DOOM Eternal has been delayed to March 2020. Originally announced as releasing next month, DOOM Eternal is the upcoming sequel to 2016’s DOOM reboot, which was both critically praised and held in high regard by fans for being a fantastic blend of old-school gameplay loops and modern first-person shooter mechanics in a beautiful, bloody setting filled with hard-to-find secrets.
When revealed at QuakeCon 2018, DOOM Eternal excited fans yet again by building on the gameplay established in the previous title and revealing new mechanics such as the ability to attach a hookshot-like chain to the end of the Doom Slayer’s shotgun. Reports of Dark Souls-like invasions and insanely cool multiplayer modes have only made the game sound better, but unfortunately it’s beginning to look like all those new inclusions gave developer id Software more trouble than they initially thought.
In a Twitter post earlier today, id Software released a statement saying DOOM Eternal will be delayed until March 20, 2020. The company said they came to this decision because they want to make sure they are delivering the best experience to the player and the current version of DOOM Eternal does not live up to their standards. The full statement can be read in the embedded post below.
Disappointly, it seems as if the Nintendo Switch version of DOOM Eternal is giving the company more trouble than the others, and no definite release date is given other than “after the other platforms.” Thankfully, id Software seems to understand many fans will be upset at this news, so they are now including a copy of DOOM 64 with every preorder, a gift which feels slightly less special when followed by the news that DOOM 64 will also be purchasable on all consoles the same day DOOM Eternal releases.
With so many video game development companies having come under fire lately for abusive and dangerous business practices, it’s good to see a company stepping back and taking adequate time to polish their product before releasing it to the public. In a landscape where the majority of AAA titles rely on day one updates and perpetual, easily-abandoned Anthem-like road maps for bug fixing and content additions, any time a company makes a decision with the player’s best interests at heart they should be praised for it. While waiting four additional months is not what anyone urgently awaiting the game necessarily wants to do, hopefully DOOM Eternal’s final quality will benefit from the extra time spent.
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Source: Twitter
