DOOM remains a franchise with a steady stream of new game content and merchandise, most recently the Revelations expansion for DOOM: The Dark Ages and a wave of Doctor Doom merchandise tied to Avengers: Doomsday. The series also remains a favorite target for unconventional ports, with recent experiments running DOOM on devices ranging from a Hasselblad camera to a regex engine.
The DOOM franchise in 2026 is defined by two parallel tracks: official game content and the persistent hobbyist practice of running the 1993 original on unlikely hardware. The most recent official release is the Revelations expansion for DOOM: The Dark Ages, which launched on July 8, 2026. It introduces the Chain Spear and splits its playtime between a four-stage base campaign and endgame content that includes playable classic DOOM levels. Critics praised it, with Metascores of 89 on PC, 90 on PS5, and 91 on Xbox Series X, and some framed it as the culmination of a recent trilogy. Earlier, id Software's Hugo Martin called the DLC "the best DOOM experience we've ever made."
Official releases are not the whole story. A long-running series of ports has continued through 2026, with DOOM running on a used Yume Translator, a Hasselblad X2D 100C camera, Windows Paint, a regex engine, a YouTube video player, and inside Anthropic's Claude Code. One port, Doomformer, goes further by using a DOOM map as a neural network that recognizes handwritten digits. These projects are technical curiosities rather than products, but they keep the original game in circulation.
The franchise's corporate side saw a major disruption in July 2026, when Microsoft's restructuring cut roughly half of id Software's staff, according to reports cited by multiple outlets. At the same time, ZeniMax Media announced a strategy focused on major franchises including DOOM and Quake. The cuts and the strategy arrived together, leaving open how the studio will maintain output.
On the merchandise side, Doctor Doom from Avengers: Doomsday has driven collectible announcements, including a top-ranked S.H.Figuarts figure and Hot Toys prototypes. DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal have also appeared in Amazon Luna giveaways for Prime members. The older DOOM titles remain available through storefront promotions and Nintendo Classics-style services, with Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom among recent additions.
Written with AI from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself sourced. See our editorial policy. Every fact links the story it came from.
Structured graph also available as JSON at /public/entities/doom.
CC BY 4.0.
Developer mottopanikeiku released Doomformer, a project that converts an integer neural network into a DOOM map and runs the arithmetic inside the game. Voodoo dolls, the player clones created by multiple player starts, move along conveyor-like floors; light levels and floor and ceiling heights store the values. In a demo it recognizes handwritten digits, scoring 97.16% on 10,000 MNIST test images.
John Romero gave the opening keynote at gamescom asia x Thailand Game Show 2026 in Bangkok on October 29, 2026, titled "Why We Still Make Games." The id Software co-founder walked through his own catalog in order, from a game built to learn BASIC through his 6502 assembly work on the Apple II and his early companies Inside Out and Ideas from the Deep, before founding id Software.
A YouTube video from the channel O-chazuke★Taro shows DOOM running on Yume Group's Yume Translator, a voice translator bought used for 1,600 yen. The device runs Android internally with most functions disabled, but the creator enabled USB connection to a PC, launched a normal Android launcher, got web browsing working, then installed PrBoom, a multi-platform DOOM port. It runs with a smaller screen after some compilation settings changes, and also works in portrait orientation.
Software developer Radium Wang reported on October 7 that he ran DOOM on the Hasselblad X2D 100C, a medium-format mirrorless camera from 2022 priced at 1,265,000 yen in Japan and $8,199 in the US. Footage on Reddit shows the game on the rear touchscreen, with the shutter button firing the gun and a half-press not firing.
Amazon Luna, the gaming service available to Amazon Prime members, has disclosed the ten PC games it will distribute across October 2026. The lineup opens on October 1 with Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit via the Epic Games Store and the 2016 DOOM via a GOG code. Later entries include Caravan SandWitch, Trash Goblin, Conarium, WarBreeds, Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong, Ad Infinitum, Time Travel: Escape Room Game, and Kiborg. Luna cloud gaming is not offered in Japan, but Japanese Prime members can still claim the free PC games.
