On October 21^st, 2011 a story was put onto the mass video game news site Kotaku that stated a meeting was held after the release of id Software’s Rage with Bethesda and parent company Zenimax. It was said that the publisher was disappointed in the reviews and overall sales of the developer’s recent game, Rage, and that they would have to postpone the development of Doom 4 indefinitely.

This story was immediately responded to by Bethesda’s VP of PR and marketing, Pete Hines, who stated on his twitter account that the rumor was “complete bollocks.” Furthermore it has been stated in the past that id Software had plans on continuing production on Doom 4 after the release of Rage. While this may still be true, and honestly I hope it is, the story got me thinking about the current landscape of gaming.

Things have changed over the years since id Software released Doom 3 back in 2004 to decent sales. Let’s pause for a second and focus on that sentence. The third installment to the godfather of the shooter genre’s biggest franchise only did decent sales back in 2004! Let’s keep in mind that this was during the time when a little game known as Halo was making its rounds. The FPS genre has come a long way since that time, and id is going to have to go back to the drawing board to re-evaluate what Doom is known for in order to get the blockbuster that they sorely need. All of this begs the question:

Can they be helped?

How Would Doom 4 Fare in the Current Market?

Since 2004, gaming has become a dominant force in entertainment. In 2008 it was reported that approximately 38% of US homes had a gaming console and in the very year after, The State of Media Democracy report said that the number had surged to around 60%. In the UK that number is even higher; in 2009 a study stated that there were enough consoles sold in the country to give 8 out 10 homes in the country a video game system.

These are all impressive figures for the industry and to think, back in 2004 the medium was just building steam and console based online multiplayer was in its infancy. The FPS genre was far from the beast it is now, and in 2011 it is fair to say that the type of game id Software created with Wolfenstein 3D is the most popular genre out there. Franchises like Halo, Call of Duty, and Battlefield have taken the market by storm, and in the case of the first two, broken video game sales records with each new release. Modern Warfare 3 sold over 9 million copies alone in its first two days, which is over double that of Doom 3’s reported total sales. It might also be worth noting that Doom 3 is considered id’s most successful game to date and it wasn’t even on the top 10 bestselling games of the year list during the year of its release.

Rage sold a modest 550,000 units in its first month which, while still okay by market standards, is far behind that of others within its genre. Id Software had hoped to retake its place on the top of the food chain with Bungie, Dice, Valve, and Infinity Ward with the release of Rage, but it came far below its goal. Rage received modest reviews from the media outlets, but the PC version was plagued with bugs, and most of the negative press it got had to do with its linear single player campaign and weak multiplayer. If all this information serves any purpose, it is to answer the question asked above.

How would Doom 4 fare in the current market? If history has anything to say about it, not well. However, I have to wonder what can id Software do to really take back its place within the kingdom it helped create.

What Could Doom 4 Do To Retake Its Throne?

This is a complicated question that I am not remotely qualified to answer. I can however, take a shot. By looking at what areas of a current generation FPS’ have made a property popular, and how id software can use some of them to their advantage when re-inventing the Doom franchise. There are a few areas to look at, but the most diverse of which is how can the single player experience be re-worked to fit what audiences connect to in their shooters these days?

The mythology behind the Doom series lends itself to something bigger than what it has explored in the past and makes me consider the likes of games like Bioshock, Half Life 2, and even Borderlands. The Doom storyline takes place in the far future where humanity has begun to spread out and study the neighboring planet of Mars. In a science facility on that planet, something goes horribly wrong and a portal to hell is opened. Most of the denizens within the facility turn into some form of zombie, and tons of demons make their way into this plane of existence. The main hero is a marine stationed on the facility who fights to survive and eventually squelches the threat before it has the chance to do any real damage by reaching earth.

While Doom 3 added a bit of storyline to the proceedings, introducing an Umbrella Corporation like enemy that develops weapons and various other nefarious things. It didn’t much address the closed in and linear style of the game, nor did it do anything to up the ante in terms of threat. While Mars and bases on Mars are all well and good, they do lead to some spooky environments and a sense of claustrophobia that lends itself to jump-scares, they also lead to tons of look-alike corridors, a far too linear design, and a story that never really explores any sense of depth. The Doom series has never capitalized on some of its bigger ideas, e.g. the fact that it is about hell breaching our reality.

By exploring what it could mean if hell finds its way from Mars to Earth in some twist that extends gameplay and takes the series were it hasn’t gone before, as well as exploring how a future world would react to the knowledge that hell is indeed real. Some things that Half Life 2 did extraordinarily well is open up the world to a barrage of different locations, introduce new characters who grow along with the story, and study how society had grown and attempted to adapt since the events of the first game. Doom 4 could do well to do the same. We are talking about religion here, and a literal hell being unleashed on a futuristic earth that has grown in its technology and changed in ways that only further scientific discovery and a 100 years can provide. It is an interesting setting to explore.

