Bethesda Says Login For Classic DOOM Games On Switch Should Be Optional, Working On A Fix

An error in a Bethesda game, wouldn't be the first time

I knew after the bad press it would be patched out, regardless of their original intention.

Funny. I don't recall hearing about the Slayers Club as part of the promotional material or news articles about the games.

It’s almost sad in a way that it’s more believable that Bethesda ballsed something up rather than the login being required for some insidious reason.

I've got $20 for all three classic Doom games ready to plunk down the moment they've been fixed. =D

Good, i'll buy when this gets patched

I'm glad to hear this, I do want to get DOOM II, but I can wait for this problem to get fixed. I already have the classic DOOM games on PC, most likely I just want my favorite on Switch to play on the go.

They'd better allow the directional buttons to be used as well, or better yet, allow for custom button configurations.

Don't know much on how q&a is run around here but how did they miss a mandatory login screen upon booting up the game?

Once all of the inconveniences have been ironed out, I hope they issue a physical release with all three games on cartridge (and ideally the Doom II Xbox expansion as well). I'm happy to have the first two games installed on my system, but a game as big as DOOM 3 needs to be on a cart.

I also don't understand why the ports are so damn big. 350MB each for DOOM I & II?

I don't understand how these games balloon to such sizes when they are barebones ports of the original DOS games. The originals were only about 15MB or so (DOOM II once shipped on five floppies, though CD versions had been released as well).

I think we all agree that it "should be" an optional thing. The silly point is it wasn't at launch and in this day and age you lose people very quickly. C'mon Bethesda, you should know that as well as anybody. Fallout 76', I'm looking at you.

@RedderRugfish Don’t forget to configure your SoundBlaster driver!!

@Silly_G is the doom 64 listing that was taken down has any fruit, id hope we get all of that on a physical release

Once a upon a time, a bathesda bug is considered endearing.

Didn't care. Signed up. Played. Took an extra 10 seconds of my life and I got three games I love for great prices. Who doesn't have a burner email account for sign ups like this? Don't understand the outrage.

To be honest I think it was the mobile port that was the reason why you had to log in. Bethesda was lazy and said keep it in.

This whole saga was really worth it for the memes it spawned.

I feel like this is a Bethesda backpedal due to customer blowback and not a mistake as they are framing it. The eShop actually states at the bottom in small print that a Bethesda account is "required" to play (there is no mention of the Slayer's Club). If it was meant to be optional, they would never have put that text in the eShop listing. These companies are constantly doing this kind of thing (hoping the customer doesn't notice) and then do the typical PR move of claiming it was a mistake when caught. Sad yet predictable.

Oh my thank God

This wasn't a mistake, this was intentional. Never trust bethesda these days

This really should be optional. Glad their fixing it.

I am glad to hear that the login will be optional and will be buying once the requirement is removed. All I want is portable Doom, not membership in some account program.

Bollocks, it was intended.
Downloaded Young Blood demo on Switch and it's unplayable without their account (AND someone who already bought the game).
Ridiculous company with unfortunately great games.

@HexagonSun I knew after the bad press it would be patched out, regardless of their original intention.

Yep, I have no doubt that they did this on purpose. Are we to believe that they just 'forgot' to put the 'Skip this Step' button in?

No, they just didn't expect this much negative press and they are playing it off as an accident.

@Jin15 3 doesnt require it. Just the first two.

What gets me, is why can’t the company just front up and be honest about it? I’m a CEO, and the day I lie to my customers is the day I quit

I’m going to go ahead and call foul here. No way on earth this was accidental, they saw the public outcry and back-peddled. Bethesda owns some of my favorite games (these doom games included) but they have been stepping on their own feet as of late. Fingers crossed the next Elder Scrolls game is awesome.

@DarkLloyd : Oh, absolutely.

And Final DOOM as well (which is basically two DOOM 2 wads with significantly harder levels), which is conspicuously absent.

@TreonsRealm : Retail PC versions of their games now require a Bethesda account rather than being supplied as a Steam key, so I am leaning heavily towards skipping DOOM Eternal on PC (as if Bethesda's going to put the game on cartridge on Switch), so I'll be skipping it until it either becomes bargain bin fodder on PC, or it goes on sale on Steam.

