Doom: The Dark Ages is a flop

What's the harm in not including the full game on Blu-ray?

They would have had thousands of guaranteed purchases, including me.

Now they have to face the consequences.
 
Its pretty simple. The game was overpriced and is not as good as the previous entries. One reason can be blamed on Microsoft. The other on ID software themselves.
 
When you say this isn't appealing, stop looking at the menu and try it for yourself. The game is excellent.

£70 excellent? Hell no, but a great game non-the-less.
I looked extensively at gameplay videos and got like 200 hours of DOOM 2016 and Eternal put together. I can tell when I'll enjoy a game and when I won't. I'm sure I'll at least have a good time with it, but 2016 and Eternal, I had a blast with them and they're some of my favorite modern shooters (single player FPS are mostly dead these days).

And yeah, that price tag makes me wince. I'll get around it, but it really isn't a priority anymore.
 
Would you rather pay $70?

That's fallacious, bad faith argument though.

Doom: The Dark Ages, being the amazing deserverdly high praised FPS that it is, isn't near anywhere close to the budget of modern AAA (~$200-$300 million+), and shouldn't be priced at $70.

It isn't Halo/Gears/Forza's budget or production value.

The point here is that, not just this game, but also Outer Worlds 2 $80 (and future new IP's or their sequels) because they have an opportunity courtesy of Nintendo making the first move with MKW, and most of all, recouping the cost of the ABK acquisition, as fast as possible within the next 5 years (not official, number that I made up, guessing), due to investor questioning.

This is the reason ALL their steam game prices shot up, multiple fold recently, and they do not give a fuck about regional pricing anymore.
 
They did it 4 yrs ago.

They certainly cannot repeat same mechanics, should they?
Well i actually like when devs do something different. But even things like enemy variety sucks in dark ages.

Still i would have left some of the core. Wanna get rid of the flamethrower, weakpoints, vhange all the weapons then be my guest.

You shouldnt change things like removing the dash, not when you're gonna replace it with a fucking sprint. Just make the base movement faster instead at least.

Sprint is unlimited, you never want to not be sprinting anyway so why isnt that just the default movement speed? You're just making people press the same button every couple of second for no fucking reason. Oh i walked sideways a bit, hit shift, oh i stopped for half a second to interact with something, hit shift...

Hitting shift to fash feels rewarding, your dodging shit or closing gaps. Sprint is nothing like that, you're not using sprint as a strategy or reaction to something, you're just doing it to not be not sprinting.

It's essentially the same as if another game made you rp walk every time you stopped running, and every time to resume running you would have to press a button.
 
I looked extensively at gameplay videos and got like 200 hours of DOOM 2016 and Eternal put together. I can tell when I'll enjoy a game and when I won't. I'm sure I'll at least have a good time with it, but 2016 and Eternal, I had a blast with them and they're some of my favorite modern shooters (single player FPS are mostly dead these days).

And yeah, that price tag makes me wince. I'll get around it, but it really isn't a priority anymore.
I rate this better than Eternal, but worse than 2016 but your milage may vary.

I had a blast, for 12 hours.
 
The only Doom game I like is Doom 3 as I don't like the gameplay of the other Dooms but I still liked the cutscenes/story for Doom The Dark Ages so I hope it does well so I can see the next Doom game and where the story is going.
 
That's fallacious, bad faith argument though.

Doom: The Dark Ages, being the amazing deserverdly high praised FPS that it is, isn't near anywhere close to the budget of modern AAA (~$200-$300 million+), and shouldn't be priced at $70.

It isn't Halo/Gears/Forza's budget or production value.

The point here is that, not just this game, but also Outer Worlds 2 $80 (and future new IP's or their sequels) because they have an opportunity courtesy of Nintendo making the first move with MKW, and most of all, recouping the cost of the ABK acquisition, as fast as possible within the next 5 years (not official, number that I made up, guessing), due to investor questioning.

This is the reason ALL their steam game prices shot up, multiple fold recently, and they do not give a fuck about regional pricing anymore.

I agree $70 is too much, let alone $80. I only buy a couple of games day 1 per year. But $70 is standard price for games like this for a while now.

