Bethesda Makes One of Its Best Games $1.29 for Limited Time

Bethesda has made one of its best games, one of the best games of all time, just $1.29 for a limited time. The game in question hails from 1992, 9 years before Bethesda was founded, but as you may know, Bethesda owns some studios that predate it, such as id Software, the studio historically and contemporarily best known for the DOOM series. Before DOOM existed, though, and before Quake too, id Software made a name for itself for an even older first-person shooter.

Before both DOOM and Quake, there was Wolfenstein, and in particular, Wolfenstein 3D. For those who never experienced this piece of video game history, this wrong can be made right for just $1.29 courtesy of Green Man Gaming, which is basically giving away Steam codes for free. GOG also has the game available for $0.20 more, aka $1.49. This is the same price it’s been made on Steam itself. It is unclear how long the GMG deal is live for, but the GOG deal is notably only available until August 14, while the Steam deal is set to expire a day earlier on August 14.

The Grandfather of First-Person Shooters

For those who don’t know video game history, Wolfenstein 3D is a first-person shooter released in 1992 by developer id Software and Apogee Software as the third installment in the Wolfenstein series, which actually dates back to 1981 and Castle Wolfenstein. Between this game and Wolfenstein 3D was Beyond Castle Wolfenstein in 1984.

More than all of this, Wolfenstein 3D is arguably the most important first-person shooter of all time because it not only popularized the genre but laid the foundation for what would become the modern first-person shooter. It also put id Software on the map, which would go on to make Quake and DOOM. While it’s not the best first-person shooter, it’s certainly the ultimate pioneer of it, and influenced the genre more than any other game, other than perhaps Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which established the modern online first-person shooter.

Upon release, the game reviewed and sold well, and is often cited as both “the grandfather of first-person shooters” and one of the best games of all time. That said, this is more because of its significance than how well it holds up in 2026. Because it doesn’t hold up very well in 2026. The 34-year-old game is a very bare-bones and rudimentary experience, but for anyone with nostalgia for it, or this era of first-person shooters in general, $1.29 for a massive rush of nostalgia is about as good a deal as you can get. That said, it does look like it’s going to be added to Xbox Game Pass this week, or at least the Xbox 360 version of the classic.

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