Doom: The Dark Ages discs contain almost no data, require full game downloads

Cutting corners: Gamers who purchase physical copies of Doom: The Dark Ages should probably slide the disc into their consoles as soon as possible, as the game requires downloading dozens of gigabytes. Although the Nintendo Switch 2's game-key cards have faced sharp criticism for requiring full game downloads, an online database shows that the practice has also affected major recent releases on other platforms.

According to DoesItPlay.org, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X discs for Doom: The Dark Ages contain virtually no game data. Like the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2's game-key cards, inserting these discs merely initiates a download of the full digital version.

The PS5 disc includes approximately 85MB of data, while the Xbox Series X disc contains about 300MB. Although the exact Xbox download size remains unknown, the PS5 version requires an 84GB download. A press screenshot of the PC version indicates that the ...