Bethesda Softworks has made the disappointing announcement that the Doom Eternal PS5 and Xbox Series X versions won’t be available for the launch of the next-gen consoles. It’s not all bad news, though — it will nonetheless be playable on both consoles as a backwards compatible title.
This is the big week when the PS5 and Xbox Series X officially launch. The pre-order situation for both consoles has been rough; the launch of the Xbox Series X and S broke most online storefronts and some of the lucky gamers who managed to get PS5 pre-orders later learned that their console might not arrive on launch day. That disappointment has just been compounded with the lack of a next-gen Doom Slayer — at least on launch day.
Bethesda has ‘not announced’ Doom Eternal PS5 and Xbox Series X release dates
Bethesda has announced its plans for next-gen upgrades, stating that Doom Eternal will be one of the first games in the company’s catalog to receive free next-gen upgrades on both consoles. Unfortunately, that same announcement has also revealed that the Doom Eternal PS5 and Xbox Series X release dates have yet to be announced; this means that the game won’t be available for either console when it launches this week.
“At console launch, DOOM Eternal will be backwards compatible, with next gen upgrades planned for a future date,” Bethesda Softworks said in the announcement.
The Doom Eternal PS5 and Xbox Series X versions haven’t been delayed, strictly speaking — Bethesda had not yet announced a launch date for the upgraded versions. While this is surely disappointing news to some players, there is an upside: Doom Eternal will still be playable on the PS5 and Xbox Series X on launch day, allowing players to enjoy all of the demon-slaying action and the challenging first piece of DLC. They just won’t be able to enjoy any of the cool graphical upgrades that other games are getting with their next-gen upgrades.
