John Romero's Daikatana advertisement

From very early on in the game's development, Daikatana was advertised as the brainchild of John Romero, a man famous for his work at id Software in the development of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. Time magazine gave Romero and Daikatana glowing coverage, saying "Everything that game designer John Romero touches turns to gore and gold."

An early advertisement for Daikatana, created by marketer Mike Wilson and reluctantly approved by Romero, was a red poster with large black lettering proclaiming "John Romero's about to make you his bitch.", a reference to Romero's infamous trash talk during gaming. Nothing else was featured on this poster but a small tag-line, suggestively reading "Suck It Down", an Ion Storm logo and an Eidos logo.

Reaction
Following the ad's appearance in several gaming magazines, extremely negative news came out of Ion Storm, fueling distaste for the game whose release was pushed back. The lavish rock star-like treatment given to Romero in his attempt to build a designer-centered game studio, including a multimillion-dollar office on the top floor of a Dallas skyscraper.

John Romero during his rockstar time has been well-publicized for his expensive tastes and hobbies (such as racing Ferraris), the dubious saga of Romero's ex-girlfriend, professional gamer Stevie "Killcreek" Case, being hired on as a level designer, and the game's development (which included most of the original development team quitting en masse to form a competing company called Gathering of Developers), incited criticism from the online gaming fan community.

Years later Romero went on record that while he approved the advertisement with his arrogant tone, he wasn't the one who wrote the quote, was unaware of it until the ad was published, and he also hated it.