Bethesda Softworks to Shut Down Bethesda.net Launcher Later This Year - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 March 2022 / 2,921 Views
Bethesda Softworks announced it will be shutting down the Bethesda.net launcher later this year.
Bethesda.net launcher users starting in early April will be able to migrate their games and Wallet to their Steam account.
"We’re saying goodbye to the Bethesda.net Launcher this year," reads the blog post from Bethesda. "We would like to thank you for your support and assure you that all of your games are safe. If you’re not playing PC games through the Bethesda.net launcher then your work is done here. Thanks for reading! If you do have games through the Bethesda.net launcher, don’t worry. Starting in early April you’ll be able to migrate your games and Wallet to your Steam account. For more details on what this process will look like, read on.
"You have plenty of time to plan and begin migrating your Bethesda.net library to your Steam account. The migration to Steam will include your game library and Wallet – meaning you will not lose anything from your Bethesda.net account. 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. Your Bethesda.net account will not be lost and will still be accessible on our website and in-game, and we will continue supporting all Bethesda.net accounts with our future titles."
Read details and on FAQ below:
NEXT STEPS
FAQ
A: We encourage our Bethesda.net Launcher community to continue their experience on Steam. In early April, you will be able to migrate your Bethesda.net library to your Steam account. Any title you own on the Bethesda.net Launcher will be available to you free on Steam. Your purchases will carry over to your Steam account. Many game saves will also transfer, however some may require manual copying. For more information on which games will require you to manually move your saves, please see our FAQ Entry "What happens to my game progression and saves?".
A: You will continue to have access to the Bethesda.net Launcher and access your games until May. Starting in May, you will no longer be able to play and access your games within the Bethesda.net Launcher.
A: Yes. Many of our games and services still rely on you to have a Bethesda.net account. This will allow you to retain access to Bethesda.net services including game mods, in-game items like skins, and access to exclusive news and updates.
A: Yes. You will need to take the steps to transfer your Bethesda.net account info to your Steam account. Once the migration process to Steam is available, we will let everyone know and update this FAQ with the link on where and how to migrate. Please note, that you may begin this process at any time after it becomes available, but in May you will no longer be able to play your purchased games on the Bethesda.net launcher. You will not lose access to your Library on Bethesda.net in May, only the ability to play them on the Launcher.
A: Should you choose to transfer your Bethesda.net library to your Steam account, we will provide instructions on how to migrate your game progression and saves over to your Steam account where possible, so you may continue playing where you left off. Some saves will automatically transfer, however some will require you to manually copy them to your Steam folder. We will have more information on manually transferring saves soon. At this time, we expect almost all save progress to be transferable automatically or manually with the exception of Wolfenstein: Youngblood, which currently is unable to transfer.
A: Yes. Your Bethesda.net Wallet will transfer over to Steam once you have completed the transfer process.
A: No. We are only able to support transferring your Bethesda.net account information on PC. We cannot transfer PC account information to consoles.
A: No. We are only able to support transferring account information from the Bethesda.net launcher to Steam.
A: No. You will still need to login to your Bethesda.net account to play our live titles such as Fallout 76 and access other services offered. Our games will continue to use a Bethesda.net account in the future.
A: Yes.
A: Games that have the Bethesda.net Friends List will be merged after migration. This includes Fallout 76, DOOM Eternal, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Rage 2, and DEATHLOOP.
A: No. The Elder Scrolls Online is unaffected by this change.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Interesting that they chose to do the migration to Steam and not the Xbox App. Not typically how these sort of things go.
Not that I think anyone will be complaining.
I've noticed a lot of negative reviews for some Bethesda games on the Windows Store. So just giving them access on Steam is probably the best route.
Xbox support Steam, its best to just have everything on one platform rather than split between. Hoping Battle.net is next.
As a PC Gamer... YES. One piece of bloatware down!
Thank you MS and Bethesda, no one wanted the launcher.
This is probably a good sign that the activision and blizzard libraries will be making their way (and in the case of activision making their way back) to steam as well. Although I don’t think the battlenet launcher will be sunsetted.
God I hope so! It's insane that Activision put Crash Trilogy and Spyro Trilogy on Steam, then Tony Hawk 1&2 on Epic Games Store, then Crash 4 on battle.net lol
I promise, you will not be missed. Good riddance!
I honestly didn't know Bethesda had a store. Its not even needed considering games weren't exclusive there.
Surprised they didn't migrate to Windows.
Because the Microsoft Store and Xbox app are still hot garbage lol. There was a story a couple months ago that there's an internal clash of the Windows team not wanting to give the gaming division control over the Xbox app on PC. Thus, insanely slow updates and policy changes that could take years at this point, and so the services are terrible, and Phil knows that.
Microsoft learned with games for windows live that they can’t force the issue with storefront adoption, and that long term they will do better giving people store front options while focusing on improving the windows store and Xbox app experience. They still have a ways to go on that front
Sure option is better, I was just surprised that they decided to standard Steam instead of being an option (and even given it as option would be surprising enough).
I think it's time for MS to buy Valve and Steam. They can keep thecurrent model of business and integrate Gamepass with it it'd be. A huge victory for MS.
It won't, Steam is better off with the pressure of a corporate thumb.
