Recently, the official soundtrack for Doom Eternal was released for owners of the Collector’s Edition. Many listeners immediately noticed a difference between tracks that were mixed by composer Mick Gordon and those that were not. Gordon, who has worked with Bethesda on multiple previous grames, provided comments to fans, stating that he certainly wouldn’t have mixed the soundtrack that way and that he was unlikely to work with Bethesda again.
In response, Marty Stratton, executive producer of Doom Eternal at id Software, has posted an open letter on Reddit. In this post, Stratton detailed the history of the soundtrack’s development and provided Bethesda’s perspective on the situation. Stratton states that Gordon missed deadlines on multiple occasions, which caused issues that necessitated pushing back the release of the soundtrack for owners of the Collector’s Edition. Stratton notes that the date for delivering the soundtrack was pushed back to the latest that would be allowed under consumer protection laws.
Stratton explains that in order to deliver the soundtrack on time, the agreement reached (and suggested by Gordon) was to provide the tracks Gordon had been able to mix, while Lead Audio Designer mixed the remaining tracks. Gordon still received sole credit as composer and album artist. Finally, Stratton makes it clear Bethesda is moving forward and will not be working with Gordon on the DLC for Doom Eternal.
While this is certainly disappointing for fans of Doom Eternal, id Software and Mick Gordon to read, it also provides some transparency as to what exactly happened. We’ll have to wait and see what the future brings.
