I was stunned at the ineptitude and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Track after track was full of real, obvious technical faults, mistakes, and errors resulting from careless editing.

Example: One of the most successful songs from my DOOM 2016 score, BFG Division, barely makes an appearance in DOOM Eternal. But for some reason, the song was butchered to make three tracks for the DOOM Eternal OST.

• Track 24, “You Can’t Just Shoot A Hole Into The surface of Mars” [sic], starts with two separate sections playing directly on top of each other, but they’re out of sync. The track soon falls apart with a series of stunningly shoddy edits, completely out-of-time, until the main BFG Division riff makes a sudden 8-bar appearance before the track ends abruptly.

Why this was included is beyond me.

There’s no excuse for these crappy edits: I deliver my music in a neatly packaged Wwise file complete with tempo information and carefully crafted transitions designed to seamlessly react to the player’s actions, something many reviewers mentioned.

• id Software would have had more success if they’d simply recorded the Wwise output. The fact that so many YouTubers have been able to construct far better representations of the DOOM Eternal score using this exact method proves the point.

Credits: seeing Chad credited as co-artist on these tracks pissed me off. Credit theft (the act of taking credit for someone else’s work) is rampant in video game music. Chad didn’t write, arrange, perform, record or produce any of this music.

• He carried out a copy-paste job, cutting apart finished music and resaving it. For this, the proper credit would be considered Music Editor. Yet, in some cases, such as Urdak (Track 8) and Deag Ranak (Track 15), he did nothing but change the filename.

That frustrated me immensely. I crunched for two years straight on my DOOM Eternal score, and the fact that someone else thought it proper to take the credit for my work felt like a cruel insult.

Worst of all is the inclusion of hours of music and rejected demos I was not (and still have not been) paid to produce.

Example: Final Sin — Sandy City (Track 59) was a rough idea mocked up in haste for the ending cutscene.

• This exact demo file was immediately rejected. In fact, Chad was part of the panel that rejected it. But he included the file on the album and listed himself as a co-artist, despite having absolutely nothing to do with it.
• More importantly, the song is based on a melody written by Bobby Prince, the composer of DOOM 2, who hasn’t been credited anywhere on the album.

id Software never paid me for this demo, which was produced in good faith and not meant for public release.

I was dismayed

Instead of a worthy follow-up to the DOOM 2016 OST, the DOOM Eternal OST had been reduced to a cheaply thrown-together cash grab. The album was a disgrace. I worked extremely hard on the music of DOOM Eternal and crunched for years to make it happen. To have it presented in such a lousy way was heartbreaking.

But ultimately, its fans who spent hundreds of dollars on the Collectors Edition who should be the most disappointed. Marketing lured them under the false pretence that they were getting an OST from me, but instead, they got served a haphazard mess cobbled together by someone else. The OST itself, the factors that led to it, and the extensive use of unpaid music both on the album and in the game meant I could not publicly support id Software with any shred of honesty.

Skype call with Marty after the poor release

The OST’s problems were glaringly obvious and immediately drew negative criticism.

Within hours of the release, Marty emailed me. He was frustrated at my lack of public support and deeply concerned the OST was attracting bad press. He insisted we urgently address the OST situation publicly through a joint statement that affirmed our commitment to doing something about it.

He asked for a call to discuss the matter.

I was skeptical of his intentions. Marty can overwhelm you with the power of his disappointment. I was worried he was setting up the call for confrontation, not resolution.

• My responsibility to him ended when my contract finished, and I didn’t feel like committing myself to a barrage of threats and abuse.
• In my view, the poor reception was the real-world consequence of a mismanaged project.

Marty reassured me a positive outcome was his only focus. He insisted he had no intention of doing anything to disparage me or my work and only wanted to overcome the situation with a professional and collaborative approach.

After considering his demeanour, I felt I should embrace the opportunity to engage Marty directly on the OST and unpaid minutes because I also wanted a positive outcome to the situation.

• Marty reassured me and said that he genuinely wanted to work together. That’s what’s “best for all”, he said.
• I had no reason to suspect he had anything but positive intentions, so I took him at his word and agreed to take the call.

Skype call with Marty

Straight away, it was clear Marty was angry with me. “Frankly, we’re too fucking nice”, he snapped.

