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Bethesda Play It Cool Over Future Steam Store Games

Over the last week, it seems clear that Bethesda wants to distance themselves a little from the Steam Store platform. This came to a head when it was revealed that Fallout 76 would not be sold on Steam. It would, instead, be sold on their own gaming platform bethesda.net as an exclusive for the PC.

This would represent the first time, at least in recent years, that a Bethesda game has specifically excluded the Valve gaming platform.

Control Over The Users

Bethesda has claimed that it has decided to make this decision as they would like to have full control over the online community. Given that Fallout 76 is going to have some heavy online multiplayer elements that does make sense. They are, however, the 2nd developer in less than a week who announced that they were excluding Steam.

It has led to many speculating whether these developers will be looking to push their own remit for game playing and sales. Something similar to that which Blizzard has with their games. In a report via DSOGaming though, while Bethesda has again confirmed that Fallout 76 will not release on the Steam Store, they are playing it canny whether they will use Steam in the future or not.

Why Not Both?

It is a tricky problem. Steam clearly gets some fantastic exposure for games. Then again, with Bethesda releasing this through their own client, it means that they won’t have to pay Valve a cut of the sales from the Steam Store. We have already seen Fortnite developer choose to not use the Google Play Store for this exact reason.

While Bethesda has not necessarily shut the door on using Steam in the future, they might be looking towards the fire exit for more of their future releases.

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!