id Software celebrates 35 years in 2026

It’s a big birthday for id Software. The iconic developer of titles like Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, Quake, and more turns 35.

35 years of id

The year was 1991, and a huge genre of gaming was still more or less missing. It was one that was destined to become a massive piece of the industry, and for one developer in particular. It wasn’t long though, before id Software would see its founding in Mesquite, Texas, which happened on February 1st of that year.

Wolfenstein 3D would see publication soon thereafter, followed by DOOM in 1993. The rest, as they say, was history, as the first-person shooter was cemented as a staple of gaming, and id’s properties became some of the industry’s biggest smashes. Now here in 2026, id celebrates its 35th birthday.

Sandwiched between Wolf 3D and the latest DOOM, almost every release from id has been a smash hit.

• 1991 – Wolfenstein 3D 
• 1993 – DOOM 
• 1994 – DOOM II: Hell on Earth 
• 1996 – Quake 
• 1997 – Quake II 
• 1999 – Quake III: Arena 
• 2004 – DOOM 3 
• 2011 – RAGE 
• 2016 – DOOM (2016) 
• 2020 – DOOM Eternal 
• 2025 – DOOM: The Dark Ages 

Worth noting too, is that the above games were the ones created in-house. As any fan could tell you though, there were more games published/produced by the company as well. Those include Raven Software’s legendary Heretic and Hexen games, plus as a few others that id has been involved with.

If you’d like to take a walk through the complete history of the company, you can do so here.

What’s yet to come

So yes, this is a big year for one of gaming’s best-loved houses. That said though, what’s next? Well, for one thing, there’s a DOOM collection heading to Evercade consoles. Blaze Entertainment revealed that this morning, though what games will be included are still a mystery. We’d suspect at least DOOM and DOOM II, though stay tuned for more.

Then there’s the DOOM: The Dark Ages downloadable content. The story expansion that is on the way for the company’s latest adventure is still in the offing, though there’s no release date for it as of yet. For that matter, we don’t know what the DOOM Slayer will be doing in it either. That might be frustrating for fans, today’s press release says that there “will be more announcements to come throughout the year”. We have to presume that some of those will include the DLC in question, but we’ll see.

What we know for sure though, is that a special livestream featuring Marty Stratton and Hugo Martin will air at 6pm eastern today. DOOM isn’t officially on the card for that, but the presentation will include a look towards QuakeCon. This year the convention is set to celebrate its 30th, so it’s a big year on that end of things too.

You can check that out when the magical hour strikes, via the player below.

Deals too? Yep, deals too

Finally, for those who are keen to look back, and play a few of the classics, there’s a sale to talk about. Launching today, a selection of id titles will be on sale via Steam and PlayStation. The deals will include a massive (and numerically notable) 66.6% discount on DOOM: The Dark Ages too.

While Xbox (and Nintendo) fans are seemingly left off the board for deals, id does remind them that “titles from the Wolfenstein, DOOM, Quake, and RAGE franchises remain available to play on Xbox Game Pass”. So there’s that.