Doom Remake 4 fan game shut down by ZeniMax legal team

[Andytizer 269]

Doom Remake 4 was one of many fan attempts to bring Doom into the modern age. However, the law is the law, and Zenimax has threatened the creator with this scary-looking legal letter:

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Re: Unauthorized Use by ZeniMax Media Inc Intellectual Property

Dear Mr. Vasily: I am writing on behalf of ZeniMax Media Inc.

We have discovered your "Doom Remake 4" game and reviewed the related website, social media pages, and public statements regarding your intent to develop a reboot of the Doom (1993) videogame. Notwithstanding your affection and enthusiasm for the Doom franchise and the original Doom game, we must object to any unlicensed use of ZeniMax Media Inc property. Your current use of Doom IP on its website and social media pages is without our authorization and is infringing. You must take immediate steps to remove all uses of ZeniMax Media Inc intellectual property, including DOOM copyrights, trademarks, characters, artwork, images, and logos and desist from any further use.

ZeniMax Media Inc is the exclusive owner of all intellectual property rights in and to the DOOM franchise. ZeniMax Media Inc does not permit its names, characters, logos, copyrights and/or trademarks to be used without authorization.

Please provide written confirmation by June 20, 2019 that you (i) have removed all ZeniMax Media Inc intellectual property from related websites and social media pages, (ii) will cease all development of the Doom reboot and will destroy all code and materials related to that project, and (iii) will not use any ZeniMax Media Inc intellectual property in the development of any future videogames.

This letter is not intended to be a full recitation of ZeniMax Media Inc's rights or remedies, nor be a waiver of any such rights and remedies, all of which are expressly reserved.

Very Truly Yours,

John T. Dorne
Deputy Chief Counsel

Creator vasyan777 response was to wipe the ModDB page, saying this:
"I announce our shutdown of the Doom Remake 4 page. It's with a great sadness that I'm posting today; I recently received a letter from ZeniMax Media Inc to end production on Doom Remake 4. After a few days, I've exhausted my options to keep it afloat; we knew this day was a possibility. I've talked to legal console, and they stated that there would be a high chance of us winning the argument, since this is a mod, but the legal fight would take most likely a year(s) and cost around 100k. The page has been already wiped"

It's a sad day to see fan projects get wiped out by bigger fish. However it was alwas on the cards - we've always seen corporations defend their interests against any unauthorised use of their copyrighted and trademarked materials.

What was Doom Remake 4?

Description from the ModDB page: "Have you ever dreamed about seeing DOOM in HD or with modern feel? Well today you are lucky, Doom Remake 4 is basically a compilation of mods that make it look more polished and aesthetic. It brings you: High Resolution Textures with PBR materials, 3D models of every object and enemy, New HUD (modified DoomVisor), Brutal mods with plenty of blood and gibs."

Screenshots don't do it justice but videos like these show how visceral Doom can feel with modern graphics:

Whilst the mod pages have been totally wiped, you can still see some of the information online in Google's cache, including the original description:

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The remastered version adds fresh features, like High Definition Textures with PBR materials, Dynamic Lights, shaders and postprocessing effects. The new physically-based rendering (PBR) brings a new stage of realism by allowing the light rays to interact with the given surface matter to the textures, for example the environment made of metal realistically shines as it would do in real life. All the new 3D models are professionlly made and replace every single flat boring obsolete 2D sprite. Doom Remake 4 also adds more brutality into the game by allowing the player to disassemble corpses of the dead enemies. For fans of the Doom series everywhere, remastered version is a glorious moment of triumph, where the passion of the fans triumphed over the cash-driven realities of the gaming industry to breathe new life into an old classic.

As remakes go, Doom Remake 4 stays almost totally true to its roots as an old-school shooter in that there is no upgrade system or collectibles to speak of; only raw action and quick thinking. Like most 90's-era first-person shooters, the core loop of gameplay revolves around the player being given an arsenal of increasingly destructive and weird weaponry while being pitted against ever-more difficult enemy encounters and ambushes, forcing them to employ their wits and cool to stay alive under fire. Regarding the guns, almost nothing has changed save for stylish 3D models with high texture definition. All the old fan favorites are present, including the Plasmagun, the Rocket Launcher, and the BFG9000.

Doom Remake 4 is a good mod, not just for long-time fans, but for new ones too. It's a testament of how far we've come, and how much further we still have to go in the field of mod-making. So grab your helmet and get it on ModDB! It's available for free! The mod works as stand-alone mod and is compatible with any custom levels both classic and GZDoom based. The original Doom levels are not included in the package, because the license doesn't allow to redistribute them, however the package includes alternative levels from Freedoom Project which can be freely redistributed and in general look better and more detailed than original levels. The original Doom levels can be loaded as well if you copy doom2.wad and doom.wad from your Doom folder into Doom Remake 4 folder.

Sad to see a great looking mod go down. Had ZeniMax not intervened, vasyan777 had every intention of adding more to the game: