so shouldn't be a problem)
3. Add a more modernized deathmatch mode with CoD rip-off progression stuff for the kiddies
4. Profit

[Positive Touch]

would work as a discount digital download title, but i dont see people running out to drop $60 on an old-school take on a saturated genre

[bork]

This is crazy, I know, but what if

DOOM 4 is a different genre!   

But if that happened I bet it would be Skyrim on Mars.   

[Stoney Mason]

The thing is I have no doubt there is a decent number of nostalgia types, and forum types who would love a truly retro doom. I don't doubt that such a thing could be a really fun game.

But when you read this

One source described a meeting in which ZeniMax executives told Id leads that “Doom 4 can and should be as big as Skyrim,” as far as both sales and cultural impact.

Then either that has to reach a much broader audience or you have to scale back your budget and sales ambitions.

[Positive Touch]

well they need SOMETHING big to recoup costs but id hasnt delivered a relevant product in over a decade so i dunno how they'd accomplish this. i dont think they have creative enough directors to pull it off.

[Joe Molotov]

Another company that didn't support the Wii is failing.

[Great Rumbler]

But if that happened I bet it would be Skyrim on Mars.   

I'd probably be okay with that!

[bork]

One source described a meeting in which ZeniMax executives told Id leads that “Doom 4 can and should be as big as Skyrim,” as far as both sales and cultural impact.

RIP ID Software.

[Don Flamenco]

One source described a meeting in which ZeniMax executives told Id leads that “Doom 4 can and should be as big as Skyrim,” as far as both sales and cultural impact.

RIP ID Software.

only Skyrim on mars can save them.   

it needs to have a bacon gun and ninjas and narwahls and rage faces and all kinds of western fan service attached to it though, so the average bro crew get talking about it. 

now get your ass to mars get your ass to mars get your ass to mars get your ass to mars

[Diunx]

Too bad to see them in trouble after that awesome Doom 3 mod called Quake 4.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Rage was very boring. Not suprised.

[Don Flamenco]

bring back the old level design.  what's old is new again and better than the bullshit FPS that people currently play.

That may or may not be the way to do it but then I don't have millions of dollars invested in the decision. There is an audience that would welcome such a thing. I'm not sure if that audience is large enough to justify the costs they have sunk into it.

1. Old-school level design and crazy amounts of monsters
2. 4P co-op (already been done before, so shouldn't be a problem)
3. Add a more modernized deathmatch mode with CoD rip-off progression stuff for the kiddies
4. Profit

Sounds like a real seller at $19.99 two months after launch!

but at least id will have released a good game since Doom 2.

[Steve Contra]

I doubt ID even knows how how to make a good game anymore, even if they do have a design document made up of three bullet points posted on a GAF splinter forum to guide them.

[cool breeze]

The thing is I have no doubt there is a decent number of nostalgia types, and forum types who would love a truly retro doom. I don't doubt that such a thing could be a really fun game.

But when you read this

One source described a meeting in which ZeniMax executives told Id leads that “Doom 4 can and should be as big as Skyrim,” as far as both sales and cultural impact.

Then either that has to reach a much broader audience or you have to scale back your budget and sales ambitions.

yeah, realistically a Doom-style Doom game (what) wouldn't be a $60 retail product.  A downloadable Doom game with Pac-man CE flair would be great.  It'd lose the strong atmosphere but turning it into an arcade game could work.  Possibly have procedurally generated levels, some co-op, maybe a Doom take on horde mode, stuff like that.

I don't know if that would be an id game.  I think the last good single player game they made was Quake 1.

Bigger shame is that for all the hundred of dozens of indie side scrolling run and jumpers out there, you don't see any throwbacks to old shooters.  There are crazy amounts of maps and mods and wads for doom and duke3d, but no new original games.

[Great Rumbler]

Rage was very boring. Not suprised.

Rage was fun, it just had some really boring sections.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

just rerelease Quantum Theory as Doom 4

[The Sceneman]

obligatory

[Great Rumbler]

TAKE DAT SHOTGUN AND DOS SHELLS

[Sho Nuff]

give doom 4 to dimps

THIS

[Trent Dole]

Moar liek Doom 4 Ever amirite 

[Rahxephon91]

Man this sucks. I wonder what this means for stuff like Quake. I've been waiting for another Quake since 4, and it's doubtful that will ever happen. Not like Raven would make it anyway. Thats' another developer being wasted as well.

[Joe Molotov]

give doom 4 to dimps

THIS

Alternately, get Zenimax to give you lots of money to make Doom 4, then farm it out to Timegate and use the money to make a big-budget Wolfenstein RPG loot-shooter instead.

[The Sceneman]

TAKE DAT SHOTGUN AND DOS SHELLS

WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR
WHAT WERE YOU DOING ON MARS
WHAT ARE THE KEYCARDS

that clip is still the best parody of modern gaming I've seen.

[chronovore]

Sad to see, but not surprising. Rage had some great tech behind it [when it worked right], but the game had problem with lack of focus and direction [open world? didn't work. vehicles? no real point. multiplayer? derp]. Bethesda will probably have to clean house and, unfortunately, they could mean some top people getting shoved aside.

And chain Carmack to his desk until he finish a new, awesome engine that's awesome.

I don't think anyone can chain Carmack to anything.

And I suspect he's interested in doing stuff which isn't in alignment with AAA-game dev for PC/console. At least, not where we've seen Hollywood gaming go.