People Won't Buy Xbox One/PS4/PC Doom Just Because of Its Legacy, Bethesda Admits

The Doom series is arguably one of the most well-known and esteemed franchises in all of gaming, but Bethesda isn't banking on the franchise's past success to guarantee future glory. Marketing executive Pete Hines says in a new interview that Bethesda is not taking anything for granted with its upcoming Doom game for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

"We are going in as if we need to prove ourselves all over again," Hines told MCV. "We have no free passes. Nobody will assume this is going to be awesome."

Bethesda's challenge with the new Doom game, then, becomes making sure that it appeals to the modern gamer. "We are going to have to prove that this is something that's going to be fun and different that you need to pay attention to," Hines said. "That has to be our default position, we can't be: 'It's Doom. Of course you're going to play it.' But that just makes us work harder."

Bethesda is no stranger to resurrecting beloved franchises, as the publisher did the very same thing with this year's Wolfenstein: The New Order. From a critical standpoint, the game's release "went really well," Hines said, though it's unclear if the game was indeed a commercial success. He said he was glad that people found The New Order to not be "just another shooter." At the very least, the game helped the Wolfenstein series return to its former glory, Hines said.

"Let's be honest, [Wolfenstein] was a bit of a tarnished brand," Hines said. "And we knew that. The last couple of games were either 'OK' or 'not great.' It wasn't a franchise where people were desperate for the next one. Wolfenstein isn't Uncharted. We knew this would take some explaining. But developer Machine Games has now untarnished the IP."

The new Doom game for Xbox One, PS4, and PC--currently titled only Doom--doesn't have a release date and we don't know much at all about it. According to Bethesda, an earlier version of the game was not up to the company's quality standards, so it was rebooted. If you purchased a copy of Wolfenstein: The New Order, you'll get to play the Doom beta, but there is no word yet on when it will begin.

Developer id Software will give a "sneak peek" at the new Doom game at QuakeCon next week in Texas.