Today, Bethesda announced the first three Doom games were all be coming to modern consoles including the Nintendo Switch. What Bethesda didn’t mention was that you’d first need to create a Bethesda.net account in order to play them.
ResetEra’s Nibel pointed out the requirement on Twitter earlier this afternoon. While Doom I and II only require you to login to a Bethesda account once to unlock the game, Doom III will require it every time you play in order for all of the features and content to be available.
It’s an especially bizarre requirement since none of the games have an online component. Each game only offers local multiplayer and doesn’t require an internet connection to play beyond the logins. I bought the original Doom earlier today because of the nostalgia of seeing the shooter I’d first encountered on the SNES decades ago playable in my hand on Nintendo’s newest console, but getting stuck at a login screen before I’d even fired my first bullet snapped my rose-colored glasses in half.
Is Bethesda really that desperate to get people signed up for Bethesda marketing emails?
In response to the requirement people have been poking fun at Bethesda with the help of software developer Foone’s “Death Generator” tool and imagining what it would be like if the login prompts appeared in other classic games:
— rockcock64 (@rockcock64) July 26, 2019
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1154857843499122688
https://twitter.com/embed/status/1154841000063508480
Bethesda did not respond to a request for comment about why the login requirements were added to the new versions of the decades old games.
Update July 27, 12pm—Bethesda says the login was meant to be optional and that it will be adjusted
Update on our new classic DOOM releases:
The BethesdaNet login requirement was included for the Slayers Club, to reward members for playing the classic DOOM games.
The login should be optional, and we are working on changing the requirement to optional now.
— Bethesda (@bethesda) July 27, 2019
Note: this article has been updated to clarify that many of the memes mocking Bethesda.net were made using this software tool.
