It seems id software is far past its glory days, if this rumor that’s sprouted up online is true. The problems in the company have come to affect Doom 4 as well, so if you’re a fan, you will want to read this.
It’s very strange, but this information comes to us by way of Glassdoor, apparently from a very disgruntled ex-employee took out their frustrations on id with a review on the site.
Glassdoor was conceived of as a place for former and current employees to review companies and bosses, in terms of salary, culture, etc, and to do so anonymously. The website has a vetting process that ensures everyone who writes a review there is who they say they are. Not that this was needed, but superannuation also chimed in to reassure fans that Glassdoor is legit.
The review points out that id’s founders are gone, the company is unprofessional and does not have good hiring and promotions policies. All their tech people have moved to Oculus Rift, and worse, the attrition rate is high.
Here’s where we get into Doom 4:
The non-stop attrition: When all of the teams merged together to create the “new” Doom team 2 years ago, there was around 140+ developers to make the game. Now, there is only around 50. The non-stop attrition has gotten so bad, that they had to contract outside the company for the multiplayer portion of the game, and we have contractors doing a bulk of our art work.
The non-stop reboots and changes of direction: Every 4 months or so, they tell us that the current direction is all wrong for doom, and will re-boot most, if not all, of the game. This means that for over 2 years of work, there is no game to show, beyond 1 or 2 blockout levels and numerous prototypes.
These are serious accusations, but more importantly, disappointing to learn about Doom 4. The review ends with a recommendation for Zenimax to intervene and not just listen to spin-doctoring from id’s management. If it’s true, we hope Zenimax takes notice and action.