Besides, poster I quoted was blaming GP for low steam player count. Which is correct. But if you don't wanna pay $70 thats the way to go.

Well i actually like when devs do something different. But even things like enemy variety sucks in dark ages.

Still i would have left some of the core. Wanna get rid of the flamethrower, weakpoints, vhange all the weapons then be my guest.

You shouldnt change things like removing the dash, not when you're gonna replace it with a fucking sprint. Just make the base movement faster instead at least.

Sprint is unlimited, you never want to not be sprinting anyway so why isnt that just the default movement speed? You're just making people press the same button every couple of second for no fucking reason. Oh i walked sideways a bit, hit shift, oh i stopped for half a second to interact with something, hit shift...

Hitting shift to fash feels rewarding, your dodging shit or closing gaps. Sprint is nothing like that, you're not using sprint as a strategy or reaction to something, you're just doing it to not be not sprinting.

It's essentially the same as if another game made you rp walk every time you stopped running, and every time to resume running you would have to press a button.
Were you unable to get lost in rhythm and flow of the combat in Doom Dark Ages?

Thats the intent of the combat and reason for all changes that were made.
 
All in all, I did enjoy the game, but it just didn't hit as hard as 2016 or Eternal to me for whatever reason. I went through it once, and that was really it. Got through it pretty quickly too, which was also kind of a shame as I was intentionally taking my time. So, I uninstalled and am waiting for the DLC down the road.

$70+ dollars for a title like this with no replay value (for the majority) definitely doesn't sing a positive song. So, I can totally understand a world where you'd want to go the Game Pass route rather than buy it out right. I mean, there's a big price difference. For some people they could get a month of Game Pass and get everything thery want out of the game and be done in that time.

I've always have been and will be a big DOOM fan, so I bought it and have no regrets. But yeah, I wish there was just more meat on the bone in a variety of ways.
 
Why is a traditional, single-player focused, no gaas shit, no MTX, no wokeness (for those that care), well reviewed game by both critics and people who've played it flopping hilarious?



I'll never understand why a subset of you people celebrate when good games fail to find an audience.
Because there's to much to play and not enough people to play all these games. Those of us who finish a game and go to the next one are very rare. Hell even doing that I don't have time to play all these games. There's just to much and even great games are going to get passed on in this enviorment.
 
Because there's to much to play and not enough people to play all these games. Those of us who finish a game and go to the next one are very rare. Hell even doing that I don't have time to play all these games. There's just to much and even great games are going to get passed on in this enviorment.

All that's fine but you didn't answer my question, which was why is a great game flopping hilarious?
 
Ugly truth is that Doom: The Dark Ages just isn't as good as the previous two games. ID software "changed for the sake of changing" rather than evaluating whether their changes improved the game or not.

Perhaps the team is burnt out, or half of the team was focused on another game that will be unveiled in the coming years.

There is no doubt ID Software are talented, I hope their next release blows me away like Eternal and 2016 did.
 
Ugly truth is that Doom: The Dark Ages just isn't as good as the previous two games. ID software "changed for the sake of changing" rather than evaluating whether their changes improved the game or not.

Perhaps the team is burnt out, or half of the team was focused on another game that will be unveiled in the coming years.

There is no doubt ID Software are talented, I hope their next release ws me away like Eternal and 2016 did.
That's just subjective not a truth. I like this more that Eternal but less than 2016 for example.
 
That's just subjective not a truth. I like this more that Eternal but less than 2016 for example.
How do you explain the poor sales and catastrophic engagement numbers compared to the previous two titles, then? One thing seems certain - this game is not resonating with people like the previous two did.
 
How do you explain the poor sales and catastrophic engagement numbers compared to the previous two titles, then? One thing seems certain - this game is not resonating with people like the previous two did.
Poor sales we can explain away, engagement number are better than ever(apparently).

You claimed The dark ages isn't as good as the last 2. Which is completely subjective.
 
Some of you guys have a hard one when good games, not your taste, do not meet some arbitrarly criteria of "success" you have, no matter is a MS, Sony or 3rd party dev.
 