I for one would be intrigued to follow a story that branched from Mars to an Earth that is attacked in a way that seemingly throws a societies understanding of theology for a loop. I would also like to see a change to the main character. A bad-ass space marine with no personality may have worked back in the day, but these days, if id Software wants to get people interested in the story again, the main character has to have a personality. That can still be a marine, or even more interestingly, a common individual. It could also go the Half-Life route yet again, and introduce interesting side characters that help establish the importance of the main character.

I bring up Bioshock because that is a game that was driven by an enclosed underwater city that made its mystery and creepiness as much a part of the story as its Ayn Rand like philosophy inspired plot. If Doom 4 is going to stay on Mars, it is critical that it inspires to make that place as interesting and beautiful as the abandoned society of Rapture. I also brought up Borderlands to suggest the possibility of Doom 4 giving itself over to a more open experience.

While I don’t think an open world would work for the series, giving players more areas to explore and a sense of freedom from time to time could be good for the franchise. Considering the horror factor of the game, it would be both fascinating and frightening to be given some open ended freedom to explore a world overtaken by hell and fraught with panic.

The Doom series cannot rely on its usual setting and vague plot, the mythology behind it has so many possibilities yet explored. I for one would like to see the series reach for bigger ideals and take some serious notes from the biggest names in single player FPS games. For its next release to hit huge sales, it can’t rest on its laurels, because if the overall lukewarm reception in 2004 is anything to go by, it all got old a long time ago.

What Really Makes a Game Sale Huge These Days? Multiplayer!

One can arguably say that the reason behind the huge numbers for Halo, Call of Duty, and Battlefield are solely on their addictive and well utilized multiplayer system. The Doom franchise is credited for spawning what we now play in our crack-like addictions, it is also well documented that it was the game that created the term “death match.” The series has done a lot to inspire what has become a vast growing genre in a booming market.

Note 1: It's gotta be better than this.

Many games have been released with multiplayer systems developers hoped would compete with the giants in question. Most have not succeeded however; it appears that it is an area more difficult to develop than anything else. We have to give credit to where credit is due. Halo and Call of Duty changed the multiplayer landscape forever, and it is a difficult area to take on for many developers. The system created by Doom can be re-invented and tooled to target an audience that is looking for a faster paced and more arcade like shooter experience. Think Halo in scope and Unreal Tournament in pace.

I believe the series could do well in that arena, given its gore and its propensity for really big sci-fi weaponry. With a large enough force behind it, it can keep some of the old stand-bys and give us old time gamers back our frag-fest filled death matches where weapons are littered in set places throughout the map, but also go large in feel by being creative with other game modes.

The Halo franchise is at its best when it gets creative with its multiplayer. Think back when SWAT was introduced, or the popularity of Infection and Grifball. These are wild and off-kilter multiplayer games that throw conventions out the window. I think a series like Doom could do the same and do real well by keeping some traditional style matches, but also throwing out a few “fuck it, why not?” game types as well.

A perfect example of a "fuck it, why not?" game type

If id Software really wants its blockbuster in the FPS genre, multiplayer is where the money is and more than ever, this will have to be a big area for them to focus on. They can’t do what they did with Rage and just give us one game type that was only a minor mechanic in the main game. The vehicle combat was all well and good, but people that played the game really wanted to battle each other on foot as well. Consider the possibilities of popular game types with Doom mechanics and weaponry: Team style domination like Battlefield, a killstreak system like Call of Duty (only way to implement the BFG in most game types), or hell beast vs marines in a take on Left 4 Dead.

The possibilities are there for Doom to really take it to the market and give us players something fresh and cool. Let some of us remember the old days of over-the-top frag fests, while also working to expand, rather than confine, what is possible with older conventions. Modern Warfare and Battlefield may have made modern military operations cool, but Doom 4 has the opportunity to make sci-fi and ridiculous weapons cool again.

Note 2: This is a game type for multiplayer, not multiplayer in its entirety.

In Closing: Here’s hoping Bethesda didn’t shelf Doom 4, and the lukewarm reception to Doom 3 and Rage lit a fire under id Software’s butt that will give us a return to awesome that fans of the franchise have been waiting for. Would anyone really care about Doom 4? I hope id makes us care.

This article was originally written by me for a gaming site that I am writing for called Golgotron, show them some love since they decided to give me the opportunity to write for them.

Would you care about Doom 4? Do you have any ideas that would re-invigerate the franchise? Share them by COMMENTING BELOW!

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