Mick Gordon, the legendary Australian composer who headbanged every headshot in 2016’s Doom and its 2020 follow-up, Doom Eternal, told IGN that he’s open to the idea of contributing to future installments of id Software’s iconic shooter series. During an interview this weekend at PAX Australia, Gordon seemed to indicate that his involvement with Doom isn’t necessarily over for good, despite the very public falling out between the composer and the Doom Eternal development team following its release.
“There are a lot of dominoes that would have to fall in a very specific way for this to happen,” Gordon said. “If those dominoes ever fell that way, I would. Of course. In a heartbeat.”
Gordon didn’t elaborate on what exactly those “dominoes” might be, but it’s possible that differences between the composer and Doom Eternal executive producer Marty Stratton have yet to be fully resolved. In a lengthy 2022 article on Medium, Gordon accused developer id Software of failing to pay him for half of his work on the Doom Eternal soundtrack, and singled out Stratton as a recurring abusive presence throughout his work on the score and OST. However, it seems the experience hasn’t dampened Gordon’s love for Doom himself.
“I had a whole list of ideas I wanted to go with Doom,” Gordon explained. “And I would love to explore that one day, for sure.”
What the future of Doom will look like with or without Gordon’s involvement is another story. id Software has been one of several studios heavily impacted by Microsoft’s continued cuts to its Xbox business, with 136 of developer Doom’s staff affected by layoffs in July. At the time, the services’ lead programmer, Chris Hays, was quoted as saying: “It’s hard to make a AAA game, it’s like we did it before, with half the people.” And by difficult, I mean impossible.
In the meantime, Gordon kept busy with various projects. He contributed the theme music for the final boss fight in Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2, which will be released on October 14. He’s also still actively working on producing the full soundtrack for Defect, the team-based cyberpunk shooter developed by veterans of Doom and the Call of Duty series. In 2027, he is expected to return to Doom in at least a performance sense, as the headliner of the RADAR music festival in the UK, where he will perform the music he composed for Doom and Doom Eternal for the first time with a full live band.
Tristan Ogilvie is a Senior Video Editor at IGN based in Sydney, Australia. He has 25 years of gaming experience, having been Deputy Editor of the Official PlayStation 2 Australia Magazine and Editor of the Official Xbox 360 Australia Magazine, before joining IGN in 2009. You can find him at Bluesky @tristanogilvie.bsky.social
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