Ah, thank god. Bethesda is doing right to the fans who wanted to play classic DOOM games without having to login to B.net account.

@PhilKenSebben Yeah, but the current version of Doom 3 is still going to bug me for a Bethesda.net sign in every time I go to play it so I'd rather wait to buy the fixed version that isn't going to bug me. It's more about the principle of the thing, not wanting to give Bethesda money until they fix their mistakes.

@Jin15 Fully agree. Havent bought them myself yet due to it, despite being a huge Doom fan. Just wanted to give the heads up.

Welp, now people will hopefully stop complaining and actually buy these amazing games. Good.

@Silly_G I've been hearing that games were remade in Unity so that may be the case.

They just wanted to get people to sign up and hopefully not click the box that said they would not like the newsletter and advertisements. I appreciate the fact that Bethesda has published these games on new platforms, but it’s not a good sign when the only positive press they get nowadays is from the id tech developed games- and they taint it slightly with this nonsense.

@Silly_G so if i bought eternal on steam they will harass me with an account sign in? lol

@DarkLloyd : Perhaps, but at least I would be able to back it up on Steam and burn the contents to a couple of Blu-rays. (And use the Switch Pro Controller)

I have no idea whether it is possible to back-up games via the Bethesda client, but judging from their recent activities, I'd guess not.

@Elvie : Even if that were the case, it doesn't explain how a barebones port of a 15MB DOS game would explode to such a size. At least with the Hamster arcade ports, for example, they contain a heap of additional features and customisation options for the size.

The only additional feature in these DOOM ports is split-screen multiplayer and the invasive online authentication, which makes no sense because the games don't even support online multiplayer.

Not sure if honest error or them backtracking on backlash. squints

release day: “not buying due to this practice”
fix announcement: “not buying due to dishonesty”
Stay golden, Internet.

Looks like BGS glitches are starting to infect id software games.

@RedderRugfish On Doom realease Windows 3.1 were far more annoying to use than MS-DOS. Windows 3.1, 95 and 98 were so terrible that i stuck with MS-DOS 90% of the time until NT4 came, and then Win 2000.

@Toshiro_Baloney I didn't even realise it was an issue until I went online, I bought all 3 and immediately logged in with my existing account and got on with blasting demons 😁

@Toshiro_Baloney You know, the Switch is portable and thus could be at spots where you simply can't log in and thus play the game...

I don't know about Bethesda on Switch, but on Xbox One if you login to only one Bethesda game, it's stored on console.

If you start 10 more Bethesda games, you are automatically logged in.

@Toshiro_Baloney You sound like the kind of person who would chomp away on paid for cold badly cooked food in a restaurant and say the exact same thing.

I'm glad we finally lived in a gen where the devs and publishers finally listen and fix their mistake: the Sonic model for the live action movie, Nintendo's drifting joycons, Super Mario Maker 2 limited 32 level upload limit, Epic offering refunds to Shenmue 3 backers instead of Deep Silver and YS Net, Little Orbit taking over Unsung Story, Square Enix finally remaking FFVII, Capcom finally remake RE2 and soon RE3, the framerates in Xenon Racer are fix (though still a bit rough), Sega finally make games other than Sonic, Super Sonic in Sonic Forces is free now instead of $2, and Igarashi had stick to his promised and fix the Switch version of Bloodstained little by little every step of the way.

@retro_player_22 thats the power of consumers for ya, amazing what that can do for us

Nice save, but I'm glad people will eventually be able to play Doom without an account.

Common sense prevailed. They responded to this almost as fast as they released them lol! I didn't find it as deal breaking as some (4 quid to play through Doom again is worth it for me), but it was a rather silly thing to do.

Do you guys hear that tapping sound?

That's Bethesda, furiously backpedalling! :3

@TreonsRealm,

I very much doubt that a few people on an internet forum would make them change their mind and the issue was minor at best,I had an account created in 2 minutes,then I was good to go for all three games,I dis think it unusual that you had no offline option and this explains it.

@Silly_G Someone already mentioned that it is apparently made with Unity which probably adds a lot of overhead.

