Well, now that the shock of hearing that Microsoft has acquired (or soon will) Zenimax, the parent company of Bethesda, I still have a bunch of important questions. But let’s start with one PC-centric question first; What does this mean for PC gaming? More specifically, where does this leave the Bethesda launcher?
As you already know, Bethesda had started its own PC launcher sometime ago and originally had planned to release all of their PC games onto that launcher and storefront. Which meant they had stopped releasing their PC titles via Steam and opted for their own service. Of course, the best-laid plans of mice and men don’t always turn out the way everyone wants them to, and it wasn’t that long ago Bethesda started releasing games onto Steam again. But now that Microsoft will take over ownership of Zenimax, Bethesda, and all of Bethesda’s Studios and already have their own digital storefront and launcher, what does this mean for Bethesda launcher, Bethesda.net?
More specifically, what will happen to the games that PC gamers have purchased via the Bethesda storefront? From a business perspective, it doesn’t seem valid to keep it in play. Not with Microsoft already having the Microsoft Store in Windows and the Xbox Game Pass for PC app, where PC gamers can download games from. With these systems already in place, it doesn’t make much sense for Microsoft to keep Bethesda’s launcher around. Should that be the case, what happens then?
What happens to all the games that were paid for? Will Microsoft add them to the Microsoft store and work with Bethesda to transfer over our game saves and progression? Or do we lose all that and end up being forced to purchase those games again? This is a valid concern, especially ever since Bethesda started bringing their games back to Steam; they were part of a new ecosystem. For example, if you wanted to play, say, DOOM Eternal on Steam, you had to purchase it all over again. Granted, this announcement is new, and we likely won’t know what will happen for a while. I’d appreciate it if either Microsoft or Bethesda were to acknowledge what will happen to the Bethesda launcher in the future.
