Doom (2016)

Doom 4 (also currently simply titled Doom) is a work-in-progress game anticipated to become the next release from id Software and their third game published by Bethesda after and Doom 3: BFG Edition. Early planning and development began in August, 2007, and is currently ongoing.

Doom 4 is being built on id Software's id Tech 5 game engine. Gameplay-wise the game is set to resemble the action-orientation of the classic Doom games more than the horror style of Doom 3. Furthermore, John Carmack has stated that the game will have better graphics than Rage, but is targeted to run at a lower framerate of 30 frames per second. Id Software also intends to make Doom 4's multiplayer mode better than Doom 3's.

Graham Joyce is going to write the Doom 4 storyline.

Early development
John Carmack confirmed in August 2007 that Doom 4 was in the future plans of id Software. On May 7th, 2008, id announced that the development of Doom 4 had begun. At QuakeCon 2009 Todd Hollenshead mentioned that id Software will reveal new Doom 4 information at QuakeCon 2010, between 12-15 August. However, during the event it was announced that there will be no news until next year.

On April 10, 2009 GameSpot published an interview with id Software's CEO Todd Hollenshead in which he revealed that Doom 4 is "deep in development." He stated however that the game is "not [in] pre-production". The development team is "relatively new" and id is "still actually hiring people" onto the Doom 4 team. GameSpot asked Hollenshead if Doom 4 is "a sequel? A reboot? A prequel?" and his response was "Gosh, that's actually an excellent question. It's not a sequel to Doom 3, but it's not a reboot either. Doom 3 was sort of a reboot. It's a little bit different than those."

On June 23, 2009, ZeniMax Media, best known for Bethesda Softworks, acquired id Software and announced that all future id Software games will be published by Bethesda Softworks, Doom 4 being one (in addition to Rage and future Quake titles).

During QuakeCon 2009, Hollenshead announced that there will not be any news released for Doom 4 until the next QuakeCon in 2010. But during the beginning of QuakeCon 2010 Hollenshead said the development team was not ready to give a demonstration on the game. Tim Willits did however talk to the press in May 2010 to boast that "it'll be even more awesome than Rage."

id Software technical guru John Carmack has told OPM UK anyone expecting to wait a long time for Doom 4 will have a shorter wait than first thought. Carmack told the mag the shooter should not take as long to get out the door, unlike Rage, which was announced in 2007 at QuakeCon, and will not be out until next year, producer Tim Willits told VG247 back in May. “Well we’ve got Doom 4 going on right now below our feet here,” he said. “The Doom team are all sped up and working on this technology base – I’m not really at liberty to discuss much about it, but it’s going full steam ahead right now." He adds: “It shouldn’t take as long to ship as Rage. It’s already in the pipeline and we feel good about it.”

On August 16, 2010, id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead apologised to Stephen Totilo of Kotaku for the game not appearing at QuakeCon in 2010, before mentioning the game is being targetted for a simultaneous release on Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, saying "That's absolutely what we're thinking."

At Quakecon 2011, prior to the release of Rage, John Carmack stated that once Rage ships, the id Software development team will move to Doom 4 to speed up on the project. Since then Rage has indeed been released, although no further information on Doom 4's development has been given.

On 28 February 2012, some alleged screenshots were released on Official Xbox Magazine UK's website, but the images were discredited by id Software's creative director Matthew Hooper via Twitter, by saying "Those images have nothing to do with what you're gonna see in Doom 4. When we officially show things, you'll see awesome."

2013 Kotaku Article
In April of 2013, published an article describing Doom 4 as trapped in "". Citing connections to id, the article claims that Doom 4 has suffered under mismanagement, and that development was completely restarted in 2011. Inside sources described the pre-2011 version, which was to portray the uprising of hell on Earth, as heavily scripted and cinematic, comparing it to the  franchise. The pre-2011 version was criticized as mediocre, but the sources also described the new version as "lame" and a "mess".

2013 staff departures
Starting in June 26 with the abrupt resignation of Todd Hollenshead as company president and accompanying resignation from the ZeniMax Media board of directors, incumbent id Software staff began to depart the company at an increasing rate. By November, John Carmack, who had earlier reduced his role to technical advisor, departed the company entirely to focus on work at as its Chief Technical Officer. The majority of the id Tech engine team is believed to have followed him, based on statements made by departing employees and allegations leveled against Oculus by ZeniMax Media in their lawsuit filed later in 2014.

2014 Beta testing
In late February of 2014, Bethesda offered advance beta testing access to a product they are currently simply calling "DOOM", using a flat-shaded variant of the familiar logo, along with pre-orders of Wolfenstein: The New Order. The offer is explicit in mentioning that the product is not yet ready for testing and that those taking part in the promotion will be contacted later when the testing begins. Further details or information have yet to leak from anyone participating.

E3 Teaser
Bethesda and id unveiled a [//www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYjR5UzhcZA "Doom" teaser] at E3 in June, 2014, containing footage of a monster that may be the new incarnation of the cyberdemon. No actual gameplay footage is featured in the teaser, however. This was accompanied by the launch of a new official website at doom.com, and the promise of a more detailed reveal at the 2014 QuakeCon.

As of July 2, 2014, Bethesda amended their previous press release to "clarify" that the reveal will be exclusive to QuakeCon attendees, and will not be broadcast or evidently allowed to be recorded for outside exposure.

Speculation
It is possible that Doom 4 will be a remake of Doom II, or will otherwise be set on Earth. Todd Hollenshead has made a statement which arguably supports this speculation. The comment was as follows: "Doom is part of the id Software DNA and demands the greatest talent and brightest minds in the industry to bring the next installment of our flagship franchise to Earth".

A series of concept screenshots of the game were leaked by a former employee as part of a portfolio which seem to confirm the "Hell on Earth" theme. While Bethesda eventually acknowledged that these were indeed screenshots of what was then Doom 4, they were also quick to add that they were from an earlier stage of development and do not represent the current state of the project.