Well, this isn’t the news I was quite looking for. Sadly, Bethesda and ID Software has announced that DOOM Eternal has been delayed. I received the email and my smile turned into a frown.
Throughout the development of DOOM Eternal, our goal has been to deliver a game that exceeds your greatest expectations across the board.
To make sure we’re delivering the best experience — for DOOM Eternal to live up to our standards of speed and polish — we’ve made the decision to extend our launch date by a few months to March 20, 2020. We know many fans will be disappointed by this delay, but we are confident that DOOM Eternal will deliver a gaming experience that is worth the wait.
In addition to shifting the DOOM Eternal launch date, we’ve made a couple of other changes we wanted you to know about:
- Invasion Mode, which will allow you to enter another player’s game as a playable demon, will release as a free update shortly after launch.
- DOOM Eternal for Nintendo Switch will release after the other platforms. We will announce that date in the future.
- DOOM 64 will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC in addition to Nintendo Switch. We are adding DOOM 64 as a pre-order bonus for DOOM Eternal on all platforms so you’ll be able to download and play this classic game, for free, just for pre-ordering DOOM Eternal. DOOM 64 will be released on March 20, 2020 on all platforms.
You should all know my stance by now. If a game is delayed to make it the best it can possibly be, then I totally agree with the delay. To make up for the delay, the PS4, Xbox One, and PC will get DOOM 64. That’s exciting as the game was only ever released on the N64, and now everyone will be able to experience this game. It’s also a direct follow-up to DOOM II and I never had the chance to play it.
That said, DOOM Eternal is now going to come out at the worse possible time. Right smack between The Last of Us II, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Cyberpunk 2077, and Marvel’s Avengers. It also releases the same day as Animal Crossing: New Horizons… this should be interesting. That’s pretty damned loaded and there’s a chance that DOOM Eternal may either get overlooked or not get the sales it could have. I have zero doubts it will sell, but those are some big names to fight off and I don’t know if Doom Guy can take them all.
I also wonder what this means for Stadia. DOOM Eternal was a key title for the platform, it was shown off everywhere. Now that this is delayed, will this except Stadia?
