Summary

  • Doom: The Dark Ages has a physical release, but it seems pretty useless.
  • Those with early copies report that less than a gigabyte of data is on the disc.
  • This means that anyone who wants to play will need an internet connection to install it.

Digital gaming has dominated the market, as many of us are skipping physical releases altogether. Despite this, physical releases are necessary for game preservation, since digital-only titles can be lost forever if they're delisted, or the store that they're hosted on is taken offline.

But increasingly, we're seeing that even these physical releases are useless. Many major titles release on a disc (or in Nintendo's case, a cartridge) but don't include all of the data, meaning you need an internet connection to download the rest, so the game could be rendered unplayable eventually.

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Now, we have another example with Doom: The Dark Ages. Those who have already nabbed physical copies are reporting that only 85 MB of the game is on the PS5 disc, whereas the full game size is 85 GB. A PS5 game disc should be able to hold this, but for whatever reason, players will still need to ensure they have an internet connection to start playing.

Doom: The Dark Ages Physical Copy Appears To Only Include 85MB Of Data

Claims have started circulating online that the disc has very little data on it. One person who shared a photo of them downloading Doom: The Dark Ages shows that the download size was just 328 MB on Xbox Series X/S.

Ironically, Xbox claimed to have set up a team focused on game preservation last year.

Some are also sharing what they claim to be official game cases, showing a warning that the game requires an internet connection. Polish news outlet PPE says that this has been verified (as spotted over on r/GamingLeaksAndRumours). While some stores do not have this warning, Best Buy does contain a disclaimer that an internet connection is required.

At the very least, the game is reviewing well. It currently sits at a score of 86 over on OpenCritic, making it one of the best-performing games in the series.

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DOOM: The Dark Ages

FPS Action Sci-Fi & Fantasy Systems 3.5/5 8.6/10 OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 86/100 Critics Rec: 95% Released May 15, 2025 ESRB M For Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence Developer(s) id Software Publisher(s) Bethesda Softworks Engine id Tech
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SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
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