Bethesda's PC Game Launcher Will Be Retired in May
Get ready to bid farewell to Bethesda’s game launcher.
The developer plans on retiring the Bethesda.net launcher in May and is preparing to let customers migrate their game libraries to their Steam accounts.
“We would like to thank you for your support and assure you that all of your games are safe,” Bethesda wrote in a Tuesday announcement. “If you’re not playing PC games through the Bethesda.net launcher then your work is done here.”
The change applies to customers who bought Bethesda games from the studio itself or other third-party platforms outside of Steam. If you did, the games would have probably been installed with the Bethesda.net launcher, which was originally introduced in 2016. For example, Fallout 76 was first sold through Bethesda before coming to Steam two years later.
Bethesda is promising a smooth migration for game libraries and digital wallets. “Many games will also have their saves migrated, with a few requiring some manual transfers. For games that require it, you will still use your Bethesda.net login to sign in to play,” the developer added.
Bethesda plans on kicking off the migration process in early April for affected customers. But the studio is keeping the Bethesda.net account system intact for existing and future games. If you fail to migrate your game library to Steam before May, don't worry. "You will not lose access to your Library on Bethesda.net in May, only the ability to play them on the Launcher," Bethesda said.
The game studio, which Microsoft recently acquired, didn’t say why it was shutting down the launcher. But the platform allowed Bethesda to rake in more sales since selling a game on Steam requires the developer to hand over a 30% cut to Valve. On the flipside, the
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