The veteran notes the ”ad changed everything” and he had enjoyed ”a great relationship” with gamers up until then. Daikatana wasn’t loved.
”You know, I never wanted to make you my bitch, not you, not them, not any of the other players and, most importantly, not any of my fans,” Romero told IndustryGamers.
”Up until that ad, I felt I had a great relationship with the gamer and the game development community and that ad changed everything… I regret it and I apologize for it.”
The marketing campaign hyped the PC shooter so much that ”only a game like Quake or the original Doom could have saved it,” he said, but there were major hurdles in Daikatana’s development anyway.
“It’s a miracle the game was even released. Everything was going wrong.” It has ironically achieved fame among PC gamers, but only as one of the worst commercial and critical failures ever. Romero was ”on top of the world back then,” after Doom’s success.
“The game insulted nearly everyone who read it. It was a terrible marketing decision. I apologize for letting it loose in the first place,” he said, admitting he became too full of himself and lost focus of the game.
Today John Romero is creative director at Gazillion, and he’s definitely open to making a new game with old buddy John Carmack from id Software.
”I have no doubt that if John and I decided to make another game it would be fresh and new and awesome,” he said.
”We’ve both grown a lot in the past 14 years and have a lot more experience, not only in game development but also in dealing with people and game teams.”
”Many times you hear of musical groups getting back together after decades apart, and then they try to work together again everything explodes and falls apart because of personality and hubris. I really don’t think that would happen with John and me,” he added.
id is extremely busy right now with the likes of Doom 4 and Rage, so a creative rekindling between Romero and Carmack is unlikely anytime soon. Do you remember the infamous Daikatana ad campaign, PC gamer?
