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Mick Gordon accuses Doom Eternal executive producer of lying about soundtrack problems

Composer claims that Id Software's Marty Stratton and Zenimax lawyers offered him six-figure settlement to take the blame for soundtrack fallout

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Composer Mick Gordon has alleged that Doom Eternal executive producer Marty Stratton lied in a post attempting to blame him for the poorly received Doom Eternal official soundtrack.

Gordon's claim was made in a Medium blog post rebuffing an open letter by Stratton regarding the Doom Eternal official soundtrack that was included as part of the collector's edition of the game.

In the 2019 statement posted on Reddit, Stratton said the project's poor musical quality was attributed to difficulties from the composer.

"Some have suggested that we've been careless with or disrespectful of the game music," Stratton said in addressing the negative response to the OST. "Others have speculated that Mick wasn't given the time or creative freedom to deliver something different or better. The fact is – none of that is true."

Gordon's Medium post addressed numerous factual discrepancies with Stratton’s statement, one of them being the amount of time he had to work on the project.

"I received the contract 48 hours before the game was released. By then, it had taken over nine months for it to materialise," he explained.

"Marty claims I demanded several extensions to the schedule, forcing him to delay the OST. But the truth is I wasn’t under contract until after the delay."

The statement included a screenshot of an email appearing to back Gordon's claim that he wasn't signed on until March 18 of 2020. Bethesda had announced the delay to the OST on March 11.

Gordon's post says that after he objected to Stratton publicly blaming him for the state of the Doom Eternal OST and presented evidence undermining Stratton's allegations, lawyers representing Zenimax and Stratton offered to settle.

After what Gordon describes as an unnecessarily drawn out process, Zenimax offered a six-figure sum contingent on Stratton's Reddit post staying up and Gordon never being able to talk about the situation or disparage Stratton or Zenimax.

However he chose to publish the post because, "But as far as I'm concerned, truth and honesty are more important."

Elsewhere in Gordon's post, he said he still hasn't been paid for half of Doom Eternal's music, and endured prolonged harassment and death threats after Stratton's Reddit letter hung the OST's issues on him.

He added that lawyers working on Stratton's behalf repeatedly dragged out the settlement process and insisted that any resolution involve Stratton leaving his Reddit post up and Gordon quietly accepting the blame for the OST problems.

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Jeffrey Rousseau

Staff Writer

Jeffrey Rousseau joined GamesIndustry.biz in March 2021. Based in Florida, his work focused on the intersectionality of games and media. He enjoys reading, podcasts, staying informed, and learning how people are tackling issues.