I approached the call like one should when dealing with a manager on the warpath: keep calm, listen intently, and express understanding but remain firm. I was upset my music had been butchered, baffled at Chad being named as co-artist and shocked at the extensive use of unpaid music.

I could hear Marty making notes of my comments, but rather than acknowledge my concerns, he jumped to the conclusion that I was initiating an attack. He grew suspicious and convinced himself the act of me explaining the problems was some sort of diabolical scheme to sow disunity and division.

• He tried to bring Chad into the call for support, but he couldn’t be reached, and it occurred to me that Marty didn’t really understand the issues and was trying to argue based on misperception.

Consumer protection laws: Marty said the consumer protection issue, caused by taking pre-orders before the OST was under contract, was “no joke”.

• I reminded him the OST had been announced without consulting me in the first place, and he had blocked every attempt I made to get it started. It was only when I went to Bethesda directly that things finally got underway.
• And, quite frankly, he hadn’t even bothered to tell me about the consumer protection issue until 13 days before the final deadline.

In response, Marty explained he was “trying to protect all of us”, but now, because I had not fallen in line, I was on my own. “As soon as people come after us, we come after you”, he said.

Laying blame: he put across the view that the act of me signing the contract had absolved him of any prior mismanagement that led to the situation in the first place.

• He accused me of lying when I told him about the email I received from Bethesda that contradicted him on the importance of the deadline. I forwarded him the email, but he ignored it.
• Seeming to forget I only received the contract two days before the game released, Marty rejected my “assertion” that id Software is always “rushing things”, and expressed frustration at the “notion out in the public” that they didn’t afford me enough time to produce a better album.

I said that if I had been allowed to start work on the OST immediately following the announcement, we would have avoided the consequences that were now playing out. But he just continued to put me down, saying I would have messed it up some other way.

After he spent some time chastising me for my lack of public support, he charged that the failure of the OST was entirely my fault. I shot back that it wasn’t my decision to include 47 poorly edited tracks. I hadn’t even heard their final album before release. He directly accused me of failing to take ownership and insisted I take full public responsibility.

I countered there was absolutely no way I would take the fall for something I didn’t do.

Finding a way forward

After the call raged on for almost an hour, we ultimately agreed on the necessity to dispel rumours, calm fans and demonstrate unity.

• I told him the situation felt like an excellent opportunity to show how disputes should be resolved.

Joint statement: We cleared the air and bashed out a plan to work together. Marty suggested we publish a joint statement that addressed the OST situation and detailed our plans to fix the album, and I felt this was an excellent first step. He requested I hold off on all further public comments until we address the public together.

• I agreed to his request and said I was at his discretion.

The call ended with Marty telling me to expect a draft the following morning.

After the call, I replayed the meeting in my mind. I determined that Marty honestly wanted to resolve the issue in the most amicable way possible, and I had no reason to think otherwise. I awaited the draft statement.

It never arrived.

Marty’s “Open Letter” posted on Reddit

Instead, in an ugly move, days later, Marty took to Reddit and used a company social media account to post an extensive series of lies that blamed me entirely for the failure of the DOOM Eternal OST.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading: hadn’t we just agreed not to do this? Hadn’t we just agreed to a joint statement? Hadn’t Marty just told me he wanted to resolve this issue professionally?

I was horrified. Not just at Marty turning his back on what was our agreed path forward but also at his shameless disregard for the truth in his attack: the Reddit post was littered with lies and disinformation which directly contradicted the actual events and contractual clauses.

• Within hours the post was at the top of Reddit’s front page. It attracted thousands of comments, generated countless news articles and prompted many commentators to make YouTube videos.
• All were repeating Marty’s lies as truth because nobody thought the Executive Producer — now Studio Director — of a major AAA game development studio would go out on a limb and post a series of false accusations on Reddit.

Reddit: The DOOM subreddit, r/DOOM, isn’t an official page; it is run by fans and moderated by volunteers.

• Marty’s company Reddit account, “martyatid”, had been dormant for three years. He resurrected the account for this post, choosing the site to amplify his intent.
• He knew Reddit’s karma point system, ease of anonymous user account creation, swift aggregation of controversial material across subreddits, governance structure, and lack of policies around misinformation would result in damaging consequences for both my professional and personal reputation.

Reddit’s ongoing issues with toxic fandom and abuse are obvious, and the site’s history of notorious hate-campaigns targeting individuals in the game industry could not have been far from Marty’s mind.

