id Software first announced its plans to develop Doom 4 way back in May 2008. Since that announcement, id has been quiet about its plans for the next entry in its hit first person shooter series as it concentrated its efforts to develop an original FPS, Rage.
Rage finally came out in October 2011 to mixed reviews and disappointing sales, compared with hits like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3. The PC release of Rage was also hit with lots of graphical issues which id Software"s main programmer John Carmack admitted to, even calling the PC graphics driver issues of Rage "a real cluster !@#$."
Now id"s parent company Bethesda Softworks is doing some damage control thanks to a new post on the 4chan.org message boards that claims to show early screenshots of Doom 4 along with the headline "Doom 4 canceled, more at 11."
However, Neowin contacted Bethesda Softworks" PR head Pete Hines who said flat out, "Doom 4 is not cancelled." He did not comment on if the screenshots in the 4chan.org post were authentic Doom 4 screenshots. The visuals depict an apocalyptic-looking cityscape that looks much different from the corridor shooter levels that have been a theme of previous Doom games.