The next Doom game will be titled Doom: The Dark Ages and revealed at Xbox Games Showcase, report claims

pcgamer.com:

The next Doom game will be titled Doom: The Dark Ages and revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase in June, according to a new report.

The report, which is from Insider Gaming and is unconfirmed, claims this new Doom game has been in development for four years, and will be set in a «medieval-inspired doom world».

Rumours of a follow-up to Doom Eternal have been swirling for some time. Earlier this month, it emerged that Bethesda had trademarked the name of the classic Doom cheat 'IDKFA', giving rise to speculation that this might be related to a new entry in the series. This followed last year's leak of an internal Microsoft release schedule, which included on the list a game titled 'Doom: Year Zero'. This, Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson claims, was the placeholder title for the alleged new Doom game.

While the evidence presented in the report is vague (Henderson says he «heard of early details» of this new Doom game) the idea of a medieval-themed follow-up to Doom Eternal has some credibility. Doom Eternal's Game Director Hugo Martin has previously suggested that future Doom games could visit a more medieval setting. In a 2021 interview with Polygon, Martin stated «Could we tell a story about when [the Doom Slayer] first came to that place with the Sentinels, almost like a more medieval setting, a fantasy setting?»

In the same interview, Martin also explained that the game's two expansions—The Ancient Gods Parts 1 and 2, implied the potential future direction of the series. «I think as you play the DLC, too, you'll see lots of hints of what we could do moving forward. Maybe even in the future. Again, our hero is somewhat timeless—I mean, literally he's immortal, so we could tell all kinds of stories.»

Certainly, Doom Eternal and its expansions had their fair share of medieval gothic imagery, so a game that expanded upon that style of setting wouldn't be out of character. Moreover, given the four year gap between Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal, the timing for a new game