Fallout 76 Won’t Launch on Steam

Megalith

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Bethesda published their FAQ for the Fallout 76 beta this week, which stated the game would launch on the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One via Bethesda.net only. PC Gamer later contacted a rep who confirmed it would be exclusive to the company’s own launcher; neither the beta nor the full game will be available through Steam.

That comes as a real surprise: Bethesda would obviously like to push more widespread adoption of its own launcher, but foregoing the biggest, most popular PC digital distribution platform on the planet is a ballsy move. That's not to say it won't happen eventually, but it may be quite a wait if it happens at all—Fallout Shelter was released on Bethesda.net in July 2016, but didn't make it to Steam until March 2017.
 
If I were Steam, I would put in place rules that state if a publisher decides not to launch on Steam that It cannot do so 18 months from the release of it's game. Or, 6 months, 12 months, etc.

The goal of course being to discourage publishers from doing this in the first place. I would make it very clear that if you do this and your sells suffer, do not live up to expectations, fall flat, that you do not get to come running back to Steam.
 
This is a good thing. Steam, while convenient, just puts money in the pocket of a 3rd party, who should be doing Half-Life 3 and Portal 3, not being a seller of crates...

Bingo! I didn't download STEAM till HL2 was released as that was the only way to play. VALVE could learn from its past...
 
This is a good thing. Steam, while convenient, just puts money in the pocket of a 3rd party, who should be doing Half-Life 3 and Portal 3, not being a seller of crates...

You're over simplifying what Steam actually does. It's a front-end, double authentication safety that protects your library of games. Fast download speeds, support. Also, a rather robust gaming community. I am sure I am leaving out a lot of other perks.

There is a tremendous value in having all your games under one roof. In fact, I would argue that the loss of sales vs the fees they would have had to pay would wash each other out. Possibly even cost Bethesda in the end.
 
gonna pass on fallout 76.
Yep. Same here.
If I were Steam, I would put in place rules that state if a publisher decides not to launch on Steam that It cannot do so 18 months from the release of it's game. Or, 6 months, 12 months, etc.

The goal of course being to discourage publishers from doing this in the first place. I would make it very clear that if you do this and your sells suffer, do not live up to expectations, fall flat, that you do not get to come running back to Steam.
Why would steam do that? Money is money. Just because you, or I, or others, refuse to join yet another service, and add yet another client, just to play this game, does not mean there is a reason for steam to refuse to carry it later on if they can make money. Punishing Bethesda is not really to their benefit.
 
Yeah, I am going to pass as well. If another avenue for download presents itself, I will take a look at that. I am just not interested in Origin, the Microsoft store, Bethesda or, other launchers. I find Steam is about all I want to deal with.
 
Yep. Same here.

Why would steam do that? Money is money. Just because you, or I, or others, refuse to join yet another service, and add yet another client, just to play this game. There is little reason for steam to refuse to carry it later on if they can make money.

Why? I just clearly stated ...why... very clearly ...why... How this escaped your attention is beyond me.

"The goal of course being to discourage publishers from doing this in the first place. I would make it very clear that if you do this and your sells suffer, do not live up to expectations, fall flat, that you do not get to come running back to Steam."

Many business's have these types of penalties / safeguards in place and they are perfectly legal. It's a very good tool.
 
Many business's have these types of penalties / safeguards in place and they are perfectly legal. It's a very good tool.

Perfectly legal until it becomes a monopoly via force. I get wanting everything in Steam but I also get larger publishers with top tiles not wanting to fork over 30%.
 
Why? I just clearly stated ...why... very clearly ...why... How this escaped your attention is beyond me.

"The goal of course being to discourage publishers from doing this in the first place. I would make it very clear that if you do this and your sells suffer, do not live up to expectations, fall flat, that you do not get to come running back to Steam."

Many business's have these types of penalties / safeguards in place and they are perfectly legal. It's a very good tool.
Being seen as trying to strong arm publishers is not in steams best interests PR wise. Could and should are two very different things. Let Bethesda come back in 6 months or a year, and let steam take their money. While I would prefer they got everything first run, it is not unfair for Bethesda to try to strike out on their own.

A pity too, this was likely the first fallout/elder scrolls game I was not going to wait a year or more for the GOTY, or whatever they end up calling the "complete" edition, specifically because of coop.
Waiting on the complete edition makes a lot more sense for SP games than it does for coop games with skill/loot progression systems.
 
Yeah, I am going to pass as well. If another avenue for download presents itself, I will take a look at that. I am just not interested in Origin, the Microsoft store, Bethesda or, other launchers. I find Steam is about all I want to deal with.

i was fine with origin because of the monthly free game stuff for old games but now that they ended that i can't be bothered to open the launcher anymore.
 
Once you can bring yourself to down load one service, it really doesn't matter after that. I had to install Steam to play CIV V. I bout the disc but, once I installed it, it down loaded and installed steam with the game anyway. The world didn't end. Yet! Now I just don't care.
 
