There's going to be one less launcher to deal with on the PC platform soon. Bethesda is throwing in the towel in regards to its Bethesda.net games launcher for PC, with plans to shut the launcher down completely by this May. Originally launched in 2016, the Bethesda.net launcher was the company's alternative to Steam, where they would begin to exclusively launch games such as Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls: Legends solely on their platform for PC. It wasn't long before Bethesda made its way back to Steam in mid-2019, bringing with it titles like DOOM Eternal and Wolfenstein: Youngblood, though it still kept Bethesda.net updated and continued to release games on it.

If you used Bethesda.net for any games, Bethesda will be offering an account migration, where you can transfer your games from the platform and own them on Steam instead. You'll still need a Bethesda.net account to play your games on Steam, but you will no longer need Bethesda.net's launcher itself. Saves will be transferrable as well, according to the company, letting players move their game progress and modpacks into the Steam versions, with the single exception of Wolfenstein: Youngblood.

The account migration will begin in early April, and Bethesda will inform those with Bethesda.net accounts when the time comes.

Source

 

[eyeliner]

People: "Steam Is MoNopLY"
Also people: "Die Epic, die, Die!"

 

[Xzi]

People: "Steam Is MoNopLY"
Also people: "Die Epic, die, Die!"

A. Epic doesn't do enough with their storefront-launcher to actually compete with Steam
B. Third-party exclusivity is itself a monopolistic business practice
C. The last thing anyone wants or needs is Tencent taking over the PC gaming market

 

[Arck]

RockstarGames should do that, no need for a launcher for the few games they have no matter how good those are.

(and no wonder why they took Steam over Epic tbh)

 

[eyeliner]

A. Epic doesn't do enough with their storefront-launcher to actually compete with Steam
B. Third-party exclusivity is itself a monopolistic business practice
C. The last thing anyone wants or needs is Tencent taking over the PC gaming market

I'll bite:
You buy and launch games. What else do you need?

Epic is a developer and publisher that takes a smaller cut than the 30% Steam takes. For a developer, that can mean a serious amount of money.

And Steam is better than Tencent, how? They have a storefront, they sell games and the client has a few bells and whistles little people care about.

Epic has a streamlined store front that allows you to purchase and play games, just like Steam. Your emails are sold to whoever buys them and your payment information is as secure as in Tencent's servers. As in, use temporary cards.

People need to leave retarded ideas out of the way with corporations. They want money.

You know what? Epic launcher sits comfortably in my system tray, while I get a damned Steam window every time I log in to my computer. Updating, asking for log in credentials, ranting that for some reason I need to login again.

I want Steam to die, just like every other launcher. We don't need them. From the day I bought Civ V Special Edition BRAND New in store and couldn't play it because Steam had to be installed, configured and stuff, yeah, it needs to die.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

And Steam is better than Tencent, how? They have a storefront, they sell games and the client has a few bells and whistles little people care about.

...Because Steam isn't partly-owned by the truly sickening CCP, which owns Tencent? If the CCP wants customer data, Tencent has no choice but to hand it over, so that's a major privacy risk - and since Epic is partly-owned by Tencent, that includes Epic customer data.
Yeah, no, data isn't "secure" in Epic's or Tencent's servers, matey.

Also, unlike the godawful incomplete Epic Store, Steam has had achievements and customer reviews for years now, not to mention superior social aspects.

 

[eyeliner]

...Because Steam isn't partly-owned by the truly sickening CCP, which owns Tencent? If the CCP wants customer data, Tencent has no choice but to hand it over, so that's a major privacy risk - and since Epic is partly-owned by Tencent, that includes Epic customer data.
Yeah, no, data isn't "secure" in Epic's or Tencent's servers, matey.

Also, unlike the godawful incomplete Epic Store, Steam has had achievements and customer reviews for years now, not to mention superior social aspects.

Ah, yes... Steam is the holy grail of privacy. My data is secure because they are not in China. America is spankingly clean in this regard.

Achievements, really? People care about that? You measure what with those, exactly? How much of a power gamer you are?

Just so you understand, I'm not defending any of them, I hate both equally.

Storefronts should not exist. Period. Specially when they require internet access to play a game you bought physically.

