Romero "regrets" Daikatana ad campaign

By Robert Purchese Published 18 May, 2010

"I never wanted to make you my bitch."

10 years later, Doom co-creator John Romero has "apologised" to fans for a "terrible" Daikatana marketing campaign he "regrets" and "should have stopped".

Famously, a poster for the game told fans that "John Romero's about to make you his bitch".

"I knew it was risky, and I didn't want to do it. It didn't make sense. I mean, there's the whole culture of smack talk that goes with games and especially an FPS, and that was something I was known for," Romero told Gamesauce magazine (via IndustryGamers).

"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. 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 apologise for it."

Romero recalled that he was "on top of the world back then" and the game suffered as a result of his celebrity mindset. "It's a miracle the game was even released. Everything was going wrong," he said.

Daikatana received 5/10 from Eurogamer.

These days, Romero is creative director at Gazillion. He hasn't completed and shipped a game in years.

Nevertheless, Romero remains upbeat - even about the possibility of reuniting with id Software and John Carmack.

"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.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (57) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • drchocapic #1 2 years ago

    Somebody sounds desperate.

  • otto #2 2 years ago

    The humility is a tad late, John, but apology accepted. Now when is Killcreek going to apologise for that Playboy shoot?

  • superjag86 #3 2 years ago

    @drchocapic: Agreed!

  • Tomo #4 2 years ago

    lols. Never seen that ad campaign. Quite amusing. And stupid. Very stupid.

  • Red-Moose #5 2 years ago

    "please give me a job, John"

  • Redeye #6 2 years ago

    Ah, Daikatana...what an utterly broken bag of old toss that was. Hyped beyond belief, knackered beyond compare, and AI to make you want to pull your eyeballs out with rusty pliers.

    If anything, that title should read 'Romero "regrets" Daikatana, period'.

  • DoctorFouad #7 2 years ago

    Romero destoyed his professional career by himself...but he could restore his career if he got the will to do so...

    But I am really sad for suzuki...after the failure of dreamcast...no other shenmue games...
    for me Shenmue is simply the best and most revolutionary video game ever created...

  • Redeye #8 2 years ago

    ^^ Pedant. ;)

  • Eldritch #9 2 years ago

    "Will work for food. Have hair, ego."

    And, graphics aside, what was so great about Shenmue in the first place? Hearing the line "Do you know what happened in the night of the incident?" a billion times? Rez, on the other hand, was a major achievement.

    And Daikatana was a mess, agreed, but it wasn't THAT bad. At least the graphics had a nice Bitmap Brothers-esque touch, which, to me, is always a plus.

  • HermitArcader #10 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #11 2 years ago

    I only ever played the demo of Daikatana, but it was the awful first level where you're running through an ugly and confusing swap trying to kill rubbish frogs and irritating flying things. I seem to remember just finding it really, really dull, and graphically sub-par (didn't it come out after Half-Life?).

    Reading the reviews at the time, it got even worse later on. Although am I right that the N64 version was quite a bit better?

    If anyone's too young to remember this, it's not so much the ad campaign that killed it, but the ridiculously over-hyped previews. Massive levels, deformable terrain, advanced AI, morphing weapons, etc...

  • Malek86 #12 2 years ago

    He probably regrets Ion Storm as a whole far more than Daikatana.

  • GrumpyMoose #13 2 years ago

    I don't understand why Romero is still a wanted criminal while Peter Molyneux is worshiped by 88% of the gaming community...

  • Eldritch #14 2 years ago

    Daikatana was the Duke Nukem Forever of its day. The main problem was they actually released it.

  • Malek86 #15 2 years ago

    "Reading the reviews at the time, it got even worse later on. Although am I right that the N64 version was quite a bit better? "

    Apparently, it was even worse. On the other hand, there was an ok GBC game, but it wasn't made by Ion Storm.

  • geeza2020 #16 2 years ago

    hahaha yeah the hype for Daikatana was so over the top. Although most of it sounds frankly ludicrous now, i actually believed most of it. Luckily i never actually spent any money on it at release, just played it at a mates, laughing over his shoulder while he tried to justify his purchase.

    *sigh* Good times....

  • Macdory #17 2 years ago

    He shouldn't be apologising for the ad campaign - he should be apologising for making such an abortion of a game.

  • hiddenranbir #18 2 years ago

    "You know, I never wanted to make you my bitch..."

    Thank goodness. I can finally rest easy.
    Edited by 1 at 18/05/10 @ 10:06

  • TeaFiend #19 2 years ago

    But would Carmack have him back?

