'DOOM Eternal' To Hit Shelves Early To Facilitate 'Social Distancing'

GameStop tweeted that they are ready to launch "DOOM Eternal" on March 19th in an effort to follow the CDC recommendation on social distancing. They also said that this will be a safety precaution for their customers and associates to avoid contributing to the outbreak.

Aside from helping to prevent any possible transmission of the disease, the early release is also to help separate the crowds of "DOOM Eternal" and "Animal Crossing: New Horizons," which is also launching on the same day. It is expected that both games will sell many copies, because of their popularity. "DOOM Eternal" fans are, of course, excited, while "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" players are not as excited since they won’t get the game early.

It is welcome news after GameStop earlier announced it will be cancelling midnight launches for both titles. It is pulling all the stops to separate people in observance of social distancing, as it will also limit the number of customers in the store to 10 persons at a time. This will be in effect until further notice.

People are expecting big things out of "DOOM Eternal" since it follows the 2016 reboot of the DOOM franchise. Eternal does a number of new things while offering some of the classics, GameSpot reported. Demons and guns will be a mix of the two, while there are quite a few new tricks that players can pull off.

Developer id Software said that there is a lot to expect from the game, such as the multiplayer mode Invasion. Playing this mode will let players invade another player’s game as a demon and it is also available as a free update upon launch. "DOOM 64" also ships with the game as a pre-order bonus and will also be available to download for free.

This news joins a slew of other positive ones in the midst of the outbreak. Movies like Universal’s “The Invisible Man” and Disney’s “Frozen 2” are coming to home video, with the latter coming to Disney+ three months earlier.