Before Steam, games were distributed individually via either the publisher or developer’s website, or they are purchased in physical format. However now that Steam is around, it’s not surprising to see that whenever PC games are launched, they are launched via Steam as one of the channels that gamers can get the game from.
However for those who have become accustomed to buying their games on Steam, that will not be happening with Bethesda’s upcoming Fallout 76. Instead it seems that the game will be skipping Steam and will only be available from Bethesda.net. We’re not sure if this will be a permanent thing or if the game could eventually launch on Steam at a later date, but like we said if you were hoping to get the game through Steam, you won’t.
Bethesda does not provide a reason why they aren’t launching the game via Steam, but perhaps it could be because Bethesda does not want to give Valve a cut of the money they make from the game. We’re seeing a similar situation with Epic where Fortnite Battle Royale for Android will be bypassing the Google Play Store for those exact same reasons.
In any case we’ll keep our eyes peeled and perhaps this could change ahead of the game’s launch which is currently set for this November.
Filed in . Read more about Bethesda, Fallout, Fallout 76, Steam (Valve) and Valve.