Steam, Epic and other storefronts should be a convenience, not an obligation.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

Ah, yes... Steam is the holy grail of privacy. My data is secure because they are not in China. America is spankingly clean in this regard.

Achievements, really? People care about that? You measure what with those, exactly? How much of a power gamer you are?

Just so you understand, I'm not defending any of them, I hate both equally.

Storefronts should not exist. Period. Specially when they require internet access to play a game you bought physically.

Steam, Epic and other storefronts should be a convenience, not an obligation.

You can still buy PC games physically? When almost no laptop or desktop includes any kind of disk tray these days? Huh.
As far as the PC market is concerned, there pretty much IS no physical market.

Achievements are certainly not essential, but they're a nice extra feature to provide incentives to keep playing, or to do something you wouldn't think to do otherwise. Both PlayStation and Xbox have had achievement systems for a few generations now, and Steam's had one for over a decade, I'd say; Epic not having them is certainly a disappointment.
More important is how Epic doesn't have customer reviews by default; instead, from what I understand, the publisher controls whether their games have reviews enabled on Epic Store, giving them inordinate control over our voices. Sure, Steam's review system can be exploited ("review bombs"), but at least it's still possible to warn people about a game's quality on Steam, where it's not possible on Epic.

As for your last sentence, only having to launch one application to be able to play your entire library is a convenience; a convenience shattered by the multiple, lesser-quality storefronts hoisted onto us.
I do see how just being able to install a game to your computer and being able to launch it straight from desktop or Start menu would be better, as you wouldn't be tied to any company's software, but you wouldn't have all your games in a single convenient list; Steam offers this, along with cloud backups and easy game updating.

 

[eyeliner]

You can still buy PC games physically? When almost no laptop or desktop includes any kind of disk tray these days? Huh.
As far as the PC market is concerned, there pretty much IS no physical market.

Achievements are certainly not essential, but they're a nice extra feature to provide incentives to keep playing, or to do something you wouldn't think to do otherwise. Both PlayStation and Xbox have had achievement systems for a few generations now, and Steam's had one for over a decade, I'd say; Epic not having them is certainly a disappointment.
More important is how Epic doesn't have customer reviews by default; instead, from what I understand, the publisher controls whether their games have reviews enabled on Epic Store, giving them inordinate control over our voices. Sure, Steam's review system can be exploited ("review bombs"), but at least it's still possible to warn people about a game's quality on Steam, where it's not possible on Epic.

As for your last sentence, only having to launch one application to be able to play your entire library is a convenience; a convenience shattered by the multiple, lesser-quality storefronts hoisted onto us.
I do see how just being able to install a game to your computer and being able to launch it straight from desktop or Start menu would be better, as you wouldn't be tied to any company's software, but you wouldn't have all your games in a single convenient list; Steam offers this, along with cloud backups and easy game updating.

OK, now we're talking!
Reviews can be consulted in a lot of venues, so not having them in app is certainly not too big of an issue.

You bring up a good point, certainly the most important. The convenience. I'm a gamer that at most have 3/4 games installed max. I'd say that the enormous amount of games in my libraries are games that I have no intention of playing, so if there was no storefronts, we'd certainly have a lot less backlog, and no need for these overrated softwares.

Gaming has come a long way, certainly...

 

[Xzi]

You buy and launch games. What else do you need?

How much time you have? User reviews, full controller support, universal cloud saves, in-home streaming, the overlay UI, built-in social features...these are all features I use often. Different people use different sets of features, but the point is that Epic is missing nearly all of them.

Epic is a developer and publisher that takes a smaller cut than the 30% Steam takes. For a developer, that can mean a serious amount of money.

They take a smaller cut because it's literally the only strategy they could think up to compete with Steam. Problem is: it's a stupid strategy because it appeals solely to developers/publishers, not customers. Even dumber and more hypocritical is that Epic accepts MS/Sony/Nintendo taking a 30% cut from their games without hesitation.

And Steam is better than Tencent, how?

Valve aren't owned and operated by the Chinese government. Valve aren't even publicly traded. And perhaps most importantly: Valve aren't a part of the predatory mobile gaming market.

People need to leave retarded ideas out of the way with corporations. They want money.

Valve have more money than anybody could spend in a thousand lifetimes. Yet they continue to update and improve Steam constantly. That's why gamers like them, they go above and beyond even when they sometimes don't have a specific profit motive for doing so. I sure as shit don't see Tim Sweeney releasing a $400 "Epic Deck" any time soon, and if he did it would probably have the build quality of a Happy Meal toy.

