My first interaction with Steam didn’t involve Steam at all. I had purchased a copy of GTA San Andreas after successfully convincing the parents that it was mostly a driving game. After doing a pretty successful run through it, and before the flurry of patches that made it the most squeaky clean M-Rated game ever, I discovered the joys of modding. And on most mods and mod managers, there was a specific warning.
DO NOT USE THE STEAM VERSION! THIS WILL NOT WORK ON THE STEAM VERSION!
Things have changed a lot since then. On a planet where a physical copy can literally be a cardboard disc with a code on it, and optical media is something that appeals mostly to collectors and old media enthusiasts, imagining the world without stores and game launchers is akin to imagining it if Half-Life 3 had actually been released. Not that different, and yet extremely distinct.
Over the past decade we saw steam acquire a virtual monopoly on it, and then competing stores doing there darndest to break it with things ranging from better profit splits for creators to artificially limiting availability through exclusivity deals. And, of course, all of the publishers who have created their own storefronts, to reap that sweet 100/0 split with as little effort as possible.
So why was I unsurprised when Bethesda announced that they would shut down their launcher? Well, for one, this is one of those things that would only get you off-guard if you aren’t paying attention. Bethesda was one of the highest profile acquisitions that Microsoft did over the past year. And Microsoft not only have their own store to sell their games, but they realized that some people would rather get gout than buy anything through there and have made their most recent and popular titles through Steam as well. From there, the Bethesda launcher just becomes one more thing to either maintain or turn into an existing Microsoft product wearing a branded suit. Neither really presents a good value proposition in this case.
After the rapid rise of multiple launchers, we have now reached the point on this particular market when people begin to get annoyed about having to start a different piece of software for running their games. All of them offering more or less the same apart from publisher-exclusive games. All of them demanding you create an account with them. None of them providing much of value apart from the occasional free game. It’s not quite as bad as streaming services, where you pay with your wallet for multiple accounts, but if you’re not careful (or forget to uncheck a box), you’ll be reminded of how many launchers you have every time you boot up your PC.
If we follow the trends of markets that have made it here, and noting the recent dev acquisition flurry that in no way will end with us locked into yet another entertainment oligopoly, we’ll see a couple more of these launchers going the way of the dodo until at the end the only ones remaining are the large incumbent players (Steam doesn’t really make games anymore and Epic is happy to keep milking that Fortnite cash) and the stubborn, fiercely independent publishers (looking at you Origin).
I can’t wait what will Happen to Battle.net.
