Hey, remember Doom 4? It was announced nearly five years ago, so we thought maybe Bethesda and id Software had forgotten about it. But apparently, no. It's been quite troubled--something that Bethesda VP of marketing and PR Pete Hines admitted.

"An earlier version of Doom 4 did not exhibit the quality and excitement that id and Bethesda intend to deliver and that Doom fans worldwide expect," Hines said. "As a result, id refocused its efforts on a new version of Doom 4 that promises to meet the very high expectations everyone has for this game and this franchise. When we’re ready to talk about the Doom 4 id is making, we will let folks know."

Although the admission is odd, Bethesda's continued silence on the game continues the trend. At QuakeCon last year, id's John Carmack said: "Doom 4 is being done in 'Bethesda mode' where we're still not talking about it. It's done when it's done and we don't want people reading more into it than they should."

However, Kotaku says that the project has been doomed and "plagued by mismanagement," according to its sources. They report that some had jokingly described the game as "Call of Doom," as its focus on scripted set pieces and "the obligatory vehicle scene" made it feel more like Activision's popular military FPS, than a proper Doom game. "There was kind of the recognition that in order to be a big shooter these days, you have to have some amount of the big, bombastic movie experience that people get pulled through," one source said.

Thankfully, "Call of Doom" was scrapped, with Carmack reminding the team that "Doom means two things: demons and shotguns." However, the critical and financial failure of Rage threw another wrench in Doom 4's development. A new mandate was passed down to the studio: "Just do Doom 4." And with that, the team had to undergo a creative and tech reboot--whilst trying to mesh with the Rage team. It led to a "power struggle," according to the report.

Since then, Kotaku claims that "most of id's top talent has left or been fired," with another source saying that "people were leaving steadily through last year." With the game "never even close to a shipped product," Doom 4 could become the industry's next Duke Nukem Forever.