Speaking to IGN at QuakeCon 2018, Doom Eternal developer id Software revealed why the upcoming sequel to 2016’s Doom reboot isn’t named Doom 2.
Executive producer Marty Stratton said they thought about calling it Doom 2, but one reason they avoided it is because of the same problem that stemmed from the last Doom’s name. “You hear us say it all the time, we call it Doom 2016, and the internet has called it Doom 2016,” Stratton explained.
“We go back and forth on whether it was a mistake to call it Doom,” Stratton said. “I still don’t think it was a mistake, because we really were kind of drawing a new line in the sand.” And while he stands by that reasoning for Doom, he recognizes that “coming out and saying ‘we’re going to do Doom 2,’ we would have ‘Doom 2: Year of Release Date.’”
Source: IGN.com Why Doom Eternal Isn’t Called Doom 2