RAGE 2 will skip Steam, launching on Bethesda Launcher, pre-orders are LIVE for all platforms

Deleted member 21996 · Dec 8, 2018

I get that people are disappointed this isn't coming to Steam, but to snub it altogether? That sounds crazy to me. It's a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things, and at best you can forget it even exists. Save the executable to desktop and close your eyes for the few seconds you see the launcher if you have to!

zzzyz36 said:
People that would not buy a game over where you launch it from were never going to buy it anyway.

Pretty much, though it'll be interesting to see the climbdown if Rage 2 reviews well.

Scarecrow · Dec 8, 2018

Sent to die...

They'll have me at Doom 2, tho

Arsene no Kiseki · Dec 8, 2018

misho8723 said:
Didn't games being published lately by Bethesda sell way below expactations? And then they do this?
Yeah, I'm fine with Steam and GoG.. shame, I really liked the first Rage... dick move Bethesda

Dishonored 2, Evil Within 2, Prey and Wolfenstein 2 all had mediocre sales apparently which is such a shame. Doesn't seem like a game like RAGE 2 would benefit from Bethesda exclusivity.

Bluelote · Dec 8, 2018

I'm happy to see this tbh, to have valve dominating the PC game market is almost as bad as the windows store as the only source;
also I think a 30% cut is extremely high and unjustifiable...

still, I would prefer if they also sold the games on steam, but with the price corrected, just add Valve's 30% tax on top of the price from the bethesda store, and let people choose.

IllumiNate · Dec 8, 2018

They like shooting themselves in the foot apparently. Not going on steam after all the troubles they've had, like wha?

thediamondage · Dec 8, 2018

It doesn't feel like a game I have to play day one and even still I'd probably play on xbox one instead of PC. I have zero confidence in any bethesda launcher after all the recent issues (FO76, the whole "exposing customer info" ticket thing) and Rage 2 isn't going to be the game that would make me buy into their eco system.

finalflame · Dec 8, 2018

Sounds like they don't like sales, or think their marketing apparatus for this game is strong enough to forego Steam. Let's see how it works out.

JayBabay · Dec 8, 2018

I couldn't remove the Fallout 76 Beta from my PC until I used a registry editor. I would not bother with the launcher unless it's for something huge.

Acidote · Dec 8, 2018

IllumiNate said:
They like shooting themselves in the foot apparently. Not going on steam after all the troubles they've had, like wha?

Maybe they aren't going with it precisely for that. I'd love to see return numbers for 76.

Vinnk · Dec 8, 2018

Vinnk will skip RAGE 2. After Bethesda basically Doxxed the canvas bag people I have zero trust in their distribution platform when it comes to security.

Akira86 · Dec 8, 2018

that's a big no from me, hoss.

Nocturno · Dec 8, 2018

These types of moves could have been a good idea back then when these types of games were must haves.

Nowadays the market is oversaturated, and even games like Doom Eternal are likely to get fucked by locking them on a shitty launcher that has no purpose to exist besides a chance of better profits for the publishers.

Valdega · Dec 8, 2018

Ryna said:
Dishonored 2, Evil Within 2, Prey and Wolfenstein 2 all had mediocre sales apparently which is such a shame. Doesn't seem like a game like RAGE 2 would benefit from Bethesda exclusivity.

RAGE 2 is an open-world shooter with vehicles. It is a far safer investment than any of the aforementioned titles.

Kin5290 · Dec 8, 2018

Uzzy said:
It's more 'No functional launcher that doesn't leak my home address to the world no buy', but whatever.

Didn't Steam once leak or lose personal information over a winter/Christmas sale a few years ago?

KrAzY · Dec 8, 2018

I don't mind that Bethesda has it's own launcher, I got a lot of em already so what's one more? BUT I've been hearing negatives about the launcher itself so yeh, will give it sometime... If they said the next Elder Scrolls was exclusive to it... well...

Alexandros · Dec 8, 2018

Darkstorne said:
It's never been about going where the customers are, it's been about profits.

