Late last week, Bethesda surprised QuakeCon attendees and retro gamers worldwide with the re-release of the first three games on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One (that last one with some issues of its own).
It also surprised potential players by requiring a Bethesda.net login and an active Internet connection to play. That state of affairs led to a fair share of online joking imagining other classics given similarly restrictive DRM.
Over the weekend, Bethesda promised users that the situation was a mistake and that the company is working on patching it out. “The BethesdaNet login requirement was included for the Slayers Club, to reward members for playing the classic games,” Bethesda tweeted. “The login should be optional, and we are working on changing the requirement to optional now.”
There’s no public timeline for the fix rolling out, but Bethesda adds that it “will update everyone when a fix is ready.”
Further Reading
Back in 2017, the PC release of ‘s faced a similar issue that required an online connection to play. Sega fixed what they called a “particular bug” relatively quickly. And Microsoft infamously said it would require an online “check-in” every 24 hours for the Xbox One before quickly reversing course over fan outcry.