• In taking to Reddit with a need to lay blame, he endorsed the platform and appealed directly to the worst aspects of it.

Breach of trust: Reading the Reddit post made me sick to my stomach. Lie after lie after lie, all pointing to me as the fault while posturing himself as the one who did nothing wrong. What hurt me the most was the feeling I’d been duped. I openly trusted Marty. Just days earlier, he told me he wanted to approach the situation professionally. To collaborate. That he had no intention of disparaging me. During our call, Marty told me he avoids social media and never posts online because he knows anything he says becomes the “next day’s news”. But here he was, using his platform to launch a direct personal attack. A public shaming event. A big put-down in front of the entire industry. Why? I felt humiliated. It was immediately clear to me that Marty had hostile intentions all along. He never wanted to work together. He wanted me on the call solely to gather information to create a scapegoat he could blame for the failure of the OST.

I’d been manipulated.

🔴 Detailed factual rebuttal of Marty Stratton’s claims link here

The Reddit post was a significant step in the wrong direction and was not the way to solve the problem. Instead of working with me on a professional outcome, Marty switched to stoking controversy by treating the issue as a scandal. Why he turned his back on me while misleading me to the contrary, when there was an opportunity to come together and work through the issue, without even seeking an alternative, is something I still don’t understand.

Lawyers become involved

There wasn’t just one serious issue, but two: Marty published a series of false accusations against me, and id Software shipped DOOM Eternal with double the amount of music than what they paid for.

Lawyers: I immediately had my legal representative contact id Software with complaints about both matters. Marty forwarded my complaints to Zenimax, and within days I got a response from the executive legal authority from the upper echelons of the company.

• Zenimax assumed that Marty had acted appropriately and denied needing to pay me for the additional music.

To combat their stance, I:

• demonstrated Marty’s allegations directly contradicted contractual terms, public announcements and contents of emails and phone calls;
• concluded he exploited his position of authority to deliberately spread misinformation, used Reddit as a vehicle, and substantially damaged my reputation;
• showed that DOOM Eternal included almost five hours of music, over double what they agreed to pay me per the contract.

Once I presented those details, they quickly offered to settle.

Settlement offer negotiations

id Software and Zenimax engaged a large multi-national law firm as representation, and we began settlement negotiations. I demanded Marty withdraw his false accusations and issue an apology. But they rejected this on Marty’s concern that if he admitted fault publicly, that would negatively affect his reputation.

Instead, they proposed a deal: they would pay me the money owed, but on the condition I produce a new, polished version of the DOOM Eternal OST, appearing to suggest that if I gave them something to sell, that would somehow make up for the damage Marty had caused to my reputation.

Back-and-forth

I struggled with Marty’s insistence on avoiding accountability but realised his company was unlikely to agree to anything unless it was mutually beneficial. With that in mind, I agreed to produce a new, proper DOOM Eternal OST.

• However, I was unwilling to do the work while living under the shadow of ridicule and abuse stemming from Marty’s Reddit post. His actions severely eroded my trust in him, and I requested Marty take down the post as a sign of good faith.

But lawyers acting on Marty’s behalf expressed worry that even removing the post would reflect poorly on his reputation, which struck me as profoundly hypocritical: he should have thought about that before posting it in the first place.

In response, I told them my acceptance of their settlement offer was tied to the condition that Marty would remove the post immediately.

That prompted a spectacular meltdown

Their mood suddenly changed, and a threatening tone edged their letter of response. They withdrew the settlement offer and vowed the Reddit post was just the beginning. Marty was willing to issue legal proceedings to use the court process to damage my reputation further. They threatened legal action:

• over times I had discussed DOOM Eternal publicly, forcing me to remove my YouTube streams;
• and for using DOOM Eternal on my portfolio. Meaning I cannot share any of the music I produced for the game, and I had to remove any mention of DOOM Eternal from my website.

The letter then devolved into a bizarre rant that attempted to frame Marty’s behaviour not as wrongdoing but instead as something I deserved. But contrarily, that same letter presented me with a new settlement for damages caused anyway.

Hush money to bury the issue

The new settlement offer was a six-figure sum in return for taking full public responsibility for the failure of the OST. The details were absurd:

• Marty would keep the Reddit post up indefinitely. He’d never retract his false accusations nor clarify his statement, and his story would be forever considered the truth.
• I could never discuss DOOM Eternal, the OST, or the Reddit post. If ever asked, I had to say “no comment”.
• I had to pledge I would never badmouth Marty or anyone working under the Zenimax umbrella, and I could never criticise any product developed by a Zenimax studio.