It's always been about where the customers are because that's how you make profits. Keeping your customers happy is how you make profits. Valve understands this and has been sternly against exclusivity, even when it could have benefited them in the short term. Here's a direct quote on the matter:

This will also apply to third-party titles, Valve's Anna Sweet told us. "Whenever we talk to third-party partners, we encourage them to put their games in as many places as possible, including not on our platforms," she said. "Because we think that customers are everywhere, and they want to put their games wherever customers are. That would go against our whole philosophy, to launch something that's exclusive to SteamOS or Steam machines."

https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/04/valve-will-not-make-exclusive-games-for-steamos

That's from 2013 and the launch of SteamOS. Here's more:

"Or to drive customers there artificially," Coomer continued. "Because if it can run in both places, we don't like to create those artificial barriers to accessing content. We believe that, in maybe five years from now, folks will find it a quite antiquated notion that you should assume that when you change devices or platforms, that you lose all of your other games and friends. We're hoping to unify, to get Steam to be as platform- and context-agnostic as possible. You shouldn't have to shed that every generation, or even slightly shed it."
Coomer added that "it would be pretty silly" if a third-party developer wanted "to limit their game to a certain platform." He did note that small, independent studios who only have the resources to focus on one platform may inevitably make games that only run on SteamOS, "but that's a very different thing."

This is the kind of culture and mentality that I as a consumer want to support. Epic, Bethesda and other such companies are not trying to make people want to use their platforms, they are trying to force people to use them. There is no way you can't realize the difference between "want to" and "forced".

Norwegian_Imposter · Dec 8, 2018

Jinaar said:
I was so pumped for RAGE 2 after last nights trailer but I think I will hold off it now on release and see what happens. I rather have an item be sold in multiple locations and have the choice to decide where I want to get it, especially if it means if I can load less launchers on my PC system. We shall see how this plays out for them. It is getting silly how many we have on our computers now a days.

Yeah I buy my Ubisoft games on steam. I know often it's more expensive but I like the features and I don't mind uplay either but at least I have a choice.

Darkstorne · Dec 8, 2018

Alexandros said:
It's always been about where the customers are because that's how you make profits. Keeping your customers happy is how you make profits. Valve understands this and has been sternly against exclusivity, even when it could have benefited them in the short term. Here's a direct quote on the matter:

And do Valve sell their own IP on Origin? GoG? That would be better for customers, but they don't. They lock their own IP to their own store platform to maximize profits. Bethesda are now doing the same. You can still shop around for Bethesda launcher games on multiple online stores though, so competition is still there from the stores that offer the best prices.

Valve started their store off in EXACTLY the same way, by forcing people to use their launcher to play Half Life 2, and holy crap did they get a lot of hate for it at the time. For some reason now people love when games only launch on Steam (whether that's Valve's own games or Bethesda's older games like Skyrim and Fallout 4) but hate it when other publishers do exactly the same thing. Weird.

Shevek · Dec 8, 2018

Whether it's poor marketing, a bad relationship with the press or pulling crap like this, Bethesda really do like sending their games to die

Stormed · Dec 8, 2018

So it's dead on arrival for PC basically

Dr. Caroll · Dec 8, 2018

Alexandros said:
This is the kind of culture and mentality that I as a consumer want to support. Epic, Bethesda and other such companies are not trying to make people want to use their platforms, they are trying to force people to use them. There is no way you can't realize the difference between "want to" and "forced".

Valve forced people to install Steam if they wanted to play Half-Life 2. They forced people into using what was, at that time, an incredibly annoying platform oriented entirely around multiplayer games. (It was more or less created to deploy Counter Strike updates.)

Teamocil · Dec 8, 2018

Dr. Caroll said:
Valve forced people to install Steam if they wanted to play Half-Life 2. They forced people into using what was, at that time, an incredibly annoying platform oriented entirely around multiplayer games. (It was more or less created to deploy Counter Strike updates.)

People conveniently forget this. It was a huge deal. They got over it because it's not the end of the world, they still got to play the game same as always.

xrnzaaas · Dec 8, 2018

I'll play it on the console so it doesn't affect me, but it would be a dealbreaker if the game was a PC exclusive.

