Microsoft is continuing to expand the ways players can engage with its games, as DOOM: The Dark Ages is coming to Blizzard Entertainment’s Battle.net storefront.
This marks the second big game from an Xbox first-party not under the Activision Blizzard umbrella to be supported on the traditionally Blizzard-centric PC store. The first was Obsidian Entertainment’s Avowed, which launched back in February.
Like Avowed, this means that DOOM: The Dark Ages supports an extended form of Xbox Play Anywhere, giving players who buy the game on Xbox Series X|S consoles, the Xbox PC app, or Battle.net a copy of DOOM: The Dark Ages across all three platforms.
Players who subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass will also be able to access DOOM: The Dark Ages on Windows PC through Battle.net.
Xbox continues experimenting with game rollouts
This is interesting to see, and it tells me that the experiment with Avowed was successful. DOOM: The Dark Ages feels like the next big step branching out, with a single-player shooter being a possible good fit on Blizzard’s storefront.
I’m curious to see if this becomes standard across all Xbox first-party games eventually. Notably, Compulsion Games’ imminent South of Midnight is not coming to Battle.net, but maybe that could change and we’ll see it added after launch?
Xbox has several more games coming this year, some of which are not yet announced. We’ll have to wait and see which games end up launching where. In the meanwhile, I’ll be looking forward to seeing the Slayer and his dragon Serrat on Battle.net.
DOOM: The Dark Ages is slated to launch on May 15, 2025 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (via Steam, the Xbox PC app, and Battle.net), and PlayStation 5, with two-day early access for Premium Edition buyers. Like all Xbox first-party games, the Standard Edition is available day one in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
