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Doom 4 to avoid Rage marketing mistakes, keep things secret

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Johnny Tightlips

Rage was one of those games last year that was a phenomenal letdown, despite the massive marketing blitz that had preceded it, touting it to be one of id Software’s finest creations. Perhaps it was a case of giving too much away too soon, but one thing is for certain, and that’s the fact that id has learnt from their blunder, as they’ll be far more cautious in the future with advertising, especially for Doom 4.

Speaking to The PA Report, id creative director Tim Willits explained how the developer was seeking to tantalise, rather than overload, with future Doom 4 material, as opposed to what happened with Rage;

“One thing we did learn with Rage, one of the thing that changed was going from no publisher to working with EA to working with Bethesda, we learned that we showed stuff too damn early,” Willit said.

I’ve said in some talks I was so worried that people would not understand the vehicle-based combat so I talked about it first. We knew we were doing first-person, we’re id! Of course we’re doing first-person! But [the early talk of vehicles] skewed everyone’s ideas so much we had to play catch up.

Willits then elaborated that any material that id shows, will be done with “a plan” in mind, taking advantage of the method that Bethesda uses when promoting their own games, such as making it obvious that it exists, but only allowing a smidgen of info to be released at the right time.

“And it was perfect. So hopefully we can do that again,” Willits said, as he explained that the secrecy from id would also be similar to the manner in which Valve keeps things under wraps.

You know, everyone knows that Valve is working on Half-Life 3, and I think it’s fine. It will be cool when people see it, and they’ll be excited.

Advertising plays a major role in any game, as formulating a decent amount of buzz and whipping fans into a frothy frenzy can help sell a game during that crucial first few weeks. But hopefully, id will also remember to craft something this time that doesn’t resemble a half-finished product that consists of poorly realised ideas, shoddy visual effects and a story that gives up halfway through the experience.

Last Updated: August 7, 2012

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