DOOM: The Dark Ages launched this past week to excellent reviews. Our own Samuel Tolbert gave it a perfect score, noting the refreshing twist on traditional DOOM gameplay mechanics and a stellar art direction. However, there's a little gloom alongside the DOOM.
The game reached just over 31,000 concurrent players as of this past weekend, which is 13,000 fewer than the original release of DOOM in 2016. It's also less than a third of the total players DOOM: Eternal managed to reach.
However, neither of these games was released on Game Pass. Is the Xbox subscription service to blame for its lesser performance on Steam? After all, why pay $70 when you can get it for $12 on PC Game Pass?
A look at Clair Obscur and Oblivion
While these aren't the same genre, both games were released within days of one another while coming to Game Pass. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered managed to reach a concurrent player count of over 216,000 players, while Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 hit 145,000.
These games still hold audiences of 40,000 and 60,000 players, respectively. So what gives?
A smaller player count could be due to a myriad of things. While it's true that no former DOOM game has been released on Game Pass, gamers also split over the latest melee direction.
DOOM: The Dark Ages also has a forced ray-tracing requirement. Something a lot of GPUs may be unable to keep up with on Steam given recent hardware surveys.
To make matters worse, Clair Obscur and Oblivion are both still popular, possibly taking potential gamers away from DOOM. They're busy with other amazing games, so why jump ship immediately?
Personally, I feel a little bit of everything is working against DOOM, with one primary reason rising above the rest: gameplay. I love DOOM: The Dark Ages so far, but it's not hitting the same way the other games did.
The previous entries' music, gunplay, and rapid movement are missing, replaced with more methodical, heavy-hitting smashing. It's fun, don't get me wrong, but it's not what I'm personally looking for when playing DOOM. Instead, I want my DOOM to come with rock-heavy, precision-based FPS gameplay.
How about you? Do you know why DOOM: The Dark Ages is hitting a lower play count on Steam than its previous entries?
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