I pushed back on the demand, telling them I couldn’t continue to work without pay. I hadn’t been paid anything in 10 months — no more rewrites, no more excuses, no more discussions: I needed to be paid now.
But no. According to them, I was the one being difficult (the word they used was “ball-ache”), and they urged in no uncertain terms to carefully consider the destination my protest would lead to.
The money finally turned up at the end of November, and my family and I were thankful it did. It was the first payment I’d received in 11 months. id Software stopped talking to me, but the payment confirmed my role in the project had ended.
by the end of the project, I’d delivered more than double the minutes stated in the contract.
id Software went on to use nearly all the music; over double what they paid for.
It wasn’t until after DOOM Eternal was released that I became aware id Software had used nearly all the music I produced throughout development — almost five hours worth — while only paying for half of it.
Using double what they paid for wasn’t an accident; it was a conscious decision.
Rejected tracks, mockups, demos, ideas and sketches — a massive amount of additional music, well beyond the budget allocated in the contract, produced at their request and shared in good faith. But, id Software included it all directly in-game, marketing, and updates without paying for it.
Even worse, id Software still refuses to pay for it, despite the fact their contract guarantees payment for any additional minute requested beyond the original budget.
It looks like Bethesda/id fucked him over, at least according to this timeline and the documents he posted.
In his “Open Letter” posted on Reddit, Marty later claimed that his decision to enlist Chad happened at the last minute and was due to fears I wouldn’t make the April 16 deadline. But the files Chad sent me tell a different story.
Perhaps unknown to Marty, BWF Metadata details the exact creation date, time and software used by whoever made the edits. Metadata in Chad’s files show he began work on their alternative OST as far back as August 2019 (six months before I received the OST contract)
What a wild read. If it’s true, and it seems likely based on all the evidence he provided, Bethesda and Stratton should be ashamed of themselves. I hope he eventually gets paid for his work.
Also an interesting peek for me into how music is created for games. Love all the included technical details about the process and pipeline.
Wish I could say I’m surprised at how “gamers” treated him. Absolutely disgusting behavior from pathetic humans regardless of who was at fault.
That’s what I was thinking about when I said I was inclined to believe the not-corpo side. I think that’s a common bias but obviously it can be wrong.
This seems very different because of all the evidence, not to mention Gordon isn’t raising pitchforks. But I still wouldn’t hitch my wagon to any particular horse.
Gotta say that Mick Gordon is a fantastic writer, and all of his arguments were presented extremely convincingly, with convincing evidence, and in a way which would make it very difficult if not impossible for Marty Stratton to prove incorrect.
Mick’s argument is so total, so thorough, and backed up with so many receipts, that I’m definitely inclined to believe him in this.
Read the whole thing. Even the very simple fact that they didn’t pay him for almost a year - that alone would tell me Bethesda/Zenimax/id are scum. But it gets so much worse than that, holy shit.
I am glad I will be getting their future games in gamepass and won’t be giving them extra money.
What amazes me the most perhaps is the way the legal team at Zenimax acted. I know they are required to support their clients, but the unprofessional and bizarre lines of reasoning and argument documented here certainly would not make me want to employ that firm.
Doom Eternal leaned heavy into the frame-perfect twitch reflex super autistic Japanese style of action gaming. You make one wrong move and you’re dead. I know that appeals to a lot of people, but I just want to smash demons and explore hellscapes.
And my axe! There were a couple things I disliked about Doom 2016, but really enjoyed it overall. I hated Eternal. I feel like they took the absolute worst design decisions from its predecessor and cranked them up to 11.
But there are a few polarizing games like that. I feel the same way when people badmouth Far Cry (brilliant game) and then talk up Far Cry 2 (absolute crap).
I haven’t played Doom Eternal but Doom 2016 has great atmosphere and a slower play-at-your-own pace (relatively) that I liked. I was put off by the very first marketing videos of Eternal. Looks like a great game for those who like that speed and difficulty but it’s not for me.
And Far Cry 2 is awesome, my personal favorite of the series. It has its flaws but it was the first time I felt so immersed in a world since the original Deus Ex and Operation Flashpoint.
I also gave up on Doom Eternal pretty quickly, even though I loved DOOM 2016.
Far Cry 2 and Far Cry are both good for different reasons, but I do prefer Far Cry 2 much much more. I never finished the original Far Cry, but I did get about 50 hours in.
Far Cry 2 just felt like a poor, soulless facsimile of Stalker to me (which is one of my favorite games ever). Nonsensical gameplay elements (malaria pills, random briefcases full of diamonds, contracts to kill random people by hacking radio towers). Annoying AI that would go absolutely batshit insane and ram you at full speed if they spotted you (and then would respawn shortly after you killed them). Weapons that degraded in minutes and constantly had to be repaired / replaced. Vehicles that constantly needed to be repaired.
It had a very nice engine, though. I’ll give it that. It’s a shame nobody else used it.
