Bethesda today made what until very recently would have been a strange and entirely unnecessary announcement—all of its big upcoming games, plus one that's already out (Fallout 76) will be released on Steam.
We’re pleased to announce that RAGE 2, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, and DOOM Eternal will be released on Steam as well as https://t.co/p0BARqmTBp. We will also be bringing Fallout 76 to Steam later this year.March 25, 2019
This is noteworthy first and foremost as reassurance that Bethesda is not hopping aboard the Epic Games Store exclusive train. That's been a big point of contention over the past few months, as Epic has claimed a number of very high profile exclusives, most recently Control and The Outer Worlds. Given the effort that Epic has put into courting publishers like Ubisoft, it's very interesting to see Bethesda declaring so openly for Steam—although given the annoyance some gamers feel about Epic's aggressive maneuvering, there's obviously some good PR value in it, too.
It could also be taken as acknowledgment from Bethesda that it isn't ready to go toe-to-toe with Steam with its own launcher. But that's always been on the table: Bethesda said last summer that even though Fallout 76 was exclusive to its store, it wasn't cutting Steam out of its plans completely.
Bethesda hasn't stated explicitly whether the games will release on Steam at the same time as they launch on on Bethesda's platform, nor whether they'll appear on other storefronts. I've reached out for clarification and will update if I receive a reply.