Cecil · Dec 8, 2018

If I really want a game - I get where it's sold. But if I have a slight interest in a game, like with Rage 2, I'm not going to jump through extra hoops to get it.

If this game is on Store's I frequently use, then there's always a chance that I might buy this, when it pops up there. But for me to get this on the Bethesda launcher, it either has to be reviewed like 10/10 game, or be given to me for free.

I can somewhat see what they're trying to do with this, but they are missing out on all of us who are on the fence about this game, and will pretty much only get those who are really invested in the hype for the game.

daninthemix · Dec 8, 2018

To be honest I'd rather they launched on Epic's store than their own. I guess 12% is still too much for them.

MaLDo · Dec 8, 2018

Dr. Caroll said:
Valve forced people to install Steam if they wanted to play Half-Life 2. They forced people into using what was, at that time, an incredibly annoying platform oriented entirely around multiplayer games. (It was more or less created to deploy Counter Strike updates.)

Your argument is that we are in 2004 again?

Oh boy

Deleted member 1759 · Dec 8, 2018

Bluelote said:
I'm happy to see this tbh, to have valve dominating the PC game market is almost as bad as the windows store as the only source;
also I think a 30% cut is extremely high and unjustifiable...

still, I would prefer if they also sold the games on steam, but with the price corrected, just add Valve's 30% tax on top of the price from the bethesda store, and let people choose.

What about the 30% Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo take? And unlike Valve those three also take a cut from every physical copy sold. Should everyone start making their game 30% more expensive on consoles now?

Lagamorph · Dec 8, 2018

Wait, cheat codes are locked behind a deluxe edition?

SweetSark · Dec 8, 2018

So the possibility of DOOM Eternal not being on Steam is really high.
Don't care rally, I have already games all over the place.

Yukinari · Dec 8, 2018

keep trying to shill your launcher bethesda.

With a support ticket system that leaks peoples info. Especially now with Epic having their own storefront too.

amc · Dec 8, 2018

People saying "they better not do this with ES6 or Doom Eternal" Of course they will, regardless of Rage 2 numbers. This is their precedent, get used to it. They've done the maths behind the numbers and probably know whatever they lose from the 'no Steam no sale' cats they'll recoup with the no 30% cut. This is the future with big publishers. As the sometimes annoying Jim Sterling says "they don't just want lots of money, they want all the money" It's sad we will never have a unified PC store but that's capitalism. Anyway screw brand loyalty. I go were the games are.

Raww Le Klueze · Dec 8, 2018

Sure, I feel perfectly safe letting Bethesda handle my credit card info... what could possibly go wrong?

spineduke · Dec 8, 2018

Dr. Caroll said:
Valve forced people to install Steam if they wanted to play Half-Life 2. They forced people into using what was, at that time, an incredibly annoying platform oriented entirely around multiplayer games. (It was more or less created to deploy Counter Strike updates.)

Right, more incredibly annoying than visiting those websites to find patch version 1.145-> 1.58 so you can then grab patch 1.58 off that other website since the one you were looking at was half defunct with most of the downloads redirecting to some ad infested website. Plus if you had any tech support questions you could always ask that one kid on GameFaqs forum on how you could fix that weird fullscreen bug that noone else seems to be talking about. Man those times were great.

starbuck2907 · Dec 8, 2018

This is actually less competition. I used to be able to buy games directly through Bethesda's web site (usually discs) or through Steam.

Now, I can't use Steam anymore.

Dr. Caroll · Dec 8, 2018

spineduke said:
Right, more incredibly annoying than visiting those websites to find patch version 1.145-> 1.58 so you can then grab patch 1.58 off that other website since the one you were looking at was half defunct with most of the downloads redirecting to some ad infested website. Plus if you had any tech support questions you could always ask that one kid on GameFaqs forum on how you could fix that weird fullscreen bug that noone else seems to be talking about. Man those times were great.

Valve systematically broke Half-Life 2 via mandatory patches (especially after they removed the option to not update games several years ago) and they've shown no interest in fixing any of the regressions.

