Yesterday's Nintendo Direct brought a veritable wave of game release news for fans, revealing that it's not just a new batch of NES ports that are set to bring gamers nostalgia: Nintendo also announced that a port of Doom 64 will arrive on the Nintendo Switch ahead of the holiday season. Bethesda Softworks senior vice president Pete Hines appeared on the stream to confirm that Doom 64 will be released on Friday, November 22, 2019.
Fans of the series will recognize the date: it's the same day that the franchise's newest game, Doom Eternal, is poised to launch. November 22 will be quite a busy day for fans of the iconic first-person shooter franchise.
Doom 64 originally launched in 1997 as an N64 exclusive. It was developed by Midway Games with a storyline that picked up right after Doom 2, receiving favorable reviews from critics at the time. This year will mark the first time that Nintendo has ever ported the game, though it's unclear if Bethesda Softworks will bring it to any other consoles at the same time: when asked if Doom 64 might be ported to other platforms, the official Doom account simply said 'that'd be neat'.
The upcoming port has been widely rumored following the fact that PEGI gave Doom 64 an age recommendation rating back in late July, while simultaneously implying that the port would come to PC and PS4. While that still remains unconfirmed, Nintendo has shown that the Switch port will officially come with an ESRB rating of M for Mature, which should come as no surprise to veterans of the Doom franchise.
The franchise recently stealth launched a Doom trilogy package for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, marking the first time the older Doom titles have been released on modern platforms in the last ten years. With Doom 64 now getting a similar treatment, it looks like Bethesda Softworks is pulling out all the stops to keep the Doom franchise moving forward alongside the upcoming release of Doom Eternal.
Doom 64 will release on November 22, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch, with other platforms being rumored as well.