I had to accept blame for the situation, under contract, for life. In return, I’d be paid a six-figure sum and Marty would save face and be free to continue on his way without any fear of interference of any kind from me.

Go to hell

As far as I was concerned, signing the gag order was out of the question. Giving up my right to tell the truth just to get some money was totally unacceptable. It meant having Marty walk all over me wasn’t so bad as to be beyond being paid off.

The truth is more important. I worked incredibly hard on the franchise, crunching for years to make it happen. My scores for both games were very successful: the companies who released them enjoyed the benefits. To have all that thrown away by someone who blatantly lied to portray me as a person who brings “uncertainty and risk” to any project, who now wanted to pay me off to preserve his reputation, was both troubling and hurtful.

Threats, abuse and harassment

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, incidences of online abuse escalated at an alarming rate as Marty’s Reddit post led to frustration over my alleged professional failure, and toxic gamers grew openly aggressive.

• They shared my personal details via message boards, including Reddit, which meant that abusers could now reach me in more ways than ever.
• They email-bombed my inboxes, crashing the server and clogging my messaging services, crippling my ability to communicate.
• They harassed my other clients with attempts to get me fired from their projects.
• They called my phone numbers around the clock, screaming messages full of abuse.

I began receiving specific expressions of violence, the content so vivid it made me sick. The torrent of abuse telling me how to kill myself, how I’d be mutilated, how they would circulate photos of my body to traumatise my family, how my family would be murdered, how they’d hurt my animals, how they’d shoot up any event I attended, how I’d be raped to death, really started to wear me down in ways I couldn’t previously imagine.

Enormous strain

The spew of harassment coupled with legal threats from Marty put me under enormous strain. I began to feel isolated as the demands of the situation took their toll, and I desperately sought a way to resolve the matter.

Counter: I rejected the gag order and returned to the negotiation table with a counteroffer: remove the Reddit post, pay me for the extra music in DOOM Eternal, and I’ll produce another version of the OST. I hoped that presenting something they had previously asked for might persuade them to change their mind. I also shared details of the abuse, hoping the examples would spur Marty into retracting his false accusations and condemning the harassment.

Lawyers acting on Marty’s behalf requested time to discuss the offer, which gave me some hope.

Delays and stalling tactics

But then the stalling began, and over the coming months, I was subjected to every miserable delay tactic trick in the book.

They would request a meeting to discuss the settlement contract, suddenly postpone, reschedule, and then cancel at the last minute. We’d follow up, and they’d respond by requesting more time to consider the details. Chasing them again, they’d feed me bullshit excuses that always ended with “we’ll get back to you as soon as possible”. Next, they’d lead me on, saying their internal conversation was “heading in a positive direction” before delaying further because someone important who had input was holidaying in Miami.

It dragged on and on. As each week passed, bringing plenty of excuses peppered with hollow assurances of a positive outcome, it became more evident that I was being strung along. Until finally, after considerable time had passed, they came back with a response:

• They threw out the idea of ever redoing the OST and instead demanded the gag order only.

I looked at the email in dismay. After months of delays, meeting cancellations and postponements, they arrived precisely at the same place they started.

The acquisition

By now, the news broke that Microsoft would acquire Zenimax (including id Software) for $7.5 billion in cash. DOOM Eternal had been out for months and reviewed with great acclaim. But instead of celebrating the game’s success, I was caught up in a situation I can only describe as stupid.

Marty’s company had gotten to the point of offering to pay me off instead of addressing his inability to take responsibility for his behaviour, and toxic gamers were using his false accusations as a license to target me with relentless abuse, public shaming and violent rhetoric. All this over a video game soundtrack.

The absurdity of it all wasn’t lost on me.

The final offer

News of the acquisition gave me hope that now, with the pressure of a much larger entity looking over their shoulder, Marty might be encouraged to consider the benefits of a mutually beneficial outcome and rethink his position.

And so, for the second time, I proposed:

• I would produce a better version of the DOOM Eternal OST.
• But in return, I needed Marty to take down the Reddit post, publish a clarification and pay me for the extra music used in DOOM Eternal.

I can’t say I was keen on doing it, but I desperately tried to find a way to move forward and it was the only real option I had.

