Bethesda Announces Much-Needed Patch for Doom on Switch

Doom is, without a doubt, one of the best FPS games of this generation. It’s fast, it’s bloody, and it makes ripping and tearing through the armies of Hell almost impossibly satisfying. The Nintendo Switch port of the game is almost too good to be true, but it does have some glaring issues that aren’t present in other versions. The developers at id Software have been working long and hard to fix these problems, and they are almost ready to release the fruits of their labor.

Earlier today, the official Doom Twitter account released the following statement:

We’ll be releasing an upcoming patch for #DOOM on #NintendoSwitch this month. We’ll provide full patch notes – covering audio issues, menu fixes, and more – as we get closer to release. pic.twitter.com/0YyJ9OTqzK

— DOOM (@DOOM) February 9, 2018

A quick google search provides a somewhat sizable list of known issues with the Nintendo Switch port, which include:

• Areas with numerous enemies or effects cause massive framerate drops
• A loud buzzing occurs during the campaign
• Numerous sounds being triggered at once can result in notable sound degradation
• The Hell Guard boss has a small chance of becoming invincible, rendering the fight unwinnable unless players load a previous save
• Firing the BFG might freeze the game
• An inescapable pause menu can pop up during the middle of a multiplayer match
• Progression through the campaign can become impossible after leaving the game open for several hours
• Reloading a checkpoint while collecting the Chainsaw renders it unobtainable

This is far from an exhaustive list of all known bugs; one of the most widespread issues is a glitch that causes Joy-Con controllers to stop working in in-game menus. While we do not know how many of these problems will be fixed, the announcement specifically mentions menu and audio issues, which implies at the very least, players probably won’t encounter sound degradation/buzzing or non-navigable menus after the patch.

We will have to wait a while until we know which issues will be fixed, but until then, gamers have already started speculating which other bugs and glitches will be tackled in the patch.