Darkstorne · Dec 8, 2018

Raww Le Klueze said:
Sure, I feel perfectly safe letting Bethesda handle my credit card info... what could possibly go wrong?

You don't have to give them credit card info. You can still buy their games from resellers like Greenman and CDKeys (and probably should if you want to save some cash in the process). You only need to register the key through their launcher, not buy games through the launcher. Works the same way Steam does with sales.

starbuck2907 said:
This is actually less competition. I used to be able to buy games directly through Bethesda's web site (usually discs) or through Steam.

Now, I can't use Steam anymore.

It's really not much different. You can still buy Bethesda games through a multitude of online stores. Only difference is they used to be locked to Steam's launcher (you literally can't play Skyrim or Fallout 4 without Steam), and now they're locked to Bethesda's launcher. That's it.

Sanctuary · Dec 8, 2018

Jesus with all of these launchers. I normally just click the shortcut for a game that I am currently playing anyway, and I don't really use the menu of any particular platform, but it's simply annoying having to install Steam, GOG, Origin, Uplay, Microsoft's launcher and now Bethesda and Epic. It's ridiculous and it doesn't help the consumer in any way. If anything, it's lessening the buying options in terms of price. It's bad enough when these platforms run flawlessly, but it takes many months, if not years before they are primarily issue free.

Pryme said:
The 'no Steam no buy' movement is one of the cringiest in gaming.

The overuse of the word "cringe" and its variants is one of the cringiest things on the internet.

GSG said:
Bethesda launcher? lol

I don't really care for Rage 2 at all, but I'll be ticked off if/when TES6 is launched exclusively on their shitty launcher.

Don't worry, by the time that game is released, Bethesda's launcher should be functional. If they don't decide to remove it before then anyway.

spineduke · Dec 8, 2018

Dr. Caroll said:
Valve systematically broke Half-Life 2 via mandatory patches (especially after they removed the option to not update games several years ago) and they've shown no interest in fixing any of the regressions.

I don't get your point - you're taking one case incidence as some sort of refutal to the regressive way we use to buy and maintain our games? Not really a great comeback when everything I said is valid for every game on the market before 2004

xrnzaaas · Dec 8, 2018

Lagamorph said:
Wait, cheat codes are locked behind a deluxe edition?

Lol they're not even trying to hide them behind some xp boosters. xD

Dr. Caroll · Dec 8, 2018

spineduke said:
I don't get your point - you're taking one case incidence as some sort of refutal to the regressive way we use to buy and maintain our games? Not really a great comeback when everything I said is valid for every game on the market before 2004

There are other examples I can think of. Far Cry 1 and Far Cry 2, for instance, both have updates that broke them. (FC1 AI was broken, FC2 jackal tapes were broken.) I could list many more examples. Your only option is to get a non-Steam retail disc version and install up to a certain patch but no further, or alternatively get a fan patch. Half-Life 2's launch on Steam was a massive pain at the time. Valve insisted on a string of mandatory updates that eventually were no longer able to opt-outed that made the game worse. If you want to play not-broken Half-Life, you have to "acquire" an old version somehow. Even the HL2 Update mod doesn't fix everything.

Half-Life 2 is a textbook example of the problems with digital distribution in general. And Valve are an interesting example of a company that fostered a lot of crappy stuff onto audiences but nowdays people love them because that pain is long forgotten. Most people don't even seem aware that Half-Life 2, the game that was used as a trojan horse for Steam, has been broken by Steam, particularly the Steampipe updates.

It goes without saying that digital distribution has really helped developers deploy huge updates that have greatly improved games. But it's a two-edged sword due to a (deliberate) loss of control on the customer's part.

Sanctuary · Dec 8, 2018

spineduke said:
I don't get your point - you're taking one case incidence as some sort of refutal to the regressive way we use to buy and maintain our games? Not really a great comeback when everything I said is valid for every game on the market before 2004

I'm pretty sure all they are trying to say is that Steam was a pretty buggy and annoying piece of shit for a long while and that some seem to have very short memories about it. It wasn't always the mostly humming platform it is today, and the more random platforms you start adding, the more headaches you're going to have.