  • the_mtfr #20 2 years ago

    "We've both grown a lot in the past 14 years"

    Yes Romero, so did I and Stephen Hawking. You fucking kiss-ass.

  • spliffhead #21 2 years ago

    The Deathmatch/Beta was excellent fun, I made it to the top 10 in the worldwide rankings.

    Which thinking about probably wasn't a good sign as I was smacking down the devs at their own game and exploiting bugs to boot.

    Hope he knocks out another game one day, with his head on a pole at the end.

  • otto #22 2 years ago

    "Daikatana was the Duke Nukem Forever of its day."

    Well, yeah... except DNF was the DNF of its day...

    DNF and Daikatana were both announced in Spring 1997. :D

  • mingster #23 2 years ago

    Why has he had to mention something about an ad campaign he did 10 years ago .. now?
    Regrets much?

  • Goodfella #24 2 years ago

    Romero "regrets" Daikatana ad campaign

    Not as much as I regret playing the game.

  • Concrete #25 2 years ago

    The fact remains that he was/is a fantastic games designer, and since he left ID their games haven't been up to the caliber of the Doom series and Quake 1. Can't say its likely that he will ever end up back at ID, but it is conceivable that he will meet an up and coming programming talent/team ala Carmack who would give him the technological leverage to produce a top tier game.

  • BradlayLaw #26 2 years ago

    "I can't leave without my buddy Superfly"

    At least ION Storm gave us Deus Ex and Anachronox.

  • Eldritch #27 2 years ago

    If Romero is still growing at his age, he's got to have some serious case of acromegaly.

    And putting Romero and Hawking in the same sentence is like doing the same with David Mellor and Einstein.

  • siro #28 2 years ago

    The actual news in here (though ten years old):

    Eurogamer thought Daikatana was worth a 5!?

  • drumbaby #29 2 years ago

    Diakatana managed to make the Quake 2 engine look worse than the Quake 2 engine.

  • abigsmurf #30 2 years ago

    "I never wanted to make you my bitch. I just wanted to go out for some drinks and maybe, just maybe spend the night together..."

  • SAMagic #31 2 years ago

    siro: my thoughts exactly. Looking back, 5/10 seems far too high.

    As for Romero reuniting with iD like some sort of classic rock band, I have my doubts. I'll have to see Rage when it comes out, but iD's last few games (DooM 3 and all) seem to show they're slacking in the design department - I worry they're stuck with a mindset that hasn't progressed for a decade, especially in light of other FPS games. I think gamers are far more fickle than music fans - with music you may be able to tweak things and pump out more of the same, but I really don't think you can quite do that with games.

  • Capa26 #32 2 years ago

    Would love to see Romero and Carmack reunite and make a retro FPS shooter rather than a proper full release... make it a download title and as long as I get to fuck up some demons and/or aliens with a phallic gun I'm happy.

    More people should follow the 'making you their bitch' line of marketing... just imagine 'Miyamoto wants to make you his bitch....'

  • TeaFiend #33 2 years ago

    id make glorified tech demos. They are not really trying to make a game that contorts words and emotions into making you feel impressed. They are trying to make something that leaves you feeling impressed from the lighting, reflections, shadows, textures, animations, etc. Technology is their strong point.

  • FogHeart #34 2 years ago

    Updated advert:-

    "Jon Romero wants to be John Carmack's bitch."

  • MaxiSleep #35 2 years ago

    id make glorified tech demos. They are not really trying to make a game that contorts words and emotions into making you feel impressed. They are trying to make something that leaves you feeling impressed from the lighting, reflections, shadows, textures, animations, etc. Technology is their strong point.

    Disagree. Did you played Doom when it was released? One of the landmark game designs - light years ahead of everything at the time in terms of emotional content and the sense of impending dread as you moved through the increasingly twisted environment with a truly excellent twist


    Also did you seek out the voice recordings in Doom III excellent voice acting and writing if you took the time to follow them?

  • sneetch #36 2 years ago

    "You know, I never wanted to make you my bitch"

    /Cue scenes from across the world of crying gamers hugging each other.

    And today, for millions of gamers the world over the healing can finally begin...

  • Acrid #37 2 years ago

    Someone's been watching 'My Name is Earl'

  • AtomicBanana #38 2 years ago

    Anyone with an interest in these events should have a read of 'Masters of Doom'. I put off reading it for years, but I'm glad I finally did, it's a fascinating account of how iD came to be, and covers the fall of Romero/Ion Storm as well.

