Doom Scandal; Mick Gordon Accuses Devs of Ruining His Career
We learned new facts about the development process of Doom Eternal and the controversial behavior of studio members. The author of the soundtrack claims that we were all lied to, and he himself was a victim of harassment.
In May 2020, the developer of Doom Eternal, Marty Stratton, decided to speak out about the game's soundtrack, which was criticized at the time. In a lengthy post on Reddit, he decided to point to Mick Gordon, acting sound designer, as the person responsible for the questionable quality of the soundtrack. More than two years after the incident, the composer responded to the allegations with new facts about the case.
Developer responds to allegations
In the original post, Stratton suggested that the confusion surrounding the game's soundtrack stemmed from Gordon's failure to meet deadlines. Members of id Software's were said to be concerned that the music would not be completed in time for the release of Doom Eternal and for this reason they decided to engage an additional sound engineer for the project.
Mick replied yesterday to what he believes are baseless accusations that, in addition to tarnishing his reputation, were intended to make him a target of aggression from fans of the brand.
In an extremely detailed explanation, the musician accuses id Software among other things, of slander, attempted bribery and even the public leaking of his contact information, which resulted in him receiving threats.
The allegations presented by Gordon were enriched with numerous excerpts from correspondence between him and members of id Software, which support the veracity of the version of events he presented.
The course of events from Gordon's perspective
According to Mick Gordon, the id Software has begun work on its own soundtrack for Doom Eternal several months before the sound engineer's deadline, without informing him, and information about the delays was to be announced before he signed any contract with the studio.
The sheer amount of time scheduled to prepare the game's music was, according to Mick, unrealistically short.
After handing over the finished soundtrack, the game's developers were to pay him only for the material used in the game, which represented a small percentage of the work he had done.
Fans' dissatisfaction with the final soundtrack became the motivation for Marty Stratton to write an unprofessional post on Reddit to defend the image of the company and the producer.
When Gordon expressed his willingness to respond to the allegations, negotiations took place between him and the studio, in the presence of lawyers, part of which was allegedly an attempt to bribe the musician with a sum of hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for his silence.
However, the creator did not agree, and his contact information went online at the time:
"They shared my personal details via message boards, including Reddit, which meant that abusers could now reach me in more ways than ever. They email-bombed my inboxes, crashing the server and clogging my messaging services, crippling my ability to communicate.
They harassed my other clients with attempts to get me fired from their projects. They called my phone numbers around the clock, screaming messages full of abuse."
Internet users, outraged by Stratton's version of events sent threats toward the musician and his family and tried to convince him to commit suicide.
Ruined composer ends silence
Summing up his post yesterday, Gordon said that he was forced to make such a statement by the unwillingness of id Software members to take responsibility for their own actions.
Internet users' reactions to the new information are full of sympathy and support for the sound engineer. The whole situation has outraged fans of the game, who felt lied to by the once-respected studio.
"It’s baffling, the soundtrack is half the reason I play these games and it’s so sad to hear Mick was treated like shit. You’d think with the overwhelming success of the first games score/OST they’d be kissing his feet and doing everything they can to keep him happy and give him all the time he needs to produce. It’s a true shame we’ll never get the Mick Gordon Doom Eternal OST," wrote user moosemuffin12.
The developers accused by Gordon have yet to respond. It looks like there is still a long way to go before this sad story is concluded.
