Digital Foundry: The new id Tech 8 engine is extraordinary. From its reliance on ray tracing to its robust physics simulation and brand new materials system, all the through to massive scale battles boasting sublime physics and animation, this is a phenomenal technical showcase and a fantastic game. Digital Foundry goes deep on the new technology id Software has delivered.
Skewed and Reviewed took their time with the latest DOOM entry and found it to have impressive action and graphics while repetitive gameplay.
Despite many having great things to say about Doom: The Dark Ages, it seems that Xbox Game Pass may have hurt its sales upon release.
Absolutely does and absolutely has since 2017. I would have bought it in the good ol' days but instead just downloaded on gamepass. Ideal.
£70 or 7 months GP. I know which works for me. Do what works for you.
As I mentioned above The sand fall devs seem to be happy with sells and that's on GP and Oblivion.
Sand fall is a new dev studio with a jrpg i.p...probably wasn't confident enough to pass on the money for raw sales.the game has sold 4mil, so they're next game won't be day and date with game pass.
@fishy: “Absolutely does and absolutely has since 2017.”
Totally agree with you there.
IF the article is to be believed it sold less than 1/3 the number of active players reported on day 1 but I’ll be fair and say it sold 1/3,
According to a certain community any game that sold a million or less is a flop. 🤷🏿 🤦🏿
Edited to fix text
Maybe he has PC GP - that's cheaper. for US it's 12/month, so $70 will get you about 6 months right now.
PC GP 12$/month with the first month for free (7 months for $70 in practice). But you need to create a new account and pass content if you want to maintain achievements and the same friends automatically.
I see so its $20/month on xbox only, but on pc its 12 the first year. I swear MS is trying to scorch earth console gaming.
@Dude We dont know if it will be day and date. New studio, new new game is risky for not only the devs but the player. Skeptical players would GP it. They did, but more bought it and that's impressive for a new studio and new IP. GP didn't hurt them in any way.
@pach First Party that still sold well. They released at the same time also.
What about expedition 33? That sold well as along side Oblivion remaster.
I think It was MS cramming these games together. Especially when you factor in 2 high profile releases. Ppl are still playing Expedition and Oblivion.
Expedition 33 was $50 with a 10% discount to those who preordered before release.
You’d think more publishers would realize that lowering the price of your game (especially if its’s on GamePass) would lead to more sales. After all, 70% of $50 is better than 100% of nothing.
Their greed will be their downfall. Good riddance.
The price plays a small role. If it did then South Of Midnight numbers would of gotten revealed through other sources. (No MS since they don't directly give numbers) that's a 40 game.
Perhaps. You are probably right to some degree here because those 1 million copies (mostly split between PS5 and PC) aren't that hight either so the game just didn't sell well at all
Expedition 33 has sold well because of playstation fans and steam, xbox fans have little to do with its success.
Id be willing to bet as many as 90-95% of those sales are PS5 and steam, I think Doom had more going against that just gamepass, all things considered.
There’s been a lot of debate about whether Xbox Game Pass cannibalizes game sales, especially for first-party titles. The truth is, Microsoft (MS) is still experimenting with the Game Pass model — trying to find the sweet spot between subscriber growth and traditional game sales.
Some titles perform extremely well despite launching day one on Game Pass. Others struggle to gain traction. Timing, genre, marketing, and competing releases all play a role. For instance, if a game drops during a crowded release window — especially following major titles — it might not get the spotlight it deserves. I personally believe if some of these releases had launched in a quieter period like July, they might’ve seen better overall engagement and sales.
But here’s the thing: I don’t think MS is overly concerned about individual game sales on Xbox. Their larger strategy seems clear — grow Game Pass Ultimate as a platform, even if that means sacrificing some direct Xbox revenue.
Here’s what I think the current Xbox/MS playbook looks like:
Day One on Game Pass (Ultimate only): Drive subscriptions and maintain value for loyal Xbox users.
Full-price release on PlayStation: Tap into the massive PlayStation player base and make up revenue there.
Full-price release on Nintendo Switch (if supported): Another revenue stream, especially among family/portable gamers.
Steam full-price release: Reach PC gamers who might not want subscriptions — and make a healthy profit.
This hybrid approach allows Microsoft to benefit from both worlds: steady subscription revenue and sales from non-Xbox platforms. Game Pass becomes a “home base” for value-seeking players, while the broader ecosystem continues to bring in traditional revenue.
And let’s not ignore a key part of the subscription model — the silent income stream. A large chunk of users (especially parents or casual gamers) sign up, input their credit cards, and forget to cancel. This kind of passive, recurring income is incredibly valuable. Microsoft, like other subscription-based companies, counts on this as part of its financial forecast.
At the end of the day, Microsoft isn't trying to sell every game to every Xbox user anymore. They’re playing the long game — building an ecosystem, spreading across platforms, and converting passive users into recurring income, all while keeping Xbox users engaged with Game Pass Ultimate.
Is it perfect? No. Is it working? For MS, it might just be
It probably does but I don’t think this game was as hype as eternal in general.
Eternal got released for pirate pre-cracked day of release for free and sold very well.
This time around I personally just played it on game pass because I wasn’t feeling it as much as eternal.
Gave it a pass because it wasn't on the disc ended up borrowing it from a mate played it through in like a week it was fun better than eternal not as good as 2016
Oblivion Remastered seems to have done fine despite GP. My guess it had more hype than Doom: the Dark Ages due to ongoing rumours of its release. I also think MS might have released Doom: the Dark Ages I a bit to close to Oblivion Remastered.
Obviously not enough was 'coming in', so they had to resort to releasing all their games on Playstation
Well GP isn't on PlayStation so that's not technically true - they're just trying to max revenue.
Not saying GP is making money - just saying going to PS doesn't prove that it's not.
So Playstation exclusives do not make enough money either according to you that is why they release on Computer. I think your nartative is short sighted why would you not port your games to diff platforms after a certain time period.
None of us know for sure whether it's enough to offset that calibration. I have a strong intuition that it's not and MS is scrambling but not much data to back it.
You're right we don't know. But Microsoft is set to make more than 5 Billion this year ftom GP. I tend to believe them over some random gamers that do the know what the hell they're talking about. They must me doing something right because devs and publishers keep supplying games for the service. It's very profitable for them. You may not believe it or like it, but that's reality. If it was losing money it would of been canned by now.
"If it was losing money it would of been canned by now."
I don't think that's true. Netflix operated for a really long time in the red... Lots of tech companies do that with aggressive growth targets. After growth levels off is when the changes start happening to get into the black. I think we're about to see that
Benoit Blanc and the Doom Slayer have more in common than you think.
they all wanna feel special, so if it isn't giving a controversial score to a game for clicks, it's writing BS like this one did
I would have never bought it for 80€ but I played it with pleasure on Gamepass. Actually I never paid more than 40€ for a digital only game in my life.
Another true current gen game by XGS!
ID Software engineers are masters of their craft!
Only 2 days left then let the carnage begin!!!
Might seemed stupid at one point,
But now I think, given how versatile idTech 8 has become, Halo should've gone the idTech 8 route instead of UE5.
And idTech is MS owned property now.
Glad I got a new 5090 build, I'm looking forward to seeing one of the best engines in the industry pushing raytracing and path tracing to the next level.
2020's Quake Eternal was great. And now HeXen: The Heretic Ages is looking fire. So hopefully they'll release a Doom game soon.
“Doom The Dark Ages - id Software's latest is a defining moment for current generation technology”
No. It’s not. The PS5 Pro is heavily under utilized with inexcusable drops in FPS.