Players have said a final goodbye to the Bethesda Launcher before its retirement next month and almost everyone is happy to see it finally go away. The program will end on May 11, 2022. Players will be able to migrate their accounts to Steam starting April 27.
“We say goodbye to Bethesda Launcher,” the developer said in a statement earlier this month. “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 Launcher, then your work is done here. Thank you for reading! If you have games through the Bethesda Launcher, don’t worry. Starting April 27, you will be able to migrate your games and wallet to your Steam account.” The company went on to say that “your Bethesda account will not be lost and will continue to be accessible on our website and in-game and we will continue to support all Bethesda accounts with our future titles.”
While some have been mourning the loss of Bethesda Launcher, most have been celebrating its upcoming demise. The user known as Jph139 on Resetera, for example, noted that he was “glad to hear it” because the program was “not a launcher I was once excited to use.” Jph139 went on to describe how they were “surprised that it’s not transferring the accounts to the Xbox app, but I won’t complain!” Various users have been posting memes like “evil is dead” and “you couldn’t live with your own failure”.
While most people have scoffed at the situation, some have voiced their opinions about digital distribution in general. The user calling himself Mocha Joe, for example, said that “not every third-party editor needs to make a launcher. If you have enough attractive features to create one? Absolutely, go ahead.” Referring to Steam, the user went on to say that “almost always, these launchers exist because third-party publishers don’t want to pay the 30 percent and don’t bother trying to make it a compelling launcher.” Mocha Joe added that “it’s a basic, mediocre launcher that doesn’t even have basic features that work properly.”
One silver lining from the demise of the Bethesda Launcher is that many older games from the developer will reach a much larger audience on Steam. “With the demise of Bethesda Launcher, we will make several of our titles available on Steam that were previously unavailable,” the company explained. “This includes The Elder Scrolls Arena, The Elder Scrolls Daggerfall, Creation Kit for Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition, and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.”
read next
About the Author
