Earlier this year, Bethesda announced plans to retire the “Bethesda Games Launcher” after nearly six years of service. Today, the company has taken the first steps toward a complete shutdown of the store, allowing players to transfer their Bethesda account to Steam before it ceases activity later this spring.
The Bethesda Games Launcher was first released in 2016 to the chagrin of many PC gamers who were upset about yet another launcher further segmenting their games. Bethesda would make a handful of its PC titles exclusive to its launcher, including RAGE 2 and Fallout 76.
However, almost all of the games exclusive to the Bethesda Game Launcher ended up coming to Steam, making the launcher increasingly obsolete. At the moment the exact details of the store closure are unknown, but many fans point to the recent acquisition of Bethesda by Microsoft as a possible explanation.
Starting today, April 27, and running until the store closes on May 11, players can start transferring their Bethesda.net game library to Steam along with virtual currency from Bethesda.net online games. Bethesda existing. Players should head to the transfer page detailed in Bethesda’s blog post to begin the migration process, after which all transferred titles will be available for free on Steam.
The migration of the Bethesda.net library is practically straightforward, requiring users to log in, link their Steam account, and begin the transfer process. The migration includes all games, expansions, and user currencies, such as Atoms for Fallout 76 and Gold for Wolfenstein: Youngblood. However, saved games and local settings are not included.
Even though the game launcher from Bethesda will close in a matter of weeks, the online functionality of the migrated games will still require the use of a Bethesda.net account to access various services, including game mods and microtransactions.
Players can also now find Bethesda legacy titles on Steam, as previous classics like The Elder Scrolls: Arena and The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall were previously only available on the Bethesda store.