Bethesda.net Launcher is shutting down this year, games will migrate to Steam

PC gamers who have grown weary of switching between launchers to play their games can rejoice, as Bethesda announced on Tuesday that its Bethesda.net Launcher will shut down in May. The company also stated players would be able to migrate their game libraries and wallet balances from the soon-to-be-sunset launcher into Steam at no additional cost.

Bethesda advised that players would have to manually migrate their Bethesda account information into a Steam account, and claimed this option would be available in April. “Until May, you will still be able to access and play your games on the Bethesda.net Launcher, but we suggest that you start the migration process as soon as it’s available,” wrote Bethesda.

Both progress gained and in-game purchases made in online titles, such as Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls Online, will not be affected by the shutdown, said Bethesda. Additionally, the company expects “almost all save progress” made across all of its games to survive the move, but some titles will require players to manually transfer their saves by copying data to the game’s Steam folder. The exception, however, seems to be save data for Wolfenstein: Youngblood, which Bethesda said is “currently […] unable to transfer.”

Public reaction to the announcement was fairly positive. DarwinCasson on Twitter wrote that they viewed the launcher’s impending shutdown in a good light, as they preferred to boot all of their games from one launcher, rather than being forced to swap between multiple ones. Many PC launchers typically boast exclusive titles. The Epic Games Store is notable for its wealth of exclusives, such as Fortnite, while Activision Blizzard’s Battle.net launcher is required to be installed if you would like to play Call of Duty or Overwatch on PC.