That's just subjective not a truth. I like this more that Eternal but less than 2016 for example.
You are correct that it's not a universal truth, but the fan reception seems extremely divisive and the numbers being so much worse than Eternal suggests this game simply hasn't resonated with the fans or even gamers in general. 2016 was almost universally praised. Eternal was a bit more polarized, but largely positive and the sales numbers backed that up. TDA is the odd one out.
 
How do you explain the poor sales and catastrophic engagement numbers compared to the previous two titles, then? One thing seems certain - this game is not resonating with people like the previous two did.

You are correct that it's not a universal truth, but the fan reception seems extremely divisive and the numbers being so much worse than Eternal suggests this game simply hasn't resonated with the fans or even gamers in general. 2016 was almost universally praised. Eternal was a bit more polarized, but largely positive and the sales numbers backed that up. TDA is the odd one out.

User reviews from people who have actually played the game have been phenomenal.

The issue isn't people not liking the game. It's people having no interest in even trying it for some reason.
 
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This is hilarious, I blame Phil Spencer.

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It's also worth noting That Eternal was released on Bethesda Net as well as Steam, so this doesn't represent all the Doom Eternal players, Bethnet is where i played the game at the time.
 
You are correct that it's not a universal truth, but the fan reception seems extremely divisive and the numbers being so much worse than Eternal suggests this game simply hasn't resonated with the fans or even gamers in general. 2016 was almost universally praised. Eternal was a bit more polarized, but largely positive and the sales numbers backed that up. TDA is the odd one out.
Its a tough one to be honest. I loved 2016 for example but Eternal was a real turn off. And believe me I've tried to like that game many times.

Eternal was either the best thing since slice bread or your girlfriend you've been with for years after you've not been home all weekend. Couple that with the gamepass effect and I think this game was swimming up hill regardless.
 
What's the harm in not including the full game on Blu-ray?

They would have had thousands of guaranteed purchases, including me.

Now they have to face the consequences.
Can I ask a question about this. In my line of work we have a lot of software licenses we have to use, but usually the software DOWNLOAD is something that can be done online only. We have these little USB looking drives called dongles that you plug in to make the software work.

These dongles are just like the doom disc. They don't contain game data but they do contain the licenses.

In order to swap licenses you simply need to have the physical dongle plugged in. This allows us to use the dongles between computers, share the dongles, and use the software regardless of what account is logged in or where we are. The dongles cannot be deactivated by the software creator.

The Doom disc is like a dongle. It has everything a traditional physical game would have. It seems like a giant upgrade over a digital purchase.

So why specifically do you not like the dongle system? It it just in case they remove the game from download at MS or something? It seems to me the benefit of physical has always only been the fact that physical is account agnostic and not so much that it contains an outdated version of the game. I'll often buy the cheaper PS4 version of a game and get a free upgrade to PS5 so my PS4 disc does not actually contains my PS5 game I'm playing, just the license. I've never worried about that. I think a lot of people don't differentiate between account agnostic and the cart containing the game. It seems like such a niche thing to hear over and over again from the community. Especially since every pc gamer has already accepted fully digital, dongle licenses would be much better than that, as it is not tied to an account which could be banned. It seems like this is being blown out of proportion, not because it is really that relevant but because it is an easy target which I don't think many people even understand the phrase account agnostic. Like most people don't understand this I don't think but it sure is a big issue. Do you know why?
 
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I had fun with it but glad I played through it on a 1 month Game Pass. In the UK the game was £60+ everywhere. ($82USD) I'd have felt ripped off at that price., especially with the lack of SnapMap . Great feature that gave the game a ton of replay value.
 
Dark ages is the best modern doom

It takes heavy inspiration from og Doom1/2 + character action games. Has by far the best level design and great combat with lots of freedom

Doom 2016 close second - just misses with too few enemies and bad bosses

Eternal is way too linear and way too complex mechanics making it too sweaty imo
 
I never thought this art direction, setting and reliance on story were good things for a DOOM game.

Seems like i'm not the only one.
 
I never thought this art direction, setting and reliance on story were good things for a DOOM game.