I want Steam to die, just like every other launcher. We don't need them.

Developers and publishers would disagree. Especially indie devs. Piracy was exploding in the early 2000s before Steam came along, and there was no effective method for marketing PC games.

 

[Ishzark]

wait, they had a launcher?

 

[AkiraKurusu]

OK, now we're talking!
Reviews can be consulted in a lot of venues, so not having them in app is certainly not too big of an issue.

You bring up a good point, certainly the most important. The convenience. I'm a gamer that at most have 3/4 games installed max. I'd say that the enormous amount of games in my libraries are games that I have no intention of playing, so if there was no storefronts, we'd certainly have a lot less backlog, and no need for these overrated softwares.

Gaming has come a long way, certainly...

Reviews can be seen on a lot of websites, sure, but people would have to go out of their way to search for them, which a lot of "casual" customers aren't likely to do. Steam having reviews on the storepage itself gives customers a way to see if a game's good or not whilst looking at the game; if they see a "Mixed", they know to be cautious, while if they see a "Mostly Negative", they might decide not to buy, when they otherwise would've.

Steam having reviews on the storepage itself gives us a way to protect future customers, since we can warn them about a game's flaws and avarice, while also promoting high-quality games. This can be abused through 'review bombs', sure, but those often don't happen without good reason - like the publisher being an utter douchebag, for example suddenly making games (e.g. Metro) Epic-exclusive when it was originally advertised as having a Steam release, or FIFA being FIFA. Steam also added countermeasures for that years ago, by making segments of time with abnormally-high review counts not count towards a game's rating - which kinda sucks, since it takes away more of what power we have left...

As a result, Epic not having reviews is pretty shitty, as customers would have no way to tell if a game's good or not unless they go out of their way to do research.

 

[AkiraKurusu]

Developers and publishers would disagree. Especially indie devs. Piracy was exploding in the early 2000s before Steam came along, and there was no effective method for marketing PC games.

I agree with all your points, but unfortunately Steam isn't as good for indies as it used to be, due to the sheer number of shovelware piled onto the storefront every day, pushing down legitimate and likely-good indie games. Steam used to be quite selective, until they just threw up their hands and opened the floodgates...Greenlight was trash, and while its successor (which name I cannot recall) was supposed to help, it ultimately didn't do much at all.

Steam's still better for indies than no storefront at all, I do agree there, but...ugh, shovelware...

 

[Xzi]

I agree with all your points, but unfortunately Steam isn't as good for indies as it used to be

It remains the best platform for indies on PC, other than perhaps itch.io, which is mostly free stuff anyway. A lot of people don't even remember that Hades was Epic exclusive for a time, because Steam actually did some marketing for it and EGS did not.

 

[bonkmaykr]

If we ever end up with a monopolized PC gaming ecosystem, let's be glad Valve will probably be behind it.

edit: because some people on the internet have less than 3 brain cells and think with their nuts tied behind their back, no, i don't want a monopoly. nobody does. that would suck. I'm just saying that one company here is clearly doing a better job of respecting their customers more than the rest and it would be a shame if anyone other than them controlled most of the PC software market.

 

[Guacaholey]

If we ever end up with a monopolized PC gaming ecosystem, let's be glad Valve will probably be behind it.

The only benefit I see to that is they'll probably be pushing Steam Deck/Steam OS 3 compatibility

 

[bonkmaykr]

The only benefit I see to that is they'll probably be pushing Steam Deck/Steam OS 3 compatibility

(i use arch btw)

 

[Kioku]

You buy and launch games. What else do you need?

Not another launcher?

Epic is a developer and publisher that takes a smaller cut than the 30% Steam takes. For a developer, that can mean a serious amount of money.

They also shell out piles of money for timed exclusives. We don't need that shit on PC.

And Steam is better than Tencent, how? They have a storefront, they sell games and the client has a few bells and whistles little people care about.

You're trolling at this point. Steam is making an actual effort to better the gaming space. Their application does more than install and launch your games. Can't say the same for any other. Even Microsoft's own store lacks in comparison. Epic? Tencent? What are they actually doing? Oh, making another application. That's all that matters in your eyes, right?