In addition the music in the original version was stored as MIDI files that are only a few kilobytes in size. If they are stored in a modern audio format now they probably add a few MB to the size.

Downloaded Doom last night, and when asked provided a made up email address. Seems the game can then be played as normal, I’ve done the first 3 levels without having to authenticate the account.

@Ventilator sweet sweet 3dfx times...
Struggling with memmaker within the config.sys and autoexec.bat to gain some Ko...

Dos =high, Umb forever ...

@countzero : Ah, I hadn't considered that. The point about the audio certainly makes sense considering the quantity of tracks.

If this was intentional on the part of Bethesda, and they just wanted us to sign-up... then why is it skippable on Doom 3? That inconsistency keeps bugging me. I really can't figure out any rational reason for that discrepancy.

@RedderRugfish I would actually love that!

I don't quite understand why there's questioning whether it might have been accidental when the eShop description clearly states that an account is required. If it were a mistake there wouldn't have been any notice at all since it wasn't intentional, but this isn't the case.

That being said, it's nice to see that they're planning to change it at least.

@SenseiDje I still have 2 x 3DFX cards on a shelve here
Orchid 3DFX Voodo 1 and Orchid 3DFX Voodo 2

Anyway. I never used memmaker, because i got much better results by using my own head instead. hehe
Manually optimizing memory can only be maxed manually.
Memmaker were half-assed and useless.

Around 1994 i had 610K left i think it was with drivers for 2 sound cards and CD-Rom driver running. I had Gravis and Soundblaster installed at the same time too.

Memmaker could only optimize this to 580 or so. Manually.. 610.

@Ooyah the doom 3 port was made by a different company to the other 2 so only thing i can think of is they added it in it and slipped it by bathesda without them knowing

Good news for everyone, I'm buying all three games immediately.
And hope for Doom 64 to be coming

As if, this was clearly done on purpose to catch a load of people in the sign up. Then they apologise and fix it with a few extra thousand suckers on their mailing list and a higher brag number for the shareholders. Gross.

Edit: 69 dude!

@Luigi_Skywalker >imagine thinking bethesda made doom

@HobbitGamer

Yet there's lots of people in these comments saying

"will buy once this is patched out"

So yeah, you're wrong.

@Ventilator 👍 !
Memmaker was an eye opener for me, but, like you, I tweaked manually for much better results... I remember peaking at 636ko free, but I never got an ultrasound. My awe64 was nice , fasttracker2 really great, but those happy gravis owner were a step above me... lucky fellow ! Simpler times ... more time, less children...

Thanks Bethesda Now please, Quake and Rage

@Doktor-Mandrake Id Software made Doom. Bethesda bought Id Software, so yeah, Bethesda made Doom.

I was wondering why I went from 619 to 640 points on my profile the other day.

Either way, they should've been more clear about this, and it's good that they're patching it.

@Ventilator: When I started Doom 2 last night it auto-signed in on my Switch.

@UnseatingKDawg Your Nintendo account gets linked to the Bethesda account. So they do a simple database check and sign you in.

@sanderev bethesda wasnt their publisher in 1993 buddy

And id software is still called id software, stop spreading misinformation lol

You just need to enter a phony email address one time, and that's it. People acting like this is some massive hassle or invasion of privacy are stretching things too far.

Also, apologies to "[email protected]" for signing you up with Bethesda.

@KennyBania because it's drm in a game which had its source code made PUBLIC all the way back in 1997

Using online-drm in games like these is dumb

@Silly_G you also have to add in the fact it has split-screen multiplay and other features that are not in the original, including the Bethesda net prompt.

I’m not surprised they decided to change it but saying they never meant for it to be required is a lie. I’m a software dev. You don’t make that kind of mistake.

While they’re at it could they add motion controls to Doom 3. 🙏

@SenseiDje Yes. I did try Memmaker, but noticed it could be improved even more manually.
Sincer i loaded 2 soundcard drivers + CD driver, it were impossible with 636K.
I had Gravis to get better Midi and better framerate in games and demoes. Gravis used 0% of the CPU, while Soundblaster used CPU which dropped framerates in games. Atleast SB 16 UpNp were a CPU hog. I don't remember how AWE64 worked vs SB 16.
Anyway. I made around 80 songs in FastTracker 2 and Protracker on Amiga. Over half them incomplete..lol, but i have them all stored on PC.
1980's and and 1990's were the best time for gaming, but also for hardware innovation. Gaming industry became less interresting and innovative after year 2000.