More stalling, threats & a giant waste of time

Again, lawyers acting for Marty were good at giving the impression of positivity. They seemed to be seriously considering the offer, saying they were taking it up the chain and getting “key stakeholders” onboard. However, any hope I had left eroded when they started to pull out the same old, tired, stalling tactics.

• As the months wore on, they became belligerent and inflexible, bringing nothing to the table but vague threats and circular arguments.
• They even degenerated into gaslighting tactics, trying to convince me that removing the Reddit post would somehow make my situation worse, so for the benefit of everyone, it should remain untouched.

They were unwavering in their insistence that the gag order was the only resolution possible, making it clear Marty had painted himself into a corner with no other way out.

Attempting to remove the Reddit post myself

I’d had enough. I grew tired of having the respect I afforded Marty, and his employer, with attempts to resolve the dispute privately, get turned into a giant waste of time, effort and money. The Reddit post had been up for 15 months and attempts to resolve the dispute with Marty had gotten me nowhere. With my patience stretched to the absolute limit, I decided to take steps to remove the Reddit post myself.

Reddit Moderator: I reached out to one of the r/DOOM moderators. We made contact and arranged a call via Discord.

The moderator introduced himself and spoke about his love for the DOOM franchise and its fanbase. Along with the r/DOOM subreddit, he told me he also moderated the official DOOM Discord server.

• I told him how Marty’s Reddit post had affected me deeply, both professionally and personally. It was a source of ongoing stress and harm, and I asked if he’d consider removing it.

Much to my relief, he instantly took it down.

But within 12 hours, the post was reinstated. The moderator blocked me on Discord and didn’t reply to my emails.

• A few days later, Marty’s lawyers contacted me and said removing the Reddit post had greatly offended him. He was furious and made it clear in the strongest terms that an amicable resolution would be impossible.

The purpose of this statement

Marty Stratton has put me in a position where the only step I can take to repair my reputation is with a public response. It is a defence, not an unprovoked attack, published as a last resort and with extreme reluctance only after every other avenue to reach a mutually agreeable resolution has failed.

I have given Marty ample opportunity to correct the false accusations he made against me, and all I’ve asked for is the truth and to be paid for my work. Stubborn refusal to address his Reddit post, out of fear for his image, has crippled Marty’s ability to offer anything but a gag order.

Marty seems to think so little of me that I’d give up my right to tell the truth and willingly accept the long-term mental health implications of publicly taking the blame for the situation in exchange for money. I can’t agree to protect him from the reality of what happened. The truth is more important, and signing a gag order would remove my ability to defend myself with the facts.

The only thing left to do is issue this public response.

Personal thoughts

I wish Marty had taken more time to consider better options before deciding that a Reddit post was the best course of action. It put his company in a position where they’re unable to do anything with DOOM Eternal’s music, it weaponised the fanbase against me, and sent a worrying signal to anyone working under him: if he’s willing to do this to me, he’s just as capable of doing it to anyone else.

Marty ends his Reddit post acknowledging an end to our “collaboration”. Collaboration: a word that describes people working together to reach a common goal, through trust, mutual respect and shared benefit. I’ve had an overwhelmingly positive career, filled with many great collaborations. I’ve worked on some great games, built lifelong friendships and worked my butt off in the trenches with some of the best creative minds on earth. I’ve had many great experiences in the game industry. My “collaboration” with Marty Stratton wasn’t one of them.

I never quit DOOM. I quit a toxic client.

Marty couldn’t accept that I never wanted to work with him again, and made his best attempt to send my career into a nosedive as punishment. He resorted to lies and innuendo that fell apart under the most basic level of scrutiny, then tried to bury the issue under a stack of cash.

Using NDAs, settlements and gag orders to silence truths is an appalling tactic used by people in high positions of power fearful of accountability. I am choosing to speak out because the alternative was to accept that tactic as okay.

It’s time to leave this sad state of affairs behind.

I’m forever thankful to the true-hearted folks who have continued to put their faith in me, even in the face of Marty’s attempts to damage my reputation. I’m happy to say the projects I’ve been a part of since have been some of the most rewarding experiences of my career. And I’m grateful to those around me who gave me love and support that kept me together when I was coming apart — they didn’t deserve to be put through this, either.

I’m looking forward to the future and all the great stuff around the corner.

-MG