UPDATE: Bethesda has announced it is working on making logins optional.
Update on our new classic DOOM releases:
— Bethesda (@bethesda) July 27, 2019
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.
To celebrate the franchise’s 25th Anniversary, Bethesda has re-released the first three DOOM games on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. There’s a laughable caveat, however: players need to log in to their Bethesda.net Accounts in order to play them.
Soooo… these DOOM ports force you to log into a BNet account. #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/6wYFLiHuOT
— Daan Koopman (@NintenDaan) July 26, 2019
WHY pic.twitter.com/j3yG8FTTJn
— Infernal Monkey 🔞 (@infernal_monkey) July 26, 2019
That’s an interesting requirement for DOOM, which is primarily an offline, single-player experience, with multiplayer being local. Bethesda has also delisted the original Xbox ports, presumably to goad fans into paying for the new, native versions (which happen to have less features).
Doom II’s Xbox 360 version originally launched with a console-exclusive expansion pack, “No Rest For The Living,” and that has not been brought back in today’s new Xbox One version. Worse, both of the first two games have lost all of their online gameplay modes (deathmatch, co-op). From what I can tell, Doom 3’s full “BFG Edition” package has been kept intact, complete with its pair of expansion packs.