Short Thought: DOOM Has a Weird Habit of Releasing Alongside Wildly Unrelated Things

Announced back on the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase during the Summer Game Fest of 2024, we got a look at the newest upcoming title in the DOOM reboot saga: DOOM: The Dark Ages. As the third in the trilogy so far, players will take control of the Slayer and head to the past, fighting against the demon invasion on Earth, wielding heavy medieval weaponry... and several grenade launches and miniguns. Just your usual archaic armaments.

The Launch Trailer is just a gorefest of over-the-top demon-slaying, and it really highlights the essence of the game. Having recently tried to 100% the original myself (and halted after life rudely got in the way), I recalled the launch of DOOM Eternal, one I'm yet to experience myself, and remembering the 2020 memes during a COVID-19-infested era that gave a bit of a reprieve from the pandemic woes.

DOOM Eternal's launch on the same day as Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons was historic, and it lives rent-free in my mind thanks to the enormous amounts of memes that spawned from this fact. We’re talking all sorts of things: surprisingly wholesome art of Isabelle and the Doomguy, the Slayer chilling on a remote island, and an Isabelle with a newfound love for blood. 

In fact, “DOOM CROSSING: Eternal Horizons ■ Music Video feat. Natalia Natchan aka PiNKII” by The Chalkeaters is an amazing song that wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for this fever dream of a time. The dichotomy of the launch of the cosy, island-loving title with the blood-stained, battle-hardened killers is hilarious, and the fact that they both launched in tandem is a piece of history I didn't expect to repeat itself.

Now, DOOM: The Dark Ages has released on the 12th of May for those who pre-ordered the Premium edition and on the 15th of May for the rest, and I can't help but notice that the impossible odds of it launching alongside something slightly unrelated happened once more. But yet, just last week, the College of Cardinals elected Leo XIV as the newest Pope.

It's not on the same day, I'm not blind to that fact, but being not even seven days apart is a close-enough number to make me realise that id Software and Bethesda Softworks have a weird history of releasing alongside bizarre launch partners. And though the thematic contrast between Animal Crossing and DOOM is absurdity at its finest, there’s something strangely poetic about DOOM: The Dark Ages dropping the same week as the arrival of a new pope.

Hell is having one hell of a bad week.