Doom: The Dark Ages arrives later this week, and with physical editions now out in the wild, fans are expressing dismay amid reports the PS5 release includes just 85MB of data on the disc, with the Xbox Series X/S release seemingly not much bigger.
Rumblings of discontent over Doom: The Dark Ages’ physical release began over the weekend, after one early receiver took to social media to report the Xbox version contained just 342MB of data on the disc. That was followed by an update on the PS5 version from Does it play?, an account dedicated to “[testing] commercial releases to ensure they work internet free.”
Does it Play? shared screenshots from a supporter purportedly showing Doom: The Dark Ages’ PS5 physical release contains just an 85.01MB “stub and a blocker to go online and update” on disc. That means purchasers of either console’s physical edition are required to download approximately 85GB of data to play the game.
Images of Doom: The Dark Ages’ physical release show an “internet required” badge on the cover, but the extent of the required download size seemingly isn’t made clear. Eurogamer has contacted Bethesda for confirmation of the reports, and for clarity on its physical release strategy, but the publisher is yet to respond. We’ll update the story if we hear more.
The news follows similar criticism by players and preservationists earlier this year after Bethesda released Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with just 20GB of the game’s full 120GB install size on the disc. Nintendo has also seen pushback after announcing physical game-key cards for Switch 2 that only include a download key. Early signs have suggested a significant majority of third-party publishers will release their Switch 2 titles on game-key cards at launch.
Away from Doom: The Dark Ages’ physical release controversy, Bethesda’s latest has received plenty of praise. Eurogamer contributor Christian Donlan called it “brisk and playful” in his four star review, while Digital Foundry described it as “phenomenal” in their tech breakdown.