Once you can bring yourself to down load one service, it really doesn't matter after that. I had to install Steam to play CIV V. I bout the disc but, once I installed it, it down loaded and installed steam with the game anyway. The world didn't end. Yet! Now I just don't care.

As long as the launcher isn't a hog I don't care either. Most of them are pretty good these days. Origin just sits in the background and sits at 0% CPU and little memory.
 
idiots, when they release an online co-op game they skip the largest pc platform, but for solo games, yeah steam is fine, freaking greedy idiots.
 
I'm a reasonable businessman. If I sat down with my companies accountant and he said, basically, the number show that we will lose an astronomical amount of money, then, I wouldn't do it. You also don't want to alienate the developer community to the point they just build out a new distribution platform, which, btw is extremely easy these days with cloud storage.

I don't have problems with Steam, at all. I am surprised to hear any backlash or people welcoming a handful of launchers on their PC eating up resources. That does not sound fun to me at all.

I also think a move like this encourages piracy. There are a great many people that hate front-ends.
 
You should be able to move your games to whatever platform you want. That way steam, origin or bethesda would have to compete based on quality and price.
 
I don't know if I'm going to get this or not, but by the time I do it will probably be available on Steam anyway during some sort of sale.
 
If I were Steam, I would put in place rules that state if a publisher decides not to launch on Steam that It cannot do so 18 months from the release of it's game. Or, 6 months, 12 months, etc.

The goal of course being to discourage publishers from doing this in the first place. I would make it very clear that if you do this and your sells suffer, do not live up to expectations, fall flat, that you do not get to come running back to Steam.
Yes, offend the overlord and suffer the consequences. Bow down and pray for digital mercy, for Steam is your game master and you shall have no others beside it.
 
You're over simplifying what Steam actually does. It's a front-end, double authentication safety that protects your library of games. Fast download speeds, support. Also, a rather robust gaming community. I am sure I am leaving out a lot of other perks.

There is a tremendous value in having all your games under one roof. In fact, I would argue that the loss of sales vs the fees they would have had to pay would wash each other out. Possibly even cost Bethesda in the end.
Steam is a gold coin wrapped in a thick layer of DRM shit, non-configurability and forced shoving down your throat what they deem needed.

I have all my games under one roof. It's called my NAS and a Start submenu. I don't need a BS 3rd party launcher that holds all my games hostage.
 
gonna pass on fallout 76. the bethesda launcher is a giant turd.
I'm gonna pass because I don't feel like getting wrecked by aimbotters that you know will be in this game to grief you. So long Fallout universe, it's been fun.
 
not a big fan of another launcher. I already have to have uplay and steam open to see what my friends are playing to join in. ie: If they launch a game on uplay it only shows them online in steam or not at all if steam isnt open.
 
Overreacting. Its the modern way of being a baby. I have 70+ Steam games and never considered buying ESO on Steam as its a managed online game. For the same reason I bought Fallout 76 from Bethesda.
 
Yes, offend the overlord and suffer the consequences. Bow down and pray for digital mercy, for Steam is your game master and you shall have no others beside it.

uhhh, lol, what? That was weird.

I have around 300 games on Steam I think. Lot of people have a majority of their games on Steam. It just works. If something else was better then it would have been the number one platform and not Steam.

It's a pretty simple black and white issue.
 
uhhh, lol, what? That was weird.

I have around 300 games on Steam I think. Lot of people have a majority of their games on Steam. It just works. If something else was better then it would have been the number one platform and not Steam.

It's a pretty simple black and white issue.
It just works until Steam no longer works. Or your internet connection.
 
I guess what a lot of people are just not understanding, getting is that a lot of us gamers do not want more and more and more launchers on top of launcher after launcher. I've been looking for this MEME I saw a while back that was pretty funny, but there is one out there that shows a desktop with uplay, steam, origin, blizzard, and many other launchers and the memory footprint is MASSIVE.

The additional front-end fragmenting is just going to be a major hassle.

I'm pretty sure they are going to sell a lot less copies of Fallout 76.
 
"We don't want to use steam" ok that's cool I vastly prefer standalone PC games anyhow.

"It is going to be exclusive to our launcher" Yeah.. Ok fuck you then. The last thing I want is more launchers.

I have little interest in fallout 76, but this sets a bad precedent for future single player fallout's and Bethesda games. If they start doing the same shit as early did forcing origin I'll absolutely never buy another Bethesda game again. I barely tolerate steam and frankly only rarely even play games through it. I have zero tolerance for additional unnecessary launchers.
 
It seems that pc gaming is starting to suffer the same thing that streaming does. Content creators starting their own platforms. I can't be dealing with that. so I now ignore most small content creators who do this. They dig their own graves by going rogue. There is a point where people just say enough is enough. How many freaking launchers should I have on my pc?
I already have four: Steam, Origin, Uplay, GOG Galaxy.
 
This is a good thing. Steam, while convenient, just puts money in the pocket of a 3rd party, who should be doing Half-Life 3 and Portal 3, not being a seller of crates...

a single gaming client that holds all my games is BULLSHIT!

i require at least 75 like the old days.
 
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