DOOM Eternal Delayed But There's Still Some Good News

In 2016, id Software and Bethesda decided to reboot the DOOM franchise, and the resulting game quickly became one of the more popular first-person shooters around. Given that success, it was no surprise to see Bethesda announce a sequel called DOOM Eternal at E3 2018. Unfortunately, DOOM Eternal won't be arriving on its originally scheduled release date, as Bethesda announced today that the game has been delayed.DOOM Eternal was initially slated to launch on November 22nd, 2019 – a little over a month from today. With this delay, the game has been pushed into the new year, as now it won't be launching until March 20th, 2020.

Having to wait an additional four months will likely be disappointing for those who just want to play more DOOM, but as far as game delays go, this one isn't too terrible. That is, of course, assuming that Bethesda and id Software stick to this new release date and don't hit any new roadblocks on the path to DOOM Eternal's March launch.

In addition to announcing this delay today, id Software announced that Invasion Mode – a multiplayer mode that allows you to drop in on another player's game and play as a demon – won't be in the game at launch. Instead, it'll be added to the game by way of a free update "shortly after launch," but id didn't get any more specific about Invasion Mode's release timing.

The company also confirmed today that the Nintendo Switch version will lag behind the other versions of DOOM Eternal, but again, we didn't get a solid release date for the Switch, with id only saying that it will announce a release date in the future. Finally, if there's a silver lining to this announcement, it's that id and Bethesda have added DOOM 64 as a pre-order bonus for Eternal across all platforms – PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch. DOOM 64 will be available on March 20th, 2020, the same day that DOOM Eternal goes live.