Bethesda has offered no official statement as to why they have made this controversial decision on Fallout 76, though one is sure to surface soon. The only solid confirmation arose from PC Gamer last night where Bethesda had stated “Both the PC Beta and the launch title will only be available via Bethesda.net, not via Steam." While we wait for a nebulous statement to release, the honest reason this has happened is likely down to the usual culprit for odd decisions in the games industry – money.
As with conventional brick and mortar stores, the vendor of a game usually takes about 30% of the purchase. Of course, in the case the vendor is Steam and despite its currently existing massive user-base, Bethesda will be able to keep that 30% for themselves with every purchase of the game. One has to wonder however, will the change of buying platform ultimately hurt the publishing giant’s profits in that all important release week.
While it may seem like an odd decision, we have to bear in mind how Fortnite has done the same thing, enjoying incredible success regardless of turning its back on Valve and Steam. For now, while Bethesda is hungry for those initial sales profits, we’ll have to wait and see if Fallout 76 will ever arrive on Steam.
