Doom: The Dark Ages Has a Release Date and an Explanation for Why It’s Single-Player Campaign Only

Doom: The Dark Ages was one of the stars of Microsoft’s Xbox Developer Direct 2025 showcase, with confirmation of a release date, new gameplay footage, and plenty more.

First up, the release date. Doom: The Dark Ages launches May 15, 2025 across Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5, and PC. As a Microsoft-owned game, Doom: The Dark Ages launches day one on Game Pass. The Collector’s Bundle includes up to two days of early access.

There is no mention of a release on the just-announced Nintendo Switch 2, although Microsoft is reportedly bringing many of its games to the next-gen console once it comes out later in 2025.

We also have confirmation that Doom: The Dark Ages is single-player campaign only. Both 2016’s Doom and its sequel, 2020’s Doom Eternal, had online multiplayer. So why the change for Doom: The Dark Ages?

Speaking to press ahead of the announcement, executive producer Marty Stratton and game director Hugo Martin explained that the decision to go single-player only was made early so id Software could focus fully on the campaign.

“We made that decision early so that we could really just go all in on the campaign,” Stratton said. “It’s our largest, most expansive, most epic campaign ever and we’re just really happy with the decision and I think it’s been awesome to have the team focused just on polishing and finishing the campaign.”

Martin added that because of the decision to ditch multiplayer, id Software was able to include features in the campaign that it wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. These include sections where you ride a fire-breathing dragon and pilot 30-story high Atlan mechs.

“That’s why we were able to put the dragon and the Atlan in,” Martin said. “I mean, these are things we’ve wanted to do in the game for multiple games now, but couldn’t because we had a multiplayer component which we loved, but really it was meant to just focus on the single player campaign and just level up that experience for players.”

IGN has plenty more on Doom: The Dark Ages, including confirmation of the game’s composer. For more, here’s everything announced during Microsoft’s Xbox Developer Direct 2025.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.