[UPDATE] DOOM I and II on Switch will no longer require a Bethesda.net login in order to play
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UPDATE 27.7.19 4:45pm BST: Bethesda have issued a Tweet that says that the login requirement was ‘included for the Slayers Club’, which would reward members for playing the classic DOOM games.
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
The company says that the login should be entirely optional and that they’re working on fixing the issue now.
Original article continues below:
Yesterday, Bethesda dropped the first three DOOM games on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
The games were supposed to be a celebration of DOOM’s 25th anniversary, with the original game coming out back in 1993. However, jubilation quickly turned to anger after Switch players realised that the first two games required an internet connection in order to work.
As confirmed by ResetEra’s Nibel on Twitter, DOOM I and II on Switch require the player to log into their Bethesda.net account before playing for the first time. Once you’ve logged in and connected, you don’t need to log in again.
https://twitter.com/Nibellion/status/1154799307205357569
But why do players have to log in, exactly? It’s to do with digital rights management, or DRM. Logging in confirms that the person has purchased the software legally and hasn’t pirated it, which is why Bethesda only require validation once for DOOM and DOOM II.
It’s still a tad strange, though, especially as DOOM and DOOM II are both singleplayer and offline games that really don’t require the internet to play at all.
It’s also strange that Bethesda would implement a DRM tool for games which each cost about the same as a cup of coffee and would require significant work to pirate and get working on the Switch.
DOOM 3, on the other hand, requires players to log in every single time to ‘access certain features and/or content’. Naturally, this is going to cause problems, such as when someone wants to play DOOM 3 while on the go but has no internet connection.
On the bright side, at least the memes coming out of this situation are pretty hilarious.
— rockcock64 (@rockcock64) July 26, 2019
Note: The image for this article was generated by the author using the Sierra Death Generator, which we heartily recommend checking out.