Seems like i'm not the only one.
Did you play the new one?

Art Direction and setting where very much a factor in the previous instalments(and this one) for me. Story not so much and easily skippable.
 
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Some of you guys have a hard one when good games, not your taste, do not meet some arbitrarly criteria of "success" you have, no matter is a MS, Sony or 3rd party dev.
You're talking about the game's reception in itself which highly subjective. This game got 80+ on Metacritic, and it's pushing tech/graphics (which one would think would cater to the "master race" to champion it as a visual showcase).


But the more insightful take is:
The idea behind Game Pass and the Xbox ecosystem was to make games more successful across all key metrics: sales, engagement, viral marketing etc.. It's puzzling that this game, which by all intents and purposes is a great game from a legendary IP and launched day and date on PlayStation, Steam, Xbox, and Game Pass, came and went with lower sales and fewer players reached. Also, there have been examples that people accessing games in Game Pass tend to have lower engagement per game; the barrier of entry that comes with paying for a game tends to push players to stick with it longer, as they try to justify the purchase and get their money's worth. This also have an impact on the game´s discourse online. (People who bought it tend to be more defensive and vocal about it)
 
1. Steam peak concurrent players:
- eternal (2020): 104,891
- dark ages (2025): 31,470

2. You tube peak views of reveal trailer:
-eternal reveal: 8.1 M views
-TDA reveal: 2.1 M views

3. Amazon preorders:
-Eternal: top10
-TDA: not even top 50

4. Sales:
-Eternal 3M first week
-TDA: less than 1M

5. But the gamepass cope:
Doom: TDA was outperformed by Hi Fi RUSH (also a gamepass title on day 1):
Hi Fi Rush:
-Also day 1 gamepass title
-Not a triple A GAME
-New IP
-Rhythm-based game
sold more units on steam on its first week of release than Doom: TDA
It's not what you think. When we get exposed to high quantity of quality contents, we get dizzy and desperately, with a lot of thinking, we come to conclusion on what we should buy. From the grand scheme of things, we aren't really desperate, it's just away of how our wallet speak for it self. Fortunately, math can't explain that but it's the truth.
 
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No because it's not appealing to me. Don't like the setting and art direction from all the videos and reviews i saw.
Fair enough, but its a great game. If you've not played it them im sorry but you are not in a position to say whether its good or bad.
 
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Fair enough, but its a great game. If you've not played it them im sorry but you are not in a position to say whether its good or bad.
I didn't review the game i said it wasn't appealing to me and assume others may think the same considering the low sales.

I'm sure it's a great game but art direction and setting matter too.
 
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It took me a few levels to get into its wavelength but when I did, man, the game started to deliver. It took guts to change the gameplay so much, but Im glad they did even if it probably partially hurt sales. The main thing is that it still feels like a Doom game despite having all these new gameplay additions. It's the best of all the new Dooms and it is OK if you don't agree - in 10-20 years people will reevaluate the game and come to the same conclusion.
 
I didn't review the game i said it wasn't appealing to me and assume others may think the same considering the low sales.

I'm sure it's a great game but art direction and setting matter too.
Like I said fair enough. But if you liked 2016 then i suggest trying this one out. Its pretty good, just not worth the frankly ridiculous asking price.
 
Like I said fair enough. But if you liked 2016 then i suggest trying this one out. Its pretty good, just not worth the frankly ridiculous asking price.
I loved 2016 but didn't like Eternal as much.

I might still try this one, if only to try their new engine.
 
I too am in the boat of believing it's better than Eternal but just not as good as 2016.

Would I have spent $70? Well actually yes. If gamepass wasnt already an option even on pc.

I'd argue the lack of sales has more to do with the push for gamepass, the general burnout (i was originally cautiously optimistic because i didnt care that much for eternal) and the so-so marketing. Like when 2016 was first revealed, it was hyped to hell. This one not so much.
 
I loved 2016 but didn't like Eternal as much.

I might still try this one, if only to try their new engine.
Id recommend it on a decent PC, but if you are on console your experience may vary.

Just don't pay the sticker price, its not worth it in my opinion.
 
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