According to an exclusive report by Insider Gaming, Microsoft plans to announce the next installment in the Doom franchise at their upcoming Xbox Showcase. The new game, titled Doom: The Dark Ages , is said to feature a “medieval inspired Doom world” being developed by ID Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. Information on the next Doom game is being kept heavily under wraps, but Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson has received confirmation from multiple sources on a few key details.
Henderson’s report states that Doom: The Dark Ages has been in development at ID Software under the codename “Year Zero”. The new title in the iconic first-person shooter series has been in development for “at least four years”, and will be announced at this year’s upcoming Xbox Showcase. Henderson’s report theorizes that the new game will be some form of prequel or period piece, taking a look at an earlier part of Doomslayer’s life.
The Doom franchise has not seen a new entry in its main series since 2020’s Doom Eternal, which made over $450 million in its first 9 months of sales alone. There have been few Doom projects released by ID Software and Bethesda since then, including a VR remaster of Doom 3 and the mobile-exclusive top-down shooter Mighty Doom, but no new original games for Console or PC. Since the release of the last full-fledged Doom game, both ID Software and Bethesda Softworks have been acquired by Microsoft, making this new game the first Doom release in the main series under the Microsoft umbrella. While there were worries at first of certain franchises becoming Xbox exclusives, recent developments have shown Microsoft relaxing the exclusivity clauses on their games. This year, Microsoft announced new ports to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 for their games Pentiment, Hi-Fi- Rush, Grounded, and Sea of Thieves. To truly know the fate of the Doom franchise, gamers will have to wait until June 9, when Microsoft will be hosting their Xbox Games Showcase 10am Pacific Time via livestream.