Epic has a streamlined store front that allows you to purchase and play games, just like Steam. Your emails are sold to whoever buys them and your payment information is as secure as in Tencent's servers. As in, use temporary cards.

You're calling their store streamlined? What? How is it any more streamlined than Steam? Nevermind the fact that even today, it still runs unnecessarily slow. Pages take longer to load. Glad they finally have a cart though?

You know what? Epic launcher sits comfortably in my system tray, while I get a damned Steam window every time I log in to my computer. Updating, asking for log in credentials, ranting that for some reason I need to login again.

Not sure what you're doing, but I haven't had to re-login to Steam since I re-did my Windows installation. A weird nitpick, and more than likely on you, not Steam/Valve.

I want Steam to die, just like every other launcher. We don't need them. From the day I bought Civ V Special Edition BRAND New in store and couldn't play it because Steam had to be installed, configured and stuff, yeah, it needs to die.

"Just like every other launcher." Yet, you're praising Epic? Do you not see how idiotic this is? Just admit you hate Steam and move on.

People need to leave retarded ideas out of the way with corporations. They want money.

Ya don't say?

 

[bonkmaykr]

I'll bite:
You buy and launch games. What else do you need?

Epic is a developer and publisher that takes a smaller cut than the 30% Steam takes. For a developer, that can mean a serious amount of money.

And Steam is better than Tencent, how? They have a storefront, they sell games and the client has a few bells and whistles little people care about.

Epic has a streamlined store front that allows you to purchase and play games, just like Steam. Your emails are sold to whoever buys them and your payment information is as secure as in Tencent's servers. As in, use temporary cards.

People need to leave retarded ideas out of the way with corporations. They want money.

You know what? Epic launcher sits comfortably in my system tray, while I get a damned Steam window every time I log in to my computer. Updating, asking for log in credentials, ranting that for some reason I need to login again.

I want Steam to die, just like every other launcher. We don't need them. From the day I bought Civ V Special Edition BRAND New in store and couldn't play it because Steam had to be installed, configured and stuff, yeah, it needs to die.

Everything about this post is just embarrassing.
Not to Valve, no, but yourself.

I'm sorry your experience sucked, but your views are objectively and factually incorrect. This is coming from someone who does programming, game design, web design, and studies corporate abuse in the capitalist space (I am an FSF and EFF supporter), I believe I know a thing or two about this topic, certainly enough to tell you that Epic's offerings are abysmal compared to what Valve has had for over a decade.

 

[eyeliner]

You didn't understand my pint, but that's OK.
Yes, you are well schooled, but apparently not well educated. There's hope for ya. I believe you can!

Do you know what monopoly is? No, not the game, that other thing! Well... Go on Google!

I get it, guys... You play Steam. You spend hours looking at the client, dreaming of all mighty Gabe and how he is divine. I play GAMES. You massage your ego, with achievements. I don't care about them. You want social features, with a big list of people you never play with. I prefer not. I want games, you want a whole "experience".

You say what you want about me. But I know how to dissociate a game from whatever a "game client" is supposed to mean. Poor you. Lap up all the trash Steam gives you all you want.

I have games to play. Do you?

 

[bonkmaykr]

You didn't understand my pint, but that's OK.

Yes, you are well schooled, but apparently not well educated. There's hope for ya. I believe you can!

Do you know what monopoly is? No, not the game, that other thing! Well... Go on Google!

I get it, guys... You play Steam. You spend hours looking at the client, dreaming of all mighty Gabe and how he is divine. I play GAMES. You massage your ego, with achievements. I don't care about them. You want social features, with a big list of people you never play with. I prefer not. I want games, you want a whole "experience".

You say what you want about me. But I know how to dissociate a game from whatever a "game client" is supposed to mean. Poor you. Lap up all the trash Steam gives you all you want.

I have games to play. Do you?

No, we understand your point, we just think it's stupid.
Your attempt to belittle our side and dodge our counterarguments makes you look even dumber. This entire post is just full of unholy amounts of cringe and self ego-jerking.

We've given you plenty of reasons to change your mind and you instead insist that everyone else is wrong and you're always right and we're just simple minded "sheep", well you aren't even worth arguing with. You're better off just leaving this thread because if you continue you're going to be laughed at.