Amazon updated its Luna free-game lineup for Prime members on October 2, 2026, adding two titles. Bethesda Softworks' 2016 DOOM reboot and Mega Cat Studios' 2024 horror spin-off Five Nights at Freddy's: Into the Pit are both available until November 5. DOOM arrives as a GOG.com code and Into the Pit as an Epic Games Store code, and both remain playable after the giveaway ends.
Remedy Entertainment's Control Resonant launches September 24 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Art director Elmeri Raitane said the team referenced DOOM for close combat while art staff were told not to reference other games. The action RPG follows Dylan Faden after a coma as he searches for his sister Jesse in a Manhattan hit by supernatural anomalies.
v0lt is giving away the retro-style FPS Deadshot on Steam until September 24 at 2:00 AM, and players who claim it keep it. The game released on Steam on September 18, 2024, and the 5-day giveaway marks its 2nd anniversary. It has 3 chapters of 6 stages each, 7 weapon types, and 5 attachment types. It is also on sale for 655 yen.
A GitHub user released kaboom.claude, a program that runs the free FPS Freedoom Phase 1 inside Anthropic's Claude Code. While waiting for AI responses, the game takes focus automatically, and it pauses when a response arrives. The tool installs the game temporarily via npx and removes it after use.
Bethesda Softworks announced July 31, 2026, that it is holding sales across multiple stores to commemorate its 40th anniversary, alongside a new logo reveal. Discounts cover The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, DOOM, Wolfenstein, and Starfield titles on Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG.com, PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store, and Nintendo Store.
Programmer Artem Litkin released DOOM on regex, a project that runs the classic FPS using only regular expression search and replace. A 96.6 MB string holds the entire virtual machine, and 544 replacement rules execute the game. Rendering one frame takes about 180 seconds across five machines.
Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure, released DoomPaint on GitHub on July 21. The software runs the 1993 FPS DOOM at its original 35 frames per second through Microsoft Paint. It uses ViZDoom for the game engine and Windows mechanisms like OLE and low-level key hooks to paste frames and capture input.
A programmer named Artem Lytkin has created 'doom-regex', a project that runs the classic FPS DOOM using only regular expressions. The entire machine state is encoded in a 96.6 MB string, and 544 replacement rules process it step by step. Each frame takes about three minutes, making real-time play impractical.
A YouTube channel released a video on July 10, 2026, claiming to run DOOM on the platform. The video allows free camera movement using WASD on PC, but shooting and movement are automated, creating a rail shooter experience. Enemies appear and fall automatically, and the atmosphere of the original game is recreated. The project is a technical curiosity rather than a full port.
Microsoft's Xbox division is undergoing a large-scale restructuring that will cut approximately 3,200 jobs over the next year, part of a broader layoff of about 4,800 employees across the company. As part of the reorganization, ZeniMax Media will shift its strategy to focus on major franchises including Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein, according to a Bloomberg report cited by multiple outlets. The restructuring has hit id Software, the studio behind DOOM and Quake, particularly hard. Reports from Game Developer and Game Informer, cited by GIGAZINE and GameSpark, indicate that roughly half of id Software's staff has been laid off, with former Bethesda executive Jeff Gardiner reporting 95 layoffs out of an estimated 185 employees. Veteran developers including principal concept artist Colin Geller, animator Chris Street, and principal programmer Dustin Land have confirmed their departures. The quality assurance department was reportedly devastated. Arkane Studios in Lyon is also under review, with Microsoft considering strategic options including a sale or spin-out, though French labor laws may slow the process. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told employees in an internal memo that no announced first-party titles will be cancelled.
Bobby Prince, the composer behind the soundtracks of classic first-person shooters including 'Doom', 'Doom II', 'Wolfenstein 3D', 'Rise of the Triad', and 'Duke Nukem 3D', died on June 16, 2026. His work on the 'Doom' soundtrack was added to the U.S. Library of Congress National Recording Registry in May 2026.