Starting in April, the Bethesda Launcher will be no more.

This is surprises me somewhat, as the Bethesda launcher was something of the cash cow, given it served as the centeral modding hub for Todd Howard's failed attempts to turn unplayable sprawls into income generation platforms via playing players to fix their fucking problems.

Pardon, snapped a little at the end there. Did you expect the Bethesda launcher to be killed off this swiftly? What other parts do you expect to be shuttered?

May need an edit... :)

Battle.net next?

I guess it was naif to expect this to be good news for DRM-free gaming.

Unfortunately it looks like it mostly still is:-

"Q. Will I still need a Bethesda.net account if I no longer use the launcher after transferring to Steam?

A: Yes. Many of our games and services still rely on you to have a Bethesda.net account. This will allow you to retain access to Bethesda.net services including game mods, in-game items like skins, and access to exclusive news and updates."

So basically, doing away with the Bethesda launcher (the 'front-end' bit) will not do away with Creation Club or all the back-end Bethesda Account monetization BS that's the main reason why Skyrim, FO4, etc, aren't here...

I'm keeping it like that sneeze in Setting up a Room.

Another one bites the dust...

there can be only one

T'was just a suggestion, but here's a handkerchief anyway... ;)

Little as it changes... Good riddance.

If Bethesda decides to remove all of this then I will be surprised.

Or it's just a matter of time. Hopefully we'll see more pointless launchers disappear.

This is actually a sign Phil Spencer knows what he's doing. Will he go for DRM free? I doubt it. But we still have MS owned properties on GOG to this day, which is a promising sign.

He's a gamer like we are, and he wants gaming to succeed like we do. If there ever comes a point where DRM free is viewed as commercially viable for the big players, you can bet Xbox/MS will be the first to do it. As it stands now, they all have too much FOMO to do anything but release old games on GOG because they're afraid of YARRR.

I really like Phil. Strikes me as a guy you could have a beer with and just conversate on not just gaming, but the world in general. I was hoping they'd allow migration to GOG, but I can see how they can't, because maintaining a bethesda net login requirement for stuff would be construed by the local population as DRM.

Maybe some day we'll see more Bethesda titles here. Maybe even MS/Xbox stuff like Fable? One can dream. In the meantime, one less launcher is definitely good news. I want to see battle net disappear too.

I'm with you. Launchers are just another layer of annoyance to delay the user of actually playing the game.