Doom: The Dark Ages has been announced

Microsoft and Bethesda have officially announced the next game in the Doom series.

Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel, and has a medieval setting.

The game will be released in 2025, and will be released on Xbox Series X/S, PC and PS5. It will be on Game Pass on day one.

“The prequel to Doom (2016), Doom: The Dark Ages puts players behind the visor of the mighty Slayer as they battle demonic hordes in grounded, hard-hitting combat inside an epic, cinematic tale of gods, kings and monsters,” Xbox‘s description reads.

“Supplementing his superhuman skills and over-the-top arsenal, the Slayer will also call upon his colossal Atlan mech to brawl with titanic beasts and retake the skies aboard his ferocious steed: a jet-fueled, cybernetic war dragon.”

A new Doom game has been expected for some time now, ever since a leaked court document last summer revealed a roadmap of planned Bethesda games from 2020, including numerous titles that have yet to be confirmed.

The list, which was published as part of an internal Microsoft document summing up its proposal to acquire ZeniMax Media, included a title called Doom Year Zero, with plans to include DLC in the year of its release and more the following year.

It would apppear, then, that Doom: The Dark Ages is the final name for what was Doom Year Zero.

The last mainline series entry was Id Software’s Doom Eternal, which was released in 2020.

Following Microsoft’s decision in February to release four Xbox games on rival consoles, it was later claimed that it had also considered releasing the next Flight Simulator and Doom games on PS5.