The original creators of Wolfenstein, id Software, had no idea that they would be the pioneers for the first person shooter genre in 1992. With the fruit of their labor still being seen over two decades later in multiple shooter games, id Software put their work back into practice by developing 2016’s Doom, another reboot to one of their original FPS games. Although the new Wolfenstein games are made by MachineWorks, Bethesda owned developer studio, id Software had the opportunity to dive once more into their original IP, and had a hand in creating the latest entry in the Wolfenstein series.
In an interview conducted by Finder, Jen Matthies, the creative director for Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus goes over how MachineWorks and id Software often work with each other. Chris Stead asked Matthies about any external studio feedback that MachineWorks might indulge in. “…we have a lot of collaboration going on,” the director says. “They did a lot of environment art for this game, and vice versa, we did a lot of stuff for Doom. So there’s a lot of back and forth.”
The series has been through many different life cycles since id Software focused more on the id Tech game engine rather than developing the series. The series has been put on the back burner multiple times, first in 2003 after the release of the free game, Wolfentein: Enemy Territory, and the second time after a poor performance with the 2009 Wolfenstein reboot. The game was rebooted again in 2014, however, with the release of Wolfenstein: The New Order, where the game was met with more positive reviews, and it even had a followup sequel in 2015 with Wolfenstein: The New Blood.
Although the studio might not have worked on other core elements in The New Colossus, it is still nice to see the company returning to the series that started it all.