  • the_mtfr #39 2 years ago

    @Eldritch, my analogy was between me and Romero on one side, and between Carmack and Hawking on the other. A long shot to prove my point but far from the insanity of saying Romero's Hawking, of course!

  • sickpuppysoftware #40 2 years ago

    It wasn't the advert that was the problem

  • desomondo #41 2 years ago

    @ Concrete: Couldn't agree more. Regardless of how far he's fallen since, Romero was one of the best level designers in the business. Hell, you could argue that Quake 1 was the last true FPS where level design was a primary focus and he was a huge part of that. Go back and try out Quake 1 with the Darkplaces engine (goggle it) and take a look at it. The levels are like a living nightmare, very abstract and free from the limitations of reality which every single FPS since Half-Life has been trying to emulate. Doom and Quake 1 took full advantage of their technology (and paper thin story lines) and gave us levels that were unique and fun to run and gun in. I think iD lost a lot of its uniqueness and style with Romero's departure. Even the games Raven produced when he was an executive producer for them (Heretic & Hexen) where better than anything they've done before or since.

    Nothing can excuse him for Diakatana, but I for one would be happy if Romero returned to or teamed up with iD, despite how slim the possibility. At the very least he could help make Doom 4 be more faithful to the original which could only be a good thing.
    Edited by 2 at 18/05/10 @ 14:18

  • dingo75 #42 2 years ago

    Did Ellie review Daikatana? ;)

    Anyways it's ok John just make sure to never release something on a platform I game on.
    Thanks bitch.

  • rayscoota #43 2 years ago

    I actually liked Diakatana I thought it was rubished by the media and not given a chance, got so much better later on into it

  • rudedudejude #44 2 years ago

    Never forgiven him for killing looking glass with his overbudget POS.

  • lordofthedunce #45 2 years ago

    My new catchphrase is 'better than Daikatana'

  • dagas #46 2 years ago

    "...everything explodes and falls apart because of personality and hubris. I really don't think that would happen with John and me"

    Isn't it hubris to be so sure it won't happen to you? =P

  • Slipstream #47 2 years ago

    But I am really sad for suzuki...after the failure of dreamcast...no other shenmue games...
    for me Shenmue is simply the best and most revolutionary video game ever created...

    Such a tragedy. I will always be on the look out for Shenmue III. This series will always remind me of the time 'gamers' let us Shenmue loving people down.

    In fact I'm still impressing people with this game 10 or so years later! "THIS! is what you denied us, instead, we now get games like THIS! http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=kJuMK5-MTAM ..." un-freaking believable! /rant

  • The-Bodybuilder #48 2 years ago

    If you bought daikatana, then you really were his bitch.

  • thelzdking #49 2 years ago

    ""Daikatana was the Duke Nukem Forever of its day."

    Well, yeah... except DNF was the DNF of its day...

    DNF and Daikatana were both announced in Spring 1997. :D"

    Also DNF is going to be awesome.

  • Empedocles #50 2 years ago

    Ahhh John Romero of the flashing teeth, perfect hair and pneumatic buttocks...............

  • spammage #51 2 years ago

    Romero was always fucking clown shoes, Carmack has proved time and time again by taking the creative and moral high ground subsequent to the iD split. I'd argue with anyone that there is no finer balanced fps online multi player than Q3 Arena, Carmack's magnum opus IMO.

  • GooseUK #52 2 years ago

    I never thought that ad campaign was his fault anyway? I thought it was just standard PR... I mean, how could TWO people be stupid enough to agree those ads

  • Vroom #53 2 years ago

    Kinda sad he's sorry. twas an iconic sentiment.

  • Hyoscine #54 2 years ago

    "You know, I never wanted to make you my bitch..."

    Anyone else a teensy bit disappointed?

    *sigh* That hair...

  • JensonJet #55 2 years ago

    If Romero loves rock band type analogies, here's one: I'd say he's the Ringo Starr of id – pathetically useless unless he teams up with someone with any talent.

  • smoothn00dle #56 2 years ago

    too little too late, mate *v*

  • Seth. #57 2 years ago

    Was Daikatana really that bad? It certainly doesn't seem to be orders of magnitutde worse than the average fps. That is if you play it without using the "sidekicks" (their AI is completely broken). The levels were good in the later stages, they also tried to include a variety of weapons (unlike modern "realistic" fps games). I can't see what's so particularly wrong about it, it's just an average (and somewhat boring) game. In my opinion the "I hate daikatana" crowd are more or less spreading an internet meme