Doom 4 is Not Postponed

Despite what you may have heard, Bethesda Softworks says Doom 4 has not been postponed.

It’s kind of unusual to report that a game isn’t delayed but in this case I think it’s worth making an exception. Kotaku reported earlier today that in the wake of the less-than-spectacular launch of Rage, which was blamed on both shallow gameplay and a host of technical problems, Zenimax and Bethesda had expressed “a serious lack of confidence in the project management at id” and had thus decided to “indefinitely postpone” Doom 4. Doom 4 was announced more than three years ago but other projects, which is to say Rage, have taken priority.

Still, while an indefinite delay is not good news for fans of the franchise, here’s something that is: there is no delay. “Complete bollocks,” Pete Hines, Bethesda’s vice president of marketing, tweeted in response to the report. “Re: Doom 4 rumor, games are done when they are done and no title under development at id has been postponed – indefinitely or otherwise,” he added in a followup.

Was Rage really that bad? The PC release had some serious technical problems but the general consensus among the people I know who played it is that it’s thin but decent fun, which pretty much describes every id game to come out since 1994. And “it’s an id game” doesn’t strike me as a very good reason to postpone anything.