Fans were not pleased when the official Doom Eternal music was made available along with the Collector's Edition of the game. The soundtrack, which was supposed to have "uncompressed" and "lossless" audio files with composer Mick Gordon's music, ultimately consisted mostly of songs that were combined with game audio snippets. Gordon, too, mixed only 11 of the 59 songs that were included.
Gordon was mostly to fault, according to a May 2020 Reddit posting by Marty Stratton, Director of id Software Studio. Even after a delay, according to Stratton, Gordon's poor performance on the soundtrack required the chief audio designer of Doom Eternal to come in and mix the remaining songs. However, Gordon refuted Stratton's claim in a long Medium article just now, implying that the studio director had made up the events.
Creating The soundtrack of Doom EternalGordon characterized the composition of the music for Doom Eternal as a "difficult" process. According to him, id Software allegedly required him to write "two levels' worth of music per month," despite the fact that the game had not yet been completed in bulk. This caused problems every time id Software changed their plans while Doom Eternal was being developed, requiring Gordon to continuously rework and discard the songs he sent in.Stratton reportedly rejected Gordon's request for a timetable modification, seeing it as evidence of Gordon's incapacity to finish the assignment effectively. Gordon also proposed that the studio pay him only at intervals of many months, with the final payment covering just around half of the work he completed that the game creators ultimately used.Photo by Bethesda
Creating the soundtrack
for Doom EternalRegarding the Collector's Edition soundtrack, Gordon reportedly made arrangements to write 12 tracks for it by a flexible deadline of April 16, for which Bethesda will compensate him if he reached. But Stratton apparently sent him an email less than two weeks before the deadline, on April 16, informing him that "consumer protection laws in some territories meant anyone who purchased the Collector's Edition was entitled to a full refund if they didn't receive the OST by April 20." This meant that the April 16 deadline was strictly required. Gordon saw this as id Software putting him on legal notice to cover any losses in the event that the soundtrack was not delivered on time. Given that Stratton reportedly informed Gordon of this information long after he had signed a contract, Gordon was particularly certain that Stratton was attempting to deflect legal responsibility from id Software.Gordon also reportedly discovered that, unbeknownst to him, id's main audio designer had been working on the soundtrack for six months, producing a number of tunes he was not happy with. His goal was to complete the rails in a few eighteen- to twenty-hour workdays. However, only five hours before the cutoff, Stratton reportedly decided on an alternative selection of songs. Stratton allegedly informed Gordon that id's head audio designer would complete the soundtrack when Gordon informed him he could not make significant adjustments in such a short amount of time. Gordon stated the album showed a "thoughtless disregard for basic music fundamentals" when he first heard it.Picture courtesy of Bethesda
What followed
Stratton reportedly suggested that Gordon and Stratton write a joint statement outlining how they would improve the
Doom Eternal soundtrack during a Skype chat that took place after the soundtrack's release. Gordon accepted, but Stratton released the previously described Reddit message in its place. Gordon apparently sought to confront him about it, and id Software offered him a six-figure sum to remain silent. Gordon posted this statement to defend himself after making several unsuccessful efforts to settle the dispute amicably.Picture courtesy of BethesdaGordon said in the post, "The truth is more important." "I spent years analyzing numbers to make the business possible, and I worked really hard on it. My results for both games were very profitable, and the businesses who published them profited as well. It was disturbing and sad to have all that tossed away by someone who openly lied to represent me as someone who adds
"uncertainty and risk" to any enterprise and who now wants to pay me off to maintain his image.
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