Doom: The Dark Ages Goes All In On Its Campaign, Won't Feature "Multiplayer Component"

Xbox hosted their Developer Direct presentation on 23rd January 2025, spotlighting four studios: id Software, Compulsion Games, Sandfall Interactive, and Koei Tecmo's Team Ninja. With all four spotlighted games set for release in 2025, with the surprise shadowdropped Ninja Gaiden 2 Black now available for console and PC, players received their first look at new gameplay footage for Doom: The Dark Ages, which they won't have to wait long for the game's release as it heads to consoles, PCs, and Xbox Game Pass on 15th May 2025.

Following the Developer Direct presentation, the developer attended a Q&A session answering questions relating to Doom: The Dark Ages. Regarding game features available at launch, the developer responded to one noted feature that may shock Doom players, especially if they wish to take on the hellish threats with friends online.

The third entry in the rebooted Doom series, Doom: The Dark Ages, is being touted as "the most ambitious DOOM game to date" by its developer id Software. During a Q&A session following the Developer Direct presentation, Eurogamer, who was in attendance, reported on the game's multiplayer mode, to which the game's executive producer Marty Stratton responded if players can jump into some brutal action with friends online.

According to Eurogamer's reporting, Stratton confirmed that a multiplayer mode for Doom: The Dark Ages will not be included at launch as the developer is pivoting towards the game being a "strictly campaign" experience. Stratton elaborated, "We made that decision early so we could really just go all in on the campaign," noting that The Dark Ages will be the developer's "largest, most expansive, most epic campaign ever," which they're "just really happy with the decision."

Doom: The Dark Ages game director Hugo Martin corroborated Stratton's comments, stating that this decision will allow the team to focus on the campaign and gameplay experiences, like piloting their mech to take on bigger, badder enemies. "That's why we were able to put the dragon and the Atlan [mech] in," Martin continued by saying, "These are things we wanted to do in the game for, like, 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."