@UnseatingKDawg Thats great. It also stores it on Switch too then.
The ones who didn't get auto login in Doom, didn't own any other Bethesda game on Switch then.

@Doktor-Mandrake Where did I say that Bethesda was the publisher in 1993? WHERE?!!

And sure Id Software is still called Id Software. However, since 2009 it's owned by ZeniMax (which also owns Bethesda)

Id Software = ZeniMax = Bethesda.

Just like BioWare = EA and Pixar = Disney.

@sanderev Um, publishers still don't make the games.. I.E doom wasn't made by bethesda

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doom_(franchise)

"The Doom (stylized as DOOM) franchise is a series of first-person shooter video games developed by id Software"

Doom is made by id software, bethesda are the publishers and had literally nothing to do with development.. Especially with doom 1 and 2, as they weren't even the publishers back then.. But yeah, you should learn the difference between Developer and Publisher.

"Should be optional", yet no one over there noticed it wasn't? Sounds 100% believable.

Sounds like they're just trying to save face. It outright says on the eShop pages that the account login was required. That doesn't sound like a "glitch" to me.

@Doktor-Mandrake yes, I know ID made Doom, I bought it when it came out in the 90’s. Bethesda owns it.

@Luigi_Skywalker Yeah now you've edited your comment lol

Previously, before you changed it, you said "Bethesda made some of my favorite games (these doom games included)"

Also, it's "id" software, not "ID".

@RedderRugfish But the Dos prompt only works with the official bethesda.net usb-c keyboard available for only for $99.99 plus a monthly subscription fee.

I hope it's patched soon. Game worked fine for the first day, now I get the error I have been signed out every 15 seconds when coming out of sleep mode for about 2 minutes, regardless if I am online or not.

@Doktor-Mandrake I NEVER said DOOM was developed by Bethesda.

Doom is made by Id Software in 1993.
Id Software is bought by ZeniMax (which also owns Bethesda)
Bethesda / ZeniMax publish the ports.

Id Software is not an independent studio. They are part of ZeniMax. ALL they own is part of ZeniMax. Just like Bethesda.

This obviously wasn’t a mistake on their part. They must have a couple execs who are obsessed with DRM. So weak that they tried to pass it off as an accident. People commenting about it on sites like this helped change their opinion.

Liars.

That’s almost as stupid as Nintendo Life’s word count minimum in user comments.

@Doktor-Mandrake

How is it DRM?

You enter a phony email, you can play offline and you never have to 'log in' again.

I don't understand what the big issue is with signing in. Most games require a sign in of sorts this day and age so I don't see it being an issue. I already had an account so was no big deal for me. Even if I didn't create one and sit and enjoy great classic games.

Pretend it was an error after the backlash

Who cares... I bought all the 3 games, opened a Bethesda.net account in a few minutes and I am enjoying the first glorious Doom. Thank you Bethesda.

@Ventilator
I hereby declare you my new best buddy here, as we share a lot of weird experience during rhe 90s’

Awe 64 was a huge improvement over an noname SBpro clone ( 220 irq 5 DMA 1), and a bliss to make some midi music. But no patch support ...

Hopefully they’ll add a weapon wheel while they’re at it. 🤪

And seriously, the new iOS ports are not as good as the previous 32-BIT version of Doom nor Gameception running Doom II. What’s the deal with that? 😪

@Jin15

Be prepared to be murdered while trying to switch to melee or managing to accidentally fire a rocket at close range.

It's one thing to have a bug in a Bethesda game that garners mild amusement or confusion (like a dragon's skeleton dropping out of the sky when you fast travel to Riften in Skyrim), but when you have bugs that make the game virtually or literally unplayable, that's where I draw the line.

I know Bethesda's notorious for bugs in their games, but they really need to get their act together and do some serious quality control when making and releasing their games, be they new or old.

Where's Doom 64 for the Switch?

