Some studios announce a new game with a two-minute CGI trailer, an orchestra and a release window they’ll miss by a year. id Software announced its next one with a reply to a tweet. Honestly? Very on brand for the people who basically invented “shut up and shoot the demon.”

On November 12, in the middle of Xbox’s 25th anniversary victory lap, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma posted this on X:

“Few studios have shaped the first-person shooter genre as much as @idSoftware. Slaughter Mode comes to DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations on Monday, and the team is already working on its next game.”

And then id itself chimed in underneath:

“We’re incredibly excited about our next project, a new game from our teams in Texas and Frankfurt, with game direction once again by Hugo Martin. It’ll be some time before we’re ready to share more but we can’t wait for you to see what we’re working on.”

That’s it. That’s the whole announcement. No title, no logo, no platforms, no date. Just “we’re making a thing, Hugo’s in charge, chill out.”

What we actually know

Let’s be blunt about how little there is here, because the internet is already writing fan fiction:

• It’s a new game from id Software. Confirmed by the studio and by Xbox’s CEO.
• It’s being made by id’s teams in Texas and Frankfurt.
• Hugo Martin is directing it. Martin has been at id since 2013. He was creative director on Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal, and game director on Doom: The Dark Ages, according to VGC. So if you liked any modern Doom, this is the guy.
• It’s early. “It’ll be some time before we’re ready to share more” is studio-speak for “do not hold your breath for a trailer at The Game Awards.” PC Gamer pointed out that Bethesda used the exact same phrase about The Elder Scrolls VI, a game Bethesda first announced eight years ago and only just gave a subtitle. Cool. Cool cool cool.

What we don’t know (aka: is it Doom?)

Nobody said the word “Doom.” Not Sharma, not id. But come on. GameSpot notes that everyone suspects it’s another Doom, and that Tom Warren reported back in July that id was in the early stages of a new Doom game. Hugo Martin directing it makes that a pretty safe bet.

That said, IGN floated the obvious alternative that a corner of the internet has been screaming about for a decade: Quake. id has another legendary franchise just sitting there collecting dust. And PC Gamer pointed out that studio co-director Marty Stratton said in October that id is “working more closely with MachineGames than ever,” which has people wondering about Wolfenstein 3 collaboration too.

My take, as a man who has never once been right about a game announcement: it’s Doom. It’s always Doom. I will happily eat this paragraph if they hand us a new Quake.

The awkward part: the layoffs

Here’s why this isn’t just a fun “new game!” headline. id got hammered in the Xbox layoffs earlier this year. PC Gamer reports the studio reportedly lost more than 130 employees, and Shacknews notes id said its team was cut down to roughly the size it was when it made Doom (2016). GameSpot put it pretty pointedly: the new game was announced by the same Xbox boss who oversaw those cuts.

So yeah, reading “the team is already working on its next game” lands a little differently when a big chunk of that team got walked out the door. Stratton told PC Gamer back in October that there was “a very deliberate effort” during the layoffs to make sure id stayed viable. Today’s announcement is basically Xbox saying “see? Still alive.” Good. Doom 2016 was made by a team that size and it ruled. But let’s not pretend it’s a happy-go-lucky story.

Meanwhile, there’s demon-killing to do right now

If you need something to shoot while id cooks, Doom: The Dark Ages is getting Slaughter Mode on November 16. According to Bethesda, it’s an endless, randomized horde mode with escalating rounds of encounters, bosses and arenas. You earn Skulls to unlock Slayer skins, weapon skins, profile icons and tracks from Andrew Hulshult’s IDKFA soundtrack. At each Round Checkpoint you can secure your Skulls or “Risk It” for a bigger multiplier, and if you die while risking it, you lose everything you didn’t secure. Which is exactly the kind of bad decision I make every single time.

It’s free for anyone who owns the Revelations DLC, the Premium Edition, or the Premium Upgrade. The official Slaughter Mode trailer is up on Bethesda’s YouTube channel, and it’s embedded below.

If you skipped The Dark Ages (the medieval one where the Slayer rides a dragon and blocks stuff with a chainsaw shield, which is a sentence that still makes me grin), you can grab it here: DOOM: The Dark Ages on PS5 at Amazon.

The bottom line

id Software is alive, Hugo Martin is steering, and something is coming out of Texas and Frankfurt eventually. That’s all we’ve got, and that’s fine. id hasn’t really whiffed in a long time, and a smaller id is still id.

Now tell me in the comments: new Doom, new Quake, or are you the one weirdo hoping for Commander Keen? I’m not judging. Okay, I’m judging a little.

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Sources: PC Gamer, IGN, VGC, GameSpot, Shacknews (all Nov 12, 2026); Bethesda Slayers Club post “Slaughter Mode arrives to DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations November 16” (Nov 12, 2026); Asha Sharma and id Software posts on X (Nov 12, 2026).