DOOM: The Dark Ages Is Getting Slaughter Mode, and id Software Is Already Working on Its Next Game

DOOM: The Dark Ages gets a new mode on November 16. Slaughter Mode pits players against an endless horde. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced the update and also confirmed that id Software is already working on its next game.

Slaughter Mode is a horde mode where you fight through rounds of random encounters, bosses, and arenas that get harder as you go. No two runs will be the same, and the trailer shows 19 arenas, some of which reuse campaign locations.

The mode’s main hook is its risk system. You collect Skulls during a run. At checkpoints, you can bank them or push your luck to raise your Skull Multiplier. Die before banking, and you lose every unsecured Skull. Reaching checkpoints also unlocks new starting points for future runs.

You can spend Skulls on new Slayer skins, weapon skins that also work in the campaign, and profile icons. Players can also unlock tracks from Andrew Hulshult’s IDKFA soundtrack. Weekly challenges add more ways to earn rewards.

Keep in mind that Slaughter Mode isn’t free for everyone. The update itself costs nothing, but only owners of the Revelations expansion, which came out in July for $19.99, or the Premium Edition or Premium Upgrade can play it. If you only own the base game, including through Game Pass, you’ll need to buy the expansion to get the new mode. Slaughter Mode launches on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

In the same post, Asha Sharma confirmed that id Software is already working on its next game. “Few studios have shaped the first-person shooter genre as much as id Software,” she wrote. The studio’s teams in Texas and Frankfurt are handling development, and Hugo Martin will direct. He previously led development on DOOM (2016), DOOM Eternal, and DOOM: The Dark Ages. The new project’s title, platforms, and release date haven’t been revealed yet.

That’s good news for fans of the studio, since id Software was hit hard by Xbox’s mass layoffs this summer. After the cuts, the studio said its team had shrunk to roughly the size it was when it made DOOM in 2016.