... and regarding my professional experience... marketing sucks... 

I think the main problem is that this new Doomguy design is too generic. Had they used one of those updated classic enemies like the revenant or the baron of hell instead, the reaction would've been more positive.

The problem isn't the cover, it's the new Doomguy design. But I don't care much about that since he won't be very visible in the game. 

Not that it really matters but I agree. New Revenant would have been cool as he looks pretty fucking rad. 

Upon seeing the teaser trailer I was genuinely excited about the new logo reveal. In that trailer the logo is in darkness and is totally black, but it had rim lighting, so it was 3D. I thought that was a great tease. The reveal, however, was very disappointing. It is literally the closest it could be to plain text without actually being plain text.

The original is a very interesting and iconic logo: vivid complimentary colors and contrasting textures and patterns that tie directly into the theme of the game. It felt like an object, an ominous sign floating in space. The logo is evocative and achieved all this very elegantly, I feel most people would have made a busy mess.

That being said, I don't think this escaped the minds of the people at zenimax and id. Frankly, the people who care about the doom logo or cover art are not their target demographic. As bland and boring and, to some people, insulting as the new logo and cover art is, it is recognizable. It's recognizable as a video game, as a game with guns, a game you can buy your son/grandson. Consumers are busy, distracted people bombarded with logos and packaging every single second. It could be argued that a re-imagined classic logo and cover art could simply be too noisy/busy/detailed and render it unrecognizable to the general consumer. 

I've heard this argument before... it always seems a justification for blandness rather than a reason to do something cool.

The lettering of the original was kind of busy with those tech details, but it also had a guy stood on top of a mound of struggling demons shooting them.

That's a pretty striking image (no comments on the quality). 

It's marketing people who get final say on this. That's where the buck stops, not with the devs. If marketing says the font has to be plain white to stand out for dumb people in a shop window, then that's what they go for. Also, focus tests have shown people respond better to images of space marines holding guns and not demons so again that's what we get etc etc. 

I think they made the wrong decision. I think they could have done something very cool and ultimately iconic if they wanted to.

However, I can see how that argument would be compelling to a board of directors who want a return on the $XX,XXX,XXX they just dumped into a game. 

"Also, focus tests have shown people respond better to images of space marines holding guns and not demons so again that's what we get etc etc."

Annnnnd we're back to being skeptical about the game. If focus groups are driving box art and marketing campaigns, it's not a stretch to think they're also driving game design ... in which case, rekt. 

Are like Design Committees, but with even fewer designers involved. 

Maybe it's a planned decision for it to replicate Halo in order to pull those fans in, subconsciously.

You take Halo 2 shit brown background here
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/halo/images/0/0c/Halo_2_Anniversary_Promotional_cover.png/revision/latest?cb=20140711045030

then add Halo1 chef hovering over the logo
http://photos.imageevent.com/afap/wallpapers/videogaming/halo//Halo-Combat-Evolved-Cover-Art.jpg

And you got the doom4 cover. The armour is even the same with the big spikey thing on his left shoulder that isn't on the right. 

bad cover is highly suspicious. It clearly depicts what the developer priorities are.

In an ideal world, a new doom game would be a game made by a legendary and famous studio who already did more than enough money and so they can just release what the fuck they want. So you have a chance of actually having something fun and interesting. Instead, iD fucked up in the past and now I fear they will be playing as safe as possible. (It still irks me that the marine has to use a powersuit to do the impossible. To me the doom marine has to be an implausible and impossible hero, not a regular guy in a robot suit. but this is a very minor nit pick)

just played a bunch of doom wads and mods. I'm highly skeptical iD will be able to release something as fun and cool to play. I will still give this game the benefit of the doubt, but I wish at least the pinata effect can be switched off.

Also, I don't give a shit about takedowns as insta-kill moves, in the sense that even I find a certain degree of purism absolutely retarded. What I think absolutely put the balance at risk are the invicibility frames and the pinata effect (if they have enemies being pinatas, you can be pretty damn well sure they balanced the game around that so screw careful pick up placement and balance, they will still be around but it's not the same thing)

some of the leaked stuff seems encouraging and I have to say the weapons sound RIGHT 

If focus groups are driving box art and marketing campaigns, it's not a stretch to think they're also driving game design

I wouldn't go that far. By the way, there's nothing new about any of this. This is how it's always been done - Marketing/Publishing generally control the posters/adverts/trailers/box art/massive cardboard cutouts of the player character that you see in stores etc. 

bad cover is highly suspicious. It clearly depicts what the developer priorities are.

No, again, and I can't stress this enough - The developer doesn't do the box art - that is always done by the publishers/marketing. 

Didn't mean to make it sound like they didn't - why I mentioned the publisher's marketing team having their own artists do the commercial stuff.

The developers can and do push back when its really bad though.

Although, comparing the images Kona posted and the doom cover, I think he's exactly right.

And most probably when iD pushed back on this cover, the marketing people pointed at these two covers to prove how superior the new Doom one was - argument done. 

I see what you mean about the Halo covers, and yeah it's plausible that they are thinking about marketing this as a gorier/edgier Halo, to try to pull in that (huge) crowd. 

And most probably when iD pushed back on this cover, the marketing people pointed at these two covers to prove how superior the new Doom one was - argument done.

The halo games are better than doom in general, so it really is a good move to mimic them as much as possible. 

The halo games are better than doom in general

Gonna catch some shit for this but....

agreed.

Bring it on, bisnitches. 

But Marmite is better than peanut butter.

Not sure where Nutella comes in.

Think it depends on how hot or cold a day it is. 

it's pretty clear to me that they are downplaying the sci-fi and demons aspect, and emphasizing the "soldier dude with gun" aspect, because they think it has more mainstream appeal. 

Lot's of people judging the book by its cover 

Amen to that. But sometimes, people nitpick just for the fun of it.

It's fun to try to theorize and understand these other aspects of game development & publishing. 

Everything. 

https://bethesda.net/?utm_source=DOOMSP_2&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=02162016-SP_2&hootPostID=ea365d62e008fd6eea84e9c997155dd3#en/events/game/inside-dooms-brutally-fast-single-player-campaign/2016/02/17/78

perks to do everything faster, no reloads, that sounds promising 

"And, as he earlier promised to show us, he�s flick-switching � id�s in-house term for the instinctual and nearly instantaneous swapping of weapons that players can pull off once they learn their way around the weapon wheel. A quick tap, a quick flick� and the weapon wheel never even appears. �It makes you feel super slick when you�re doing it,� Martin smiles. �You�re just flick-switching between weapons and you�re like�� Martin pauses to make some rapid-fire pew-pew-pew sound effects. We get the point."

What the shitballs??? They mean exactly what any cunting FPS was doing in the 1990s with weapons on 1-9 or an instantaneous next weapon button?? Before the stupid weapon wheel selection crap shat on that?? Wanktards!! 

Reading that made my meh-o-meter overload and I had to take it out and plug it in to recharge.

Stinks of "as designed by focus group as the fucking box art", albeit that focus group has been well briefed that a main focus is "let's make sure we avoid all the slow-pace criticisms of D3 at any cost"...seems very much like they're trying to design a game to run away from criticism rather than positively aiming for a clear design goal.

That being said, I predict here and now that it will be a good - but not great - game in it's own right. It will tick enough focus group boxes, but with adequate, cursory ticks rather than massive excited strokes.