DOOM: The Dark Ages release countdown: Exact launch date

We’ve had the chance to learn more details about DOOM: The Dark Ages following the Xbox Developer Direct 2025. With those details comes the confirmation for the official launch date of the game, and when we can expect to get our hands on it.

The launch trailer for the latest installment of DOOM broke down what we can expect from this highly anticipated game. Not only is it a science-fiction, medieval setting, but the id Software team has gone out of its way to make it a much more fast-paced system. Here’s when you can expect to get your hands on DOOM: The Dark Ages when it launches in 2025, and how you can get the chance to play it.

DOOM: The Dark Ages release date and time

The exact release date for DOOM: The Dark Ages is May 15. You’ll have plenty of time to prepare for the game following the official announcement during the Xbox Developer Direct. It’s also several months after a rather busy start to 2025, giving all fans adequate time to work through their favorite upcoming titles, namely the ones jam packed into February.

We don’t know the exact release time for DOOM: The Dark Ages, but you can expect it to arrive at midnight on May 15. This might change based on your time zone and if you’re playing on an Xbox or a PC. Xbox players tend to get it a few hours earlier than those grabbing it on PC, but as we draw closer to the release date for the game, the id Software team might have more insight for us, providing a more specific time frame.

Thankfully for fans, with the way the story structure of The Dark Ages works, it’s a prequel to DOOM 2016 and DOOM Eternal, taking place before the events of Mars. For those who haven’t been following along in the series since those two games, there’s no expected narrative knowledge you have to build up to understand what’s happening. It should make for a much more engaging experience, as anyone can hop into the game and figure out what’s happening.

The narrative should also be a more streamlined experience. In DOOM 2016, players were provided much of the story by reading codex entries or discovering what happened while the Slayer was asleep. The narrative focus now occurs in cutscenes with actual character dialogue and engagement. The Dark Ages should have a more narrative-focused tale, which could make the open-world experience coming to the game a more enriching journey.

For those who might not have clicked with the DOOM Eternal philosophy of jumping, grappling, and being airborne, The Dark Ages addresses this by making it a more straightforward experience. Rather than being a jet fighter, the Slayer becomes an iron tank, and you’ll be facing down the enemy in frontal combat far more often, using your shield to parry attacks back and strafing through oncoming fire.

There’s a lot of fat trimmed in The Dark Ages compared to when Eternal launched, such as removing the multiplayer. There won’t be a multiplayer or cooperative component for players to go through, nor any type of online play. Everything is about the single-player experience and getting people from start to finish through the larger story. There’s a lot of open-world potential, meaning players can complete tasks and take on mini-bosses in any manner they see fit in between story missions, with their favorite weapon and arsenal backing them up.

Hopefully, it’s exactly what fans want in the DOOM franchise’s next installment. We’ll be able to try it for ourselves when DOOM: The Dark Ages releases on May 15.