Doom developer accused of theft

Doom Eternal composer Mick Gordon accused id Software of “refusing to pay” for his work.

Composer Mick Gordon has released a lengthy statement regarding his work on DOOM Eternal, alleging poor management, overbearing working conditions, and that he hasn’t been paid for “over half” of DOOM Eternal’s music.

The statement, which was published to Gordon’s Medium page, also claims that id Software Studio Director Marty Stratton “lied about the circumstances” of the DOOM Eternal soundtrack, and used “disinformation and innuendo” in a post made on the official DOOM subreddit to blame Gordon entirely for the issues surrounding its release.

DOOM Eternal is an action FPS game that has the main character, Doomguy, blasting through demons from hell. Picture: id Software

Gordon says that id Software asked him to score two levels of DOOM Eternal per month, which he says was “tight, although not impossible”, but that the work became increasingly difficult as much of the levels that had to be scored had not yet been created.

He says that one of the game’s key features was that the music closely matched the gameplay as it was playing out, and that providing finished music for levels that were incomplete “didn’t make sense”.

He also alleges that the work required for the soundtrack started from the get-go, with a contract delay on id Software’s side putting him behind schedule before he’d even begun. Furthermore, Gordon complained about slow communication, with id sometimes taking more than a week to respond to “basic questions”, and that management at the studio had “unrealistic expectations” about the amount of work required and how quickly it could be completed.

Mick Gordon has previously hinted as licensing issues with id Software, but has not revealed anything until now. Picture: id Software

Gordon claims that he proposed a more realistic timeline to management, but that it was struck down by management. The most egregious of the claims laid out by Gordon is that he apparently hadn’t been paid for 11 months starting in January 2019, and claims that he still hasn’t been paid for “half” of the score.

Gordon says he produced 286 total minutes of audio for the game, but has only been paid for the 142 minutes initially contracted, despite all of the audio produced being used by id in-game, in marketing, and in updates.

The statement goes on to talk about the issues he faced with the official soundtrack release, as well as quality issues with some of the OST’s release that he believes reflects badly on him. Gordon says that he’s using the statement to “defend [himself]”, and that despite allegedly being offered a six-figure sum to keep quiet, “truth and honesty are more important”.

id Software has been contacted for comment.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.