Bethesda is Retiring Its PC Game Launcher, Steam Migration Process Detailed

Bethesda is getting ready to sunset its Bethesda.net PC Game launcher this Spring. The Microsoft-owned company has teamed up with Valve to allow users to import their Bethesda library to their Steam account, and the migration process will kick off in early April.

“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,” Bethesda explained today.

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The Bethesda.net Launcher will be retired in May, and PC gamers who complete the migration process before that date will be able to pick up where they left off on Steam. Games that have the Bethesda.net Friends List will also be merged after migration. “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,” the company said.

Bethesda didn’t explain why it’s shutting down its PC game launcher, but Microsoft now owning the company probably does have something to do with it. The Redmond giant already has its own game launcher on Windows 10 and Windows 11 with the Xbox app, and pretty much all Bethesda games are already available on it. However, Steam will be the only game platform that will support transferring your Bethesda.net account information on PC.

With the Bethesda Launcher soon going away, it will be interesting to see what Microsoft plans to do with Battle.net, the popular game launcher from Blizzard Entertainment. Microsoft isn’t expected to complete its acquisition of Activision Blizzard until June 2023, but in the meantime, Battle.net remains the exclusive home of all Blizzard games such as Overwatch, Diablo III, or World of Warcraft. The Bethesda Launcher likely had a far smaller userbase since all Bethesda games have been shipping on Steam for years, but Battle.net remains a popular platform with big exclusive games and it’s unlikely to go away anytime soon.

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Conversation 5 comments

  • spacein_vader

    Premium Member
    22 February, 2022 - 2:17 pm

    <p>The Bethesda launcher was horribly clunky and universally disliked by PC gamers, I imagine they took one look at the usage figures and decided it wasn’t worth saving. </p><p><br></p><p>I wonder if they’ll use the much fuller featured battle.net client as a base to improve the Xbox app or if they’re planning on upgrading the current app which is also very limited and clunky. </p><p><br></p><p>Game Pass for PC (or whatever its called this week,) is a great service but the app used to access it doesn’t make it easy. </p><p><br></p><p>That said, none of the above are as bad as the abomination that was Games For Windows Live. </p>

  • Christom

    Premium Member
    22 February, 2022 - 5:26 pm

    <p><br></p>

  • crunchyfrog

    23 February, 2022 - 8:19 am

    <p>I can’t say that I’ll miss the Bethesda Launcher, however I have heard that some games will not transfer over to Steam. In my case, I have duplicates on Steam so I’m not sure how that will work when things merge.</p>

  • rm

    23 February, 2022 - 10:52 am

    <p>My guess is the Xbox Game Launcher doesn’t have all the capabilities the Bethesda Launcher has and this is putting it in Microsoft’s face that it’s own Xbox Game Launcher is bad. I know I have heard that you cannot pick the drive to install a game on with it. That sucks.</p>

    • v_2samg

      05 March, 2022 - 8:41 pm

      <p>Actually, you can pick the drive to install a game to in the current XBox app. Also, it now has an "advanced installation and management" feature for many PC games. Paul should look at this and cover it in an article.</p>

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