Sandersson · Dec 8, 2018

xJavontax said:
People conveniently forget this. It was a huge deal. They got over it because it's not the end of the world, they still got to play the game same as always.

How is this a good argument? We should roll the clock back 20 years just because..?

Sandersson · Dec 8, 2018

Dr. Caroll said:
There are other examples I can think of. Far Cry 1 and Far Cry 2, for instance, both have updates that broke them. (FC1 AI was broken, FC2 jackal tapes were broken.) I could list many more examples. Your only option is to get a non-Steam retail disc version and install up to a certain patch but no further, or alternatively get a fan patch. Half-Life 2's launch on Steam was a massive pain at the time. Valve insisted on a string of mandatory updates that eventually were no longer able to opt-outed that made the game worse. If you want to play not-broken Half-Life, you have to "acquire" an old version somehow. Even the HL2 Update mod doesn't fix everything.

Half-Life 2 is a textbook example of the problems with digital distribution in general. And Valve are an interesting example of a company that fostered a lot of crappy stuff onto audiences but nowdays people love them because that pain is long forgotten. Most people don't even seem aware that Half-Life 2, the game that was used as a trojan horse for Steam, has been broken by Steam, particularly the Steampipe updates.

It goes without saying that digital distribution has really helped developers deploy huge updates that have greatly improved games. But it's a two-edged sword due to a (deliberate) loss of control on the customer's part.

You are talking about Steam launcher though (which I have zero problems with since DRM is here to stay and Steam id way better than Denuvo for example.) Most of this "competition" discussion is centered around storefronts.

Dr. Caroll · Dec 8, 2018

Sandersson said:
You are talking about Steam launcher though (which I have zero problems with since DRM is here to stay and Steam id way better than Denuvo for example.) Most of this "competition" discussion is centered around storefronts.

The original quote I was responding to asserted that, "This is the kind of culture and mentality that I as a consumer want to support. Epic, Bethesda and other such companies are not trying to make people want to use their platforms, they are trying to force people to use them. There is no way you can't realize the difference between "want to" and "forced".

Said quote ignored that Valve did not make people want to use Steam. It forced them to use Steam, even though Steam had huge disadvantages for a singleplayer game like Half-Life 2 -- as Steam was designed for multiplayer games -- and then Valve proceeded to increasingly break Half-Life 2 with forced updates. Valve did not lure people to Steam by making it appealing to use. They straight up forced people to use it in order to play Half-Life 2 despite the fact this made Half-Life 2 worse in every conceivable way.

Max Payne · Dec 8, 2018

You can spit venom as much as you want, you'll all be at Bethesda's Launcher for the new TES at latest. So you can as well get RAGE2 there.

Deleted member 38397 · Dec 8, 2018

Question - Does the Bethesda.net launcher support basic things like cloud saves?

tuxfool · Dec 8, 2018

Mojito said:
Question - Does the Bethesda.net launcher support basic things like cloud saves?

Lol. No.

It doesn't put saves in the cloud. It certainly spreads your personal information throughout the cloud.

SleepSmasher · Dec 8, 2018

I wonder what will happen with all these "no Steam, no buy" people if the game scores a 90+ MC score (since Metacritic is everything these days).

tuxfool · Dec 8, 2018

felipepl said:
I wonder what will happen with all these "no Steam, no buy" people if the game scores a 90+ MC score (since Metacritic is everything these days).

Maybe some of them will crack.

Certainly, it won't be me, though.

GhostTrick · Dec 8, 2018

felipepl said:
I wonder what will happen with all these "no Steam, no buy" people if the game scores a 90+ MC score (since Metacritic is everything these days).

I dont know. Play other games ?
We're lucky, there are like a dozens of good games to buy each months and more than one good AAA title.
That is, if Rage 2 is good to begin with.

RAGE 2 will skip Steam, launching on Bethesda Launcher, pre-orders are LIVE for all platforms

User requested account closure

Product Management

Circumventing a ban with an alt account

Chicken Chaser

User requested account closure

Wrong About Chicken

User requested account closure