In a lengthy statement on his Medium page, DOOM Eternal composer (and Aussie) Mick Gordon has provided a lengthy response to claims made by id Software Executive Producer Marty Stratton on Reddit. In the Reddit post, made on 5 May 2020, Stratton lays the blame for the poor quality of the OST for DOOM Eternal at Gordon’s feet, which has, in Gordon’s words “severely impacted both my professional and personal reputation.”
Gordon begins his statement;
This statement is issued in response to id Software Studio Director Marty Stratton’s “DOOM Eternal OST Open Letter”, published on Reddit on May 5, 2020.
Marty lied about the circumstances surrounding the DOOM Eternal Soundtrack and used disinformation and innuendo to blame me entirely for its failure.
Afterwards, he offered me a six-figure settlement to never speak about it.
As far as I’m concerned, the truth is more important.
Gordon takes care to note the does not see his statement as an unprovoked attack, but rather a defence and that he has no interest in being involved in hate campaigns. Towards the end of his statement, he writes that due to the Reddit post he;
“[B]egan receiving specific expressions of violence, the content so vivid it made me sick. The torrent of abuse telling me how to kill myself, how I’d be mutilated, how they would circulate photos of my body to traumatise my family, how my family would be murdered, how they’d hurt my animals, how they’d shoot up any event I attended, how I’d be raped to death, really started to wear me down in ways I couldn’t previously imagine.”
Mick Gordon DOOM Eternal
Gordon’s lengthy statement sets out to disprove what he claims are falsehoods, misdirections and lies on the part of Stratton. Gordon claims the project was mismanaged from the beginning as he was required to produce final tracks and music for levels that did not yet exist. He also states that he went without pay for months at a time, hoping to be a team player and produce a good product.
Gordon goes on to say that any and all attempts he made to correct the timeline or suggest better ways of producing the music were shot down. He claims that once he’d finished the project he had delivered more than twice the required amount of music, however, he was only paid for part of it when music never intended to be used or published was included within the game and on the DOOM Eternal OST.
Gordon writes;
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.
Isolated from the team, working on the other side of the planet, I had no control over how they used the music: music placement was the Lead Audio Designer’s responsibility, and after I handed the files over, they decided how to use them.
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.
Gordon also claims that the production of the DOOM Eternal OST began much earlier than his involvement and was produced in ” a slapdash way by copying audio files directly on top of each other without even a crossfade to cover the transition, resulting in clicks, pops, clipping, abrupt tempo changes, awkward gaps and jarring transitions.” He goes on to state his anger at seeing Lead Audio Designer Chad Mossholder co-credited for his compositions.
“Example: Final Sin — Sandy City (Track 59) was a rough idea mocked up in haste for the ending cutscene.
“This exact demo file was immediately rejected. In fact, Chad was part of the panel that rejected it. But he included the file on the album and listed himself as a co-artist, despite having absolutely nothing to do with it.
“More importantly, the song is based on a melody written by Bobby Prince, the composer of DOOM 2, who hasn’t been credited anywhere on the album.”
Gordon takes great care to include proof and evidence of his statements including redacted emails, contracts and more to demonstrate that his side of the story is the true one. id Software, Bethesda and Zenimax have yet to respond to Gordon’s statement.
You can read it in full here.
We’ve reached out to local Bethesda PR for comment.