@SenseiDje Thank you, and the same yo you.
I remember AWE64 were praised, and yes. It had superior MIDI vs SB16 by far.
SB16 weren't much better than PC Speaker sound for Midi.
My Gravis supported custom sound banks, but i never replaced it.
I miss the time when you had to buy custom sound cards.

Today, 90%? uses Realtek soundcards from Taiwan.
In early 2000's, i bought a PCI Realtek soundcard for a Pentium 4 PC and it supported 7.1 sound and had digital out. Great value for less than 30$ bucks back then.
Realtek maybe killed all competitors.

Anyway. Always great to see people with same experiences as me during the glory days of gaming.
I also had Commodore 64 in 1980's during it's prime time.

If it was an accident, why was it worded to say "Login is required to PLAY this title" rather than "required to access certain features"?

This looks like a backtrack, not a fix

"Patch is ready, please download it from your Bethesta FunpointsTM companion smartphone app after logging in"

@sanderev You said bethesda 'made' doom.. To 'make' a game is referred to as game development.

@Doktor-Mandrake Yeah fair. But I was talking about Bethesda (or actually ZeniMax) buying Id Software, including rights to the games.

You should also note that I said that Id Software made Doom.

@KennyBania I had to verify the account by going into my email account, also need internet connection required upon first login

Without those things, you aren't playing.. Therefore it's a form of "Digital Rights Management"

@sanderev yeah no worries sorry for busting your balls, just one of those things that really irk me xD
original founders of id software like john carmack invented idtech engine, and mega-textures which is used today in modern idtech engines.. the engines they run on are all the work of him, and he doesn't even work there anymore after a dispute with the parent companies.. I just rather id software be remembered for its glory days before being eaten up by zenimax and bethesda heh

@Silly_G the games were completely remade using unity, this most likely lead to the size increase.

@Doktor-Mandrake

You don't have to verify anything. I entered a completely phony email address I don't have access too, it said I was logged in, and then I started to play. It took 5 seconds.

Maybe you recieved an email from Bethesda and opened it, but it's not a requirement to access the game.

@Silly_G

I think I might now know why the file sizes are bigger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNOK_w-jMxw

@Ventilator Sorry, can't let that slide. Win2000 is a clusterf***. There is no reason for anybody to ever use it in a world of Win98SE

@Rubbercookie Win 98 were useless a buggy, and had mem leaks.
Win 2000 had no mem leaks, and i only rebooted the PC 1 time every 6 months.
Win 98 required rebooting several times weekly.
Win 2000 also required less resources than Win 98.
I had 768.GB RAM in my Pentium 2 450.Mhz, and Win 2000 only used 32.MB RAM.

@Jin15 come on, I can't see where is the problem that prevent you to buy these fantastic games... It ask to log in ? login and play ... otherwise you can put switch in airplane mode ... and you can play without login ... also note that DOOM3 doesn't require the login at all

Doom 64 is probably delayed as they have to remove login screen.

@Ventilator ROFTL

@KennyBania,

I suspected it was you,but don't worry I am on the phone to Pizza Hut and you will be receiving a very large delivery very soon,just hope you like Hawaiian.

@johnvboy

Throw some tomato on that Hawaiian and I will be even happier! 😀

I just can't get past the blocky look of these games. Time really hasn't been kind to them. It amazes me a little that so many people seem to be excited about playing them again.

@Earl_Grey The look of these games is one of the big things I love about them. Everything is a blood soaked puzzle box, with Doom guy inside. It makes poking around for secrets far more fun that in Doom 2016 with so much detail that nothing stands out as a clue.

Funny, I actually just came across my childhood 486 laptop. I'll just play it there, thanks.

@akennelley1 do you remember, though, when Doom was the ultimate test as to what your PC could handle?

@Earl_Grey Oh heck yes I do! I remember beign in AWE of what I was seeing! Sure, they aren't cutting edge now, but I still feel like the charm of how the levels manage to feel immersive with such simple geometry is a testament to the Metal and Mountain Dew fueled manner they were created with.

@Zanzox
You can't. I don't have Internet at home and it will not let you play it unless you login first. It just keeps trying to connect to a nonexistent wifi.