For those of you that have been suffering under the weight of Bethesda's annoying launcher, don't be afraid. You're almost free now, as Bethesda has just announced that their Bethesda.net Launcher will be sunsetted later this year. Starting in early April, players will be able to migrate both their games and Wallet (Atoms, Crowns, etc.) to their Steam account, which is a decent thing to do and is in line with Xbox's overlying philosophy.
Basically, Xbox (which Bethesda is a part of) is no longer competing with their poorly-designed and thought-out stores, at least sort of. They want you to subscribe to their Xbox Game Pass service (which hit 25 million users last month) and if you want to buy their games somewhere else, well, they're still getting your money anyways. Having launchers is increasingly seeming like an antiquated 2010's thing, with Epic Games's Fortnite money and Steam duking it out, with the market leader continuing its strong hold. Xbox side-steps this whole battle by appealing to those who want access to a lot of games at a decent price, and the Bethesda.net Launcher is seemingly a casualty of that thinking.
What's going to happen to the Bethesda.net Launcher and my games?
Fear not, for I have all the deets. As previously stated, players will be able to migrate their Bethesda.net library and wallet to Steam. Save games will also transfer, but some may require manual copying. Wolfenstein: Youngblood is currently unable to transfer, but hopefully that'll eventually change. The launcher will go down for good in May, but you'll still need a Bethesda.net account for things such as game mods and in-game items such as skins. Virtual currency balances and game add-ons will transfer to Steam, and as you may have already guessed, players on PlayStation and Xbox will not be able to migrate, as PC account information cannot be transferred to consoles.
Games that have the Bethesda.net Friends List will be merged with Steam, and this includes games like Fallout 76, Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Rage 2, and Deathloop.
For more information on everything Bethesda, Microsoft, and everything in between, stay tuned to TechRaptor.
