Bethesda reflects on canceled Doom 4 game, calling it the right decision

Id Software has given us some gems over the years, but perhaps the most surprising game of 2016 was Doom.

However, before the 2016 reboot, Id and publisher Bethesda were working on Doom 4, a project that was in development for about three years before Bethesda pulled the plug in 2011, which the publisher said was the right move.

In a recent interview with Xbox Magazine, Bethesda Vice-President Pete Hines reflected on the success of Doom 2016, while also touching on the difficult decision to scrap Doom 4.

“With Doom it was a tipping point that we reached where we looked at it and said, ‘This game is not hitting the marks it needs to hit.’ And it wasn’t just Bethesda, it was Id coming to us and saying, ‘It’s not that it’s not a good game or an okay game, but it’s just not Doom. It’s veered from the things that we think Doom should be about.’

“And again, it’s not like we were happy about it! We essentially cancelled a game. That’s what we did. We cancelled a thing that people had spent a long time working on and we’d spent a lot of money to get to that point and then we cancelled it and basically started over.”

“We are still a company. We do have to pay salaries and keep the lights on and it’s not like we take these things lightly or easily. Games are hard to make and sometimes things happen. ”

A recent documentary by NoClip shed some additional light on Id Software and the aforementioned Doom 4, which was compared to a Call of Duty game because it was heavily scripted, cinematic, and story driven, as opposed to the fast and visceral 2016 version we all loved.

In fact, Doom (2016) was so well received by critics and gamers, it made several of Gamezone’s games of 2016 list including Xbox One and PC. So we can all probably agree it was the right move.

Check out NoClip’s documentary below.

[GamesRadar+]