There’s an interesting rumor up regarding one of the biggest video game releases of the year.
As reported by billbil-kun for Dealabs, Bethesda has more products planned for Doom: The Dark Ages. For context, Bethesda already revealed two special editions of the game on top of the regular edition. There is an all-digital Doom: The Dark Ages Premium Edition, and a Doom: The Dark Ages Collector’s Bundle that includes physical items like a 12” Doom Slayer statue.
These are referred to as the Doom: The Dark Ages Xbox Limited Edition Collection, and they will include these items:
- Xbox Series X Limited Edition Console Wrap
- Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller
- Xbox Limited Edition Wireless Controller
All three items will have Doom: The Dark Ages theming. Now, a key point in this promotion is that billbil-kun claims they will be available to purchase separately. In fact, this will be where Microsoft breaks the trend of making these special editions in very limited quantities, and will even sell them in Europe.
The catch to this is that the console wrap and Elite Series 2 controller will only be available on the Microsoft Store. On the other hand, the regular wireless controller will be temporarily exclusive on Microsoft Store, and eventually make its way to retail.
In our estimation, the biggest prediction billbil-kun isn’t even that these special edition items exist. It’s his claim that Microsoft will start selling them to fans, so that they can actually enjoy buying them.
And we know that sounds ridiculous on the face of it but Microsoft has been going about their limited edition Xbox swag all wrong for this generation. As recorded in this Windows Central report from 2023, Xbox sent some content creators a custom painted Xbox Series X themed for Diablo IV. However, the Diablo IV Xbox bundle they actually sold was only a regular Xbox with a copy of the game preinstalled.
It should have been clear to Xbox management that Xbox gamers were actually looking for this sort of thing, because PlayStation and Nintendo gamers were getting themed items and swag like this. We absolutely want this to be real, but as of this writing, Microsoft has yet to confirm it. Given that gamers are questioning Xbox’s commitment to physical media, as well as to making game consoles, this will be the perfect way to send the message that they’re going to keep making consoles and controllers alongside games.
