Bethesda is plans to retire its PC launcher in the coming months, the company announced this week. For those who have libraries of games within the Bethesda Launcher, you’ll soon have the opportunity to migrate your purchases and existing funds over to Steam so that you can continue to play your games there. That’s planned for early April, Bethesda said, with the Bethesda Launcher as a whole shutting down in May at which point your games there will become unplayable.
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In its post explaining the plans for the shutdown and the answers to many questions Bethesda Launcher users might have, Bethesda did not explain why the launcher is being retired. What it did say though is that you’ll be able to move your games over to Steam starting in April. That means moving over everything including your save data, in-game purchases, and the rest of your Bethesda belongings so that you can keep playing just as easily on Steam.
“We encourage our Bethesda.net Launcher community to continue their experience on Steam,” Bethesda said. “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.”
The good news for those apprehensive about the jump is that “Many games will also have their saves migrated, with a few requiring some manual transfers,” Bethesda said, which means you won’t have to manually move your games and all the save data over unless it’s required. Wolfenstein: Youngblood is the only game mentioned right not that’s unavailable to be transferred. Atoms, Crowns, and any other in-game currency will also be moved over to Steam as well so that players don’t lose any of the funds they’ve been holding onto.
Some caveats to consider are that you’ll still have to have a Bethesda account in order to play games, so don’t plan on ditching that anytime soon. You’ll also only be able to move your library and everything else to Steam and won’t be able to transfer your content anywhere else, so that’ll be your only option.
For those playing The Elder Scrolls Online, you’ll still be able to play via Steam without issue. For those playing Fallout 76, the same is true as well, but Bethesda’s put together a more detailed FAQ to answer questions.
