Bethesda Retires the Bethesda.net Launcher and Moves to Steam

[DeathtoGnomes]

GOG isn't an independent service though. They're completely owned by CD Projekt.

True but if you look at GOG its pretty independent of its owner, and the only agenda there is anti-drm.

 

[GreiverBlade]

For me
i dont care what laucher its on
I get it where its cheapest
OR if its from uplay/ea ect
EPIC because epics better for that kind of stuff

same here.
also Epic where it's cheapest is an euphemism
EGS : 123 games 2 paid
STEAM: well ... 402 paid and around 10 free but less AAA title than EGS more like doom engines derivatives and F2P mmo

also reading as EGS is a ressource hog ... i wonder .... i have zero issues with it even when i play "Zero Dawn"

on the other hand i hated BNL for one unique reason : 2 Fo76 keys both said : "oopsies... there was an issue" mail to support and a few days to correct that crap ... i gifted the second key to a friend and we play it together sometime (he also had the same issue and had to mail the support ... i guess Bethesda hate Swiss customers ... )
and then i got Doom Eternal : SAME! (luckily did not buy 2 copy this time )

i don't care if i have multiple launcher (i also often use Galaxy 2.0 to centralize ) but i care about not having keys redeeming and other launcher related issue and only BNL did it ...

BNL used about twice as much CPU time and RAM compared to Steam. These numbers dont include the slow startup times of BNL either. Steam launches 3 times faster. Also the performance was a bit lower in terms of fps. What really annoyed me about it tho was the UI lag in BNL. You would think that with the resource usage it would be snappy but it was the opposite. Bafflingly incompetent design.

interesting that quoted "comparison" show that even tho using twice CPU time and RAM : almost zero impact, seriously 0.5fps on average is hum ... well ... ok ok minimum FPS is a little more different but still ... not what i would call a visible impact
also UI lag in BNL? never had any either

 

[Tomorrow]

interesting that quoted "comparison" show that even tho using twice CPU time and RAM : almost zero impact, seriously 0.5fps on average is hum ... well ... ok ok minimum FPS is a little more different but still ... not what i would call a visible impact
also UI lag in BNL? never had any either

Yes but remember that this depends on PC configuration. The weaker the PC the bigger the impact of unoptimized software can have on the PC's overall performance.
Would a user who has 12900K running with 3090 and 64GB+ of fast RAM care or feel the effect? Problably not.
However a user with 4-8GB of slower RAM and an entry level CPU and GPU would likely feel sluggish if the launcher consumed too many resources in the background.

At the time of the measurement i was running 2500K @ 4.7Ghz with 16GB of RAM and a GTX 1080 with 1440p 165Hz monitor. A year later i upgraded to 3800X, 32GB RAM and added 2080Ti in 2021. So i doubt i would see this much of a difference now considering the specs.

Not sure what caused the UI lag because most other programs were fine. The only one i have now that has this type of lag is ME3 Mod Manager that needs Java to run. I suspect this might be the issue as programs based on Java have always felt laggy to me and i try to avoid them if possible.

 

[silentbogo]

interesting that quoted "comparison" show that even tho using twice CPU time and RAM : almost zero impact

The most serious impact is not in-game, but when idle. Both Bethesda Launcher and early EGS both had issues where even in minimized state it would keep the CPU loaded just enough to keep it at high clocks (and heat). Took me awhile to find out why my AIO was working non-stop.
The only difference is Bethesda was most likely rendering/updating the main window off-screen, while EGS was busy stealing your precious personal data from Steam.

 

[PapaTaipei]

And nothing of value was lost. Valve ROCKS!

 

[NotHereMan]

The only thing I liked about the launcher was that you could run Quake Champions without the launcher loaded after installing/updating the game. You load the executable directly and login from within the game. AFIAK, Steam doesn't allow that. Nothing happens or it will load Steam.

I understand the logic for launchers. But, if it were up to me, I would install my games myself, and seek their patch files. My friends think I'm weird for wanting such a thing. But if push comes to shove, I would prefer an open source local game library application that requires downloading skins to make the launcher look "cool".

 

[AusWolf]

When was the last time you used Galaxy? Before 2.0? I will admit that it wasn't good before 2.0. It works very well since 2.0, and if it is more 'resource intensive' than other clients, it's not by any noticeable amount.

This is coming from someone that has 400+ games on steam(100+ installed), a bunch on epic because of free/endless coupons during sales, and a couple dozen split between all the on the other platforms. It takes no time at all to load a list of all the games I own. It does, of course, take a few seconds to launch a game from another client when that client isn't running, but that should be expected.

It's weird, I find both Steam and GOG Galaxy to be the least resource intensive clients of all those that I have. Origin is crap at handling background tasks, and Wargaming.net eats your CPU all the time like a foreground program would. I do not recommend running either of these two in the background when you don't need them, but Steam and GOG are okay.

 

[Vayra86]

I take it that Bethesda will offer us refunds for those of us that don't have, and don't want a Steam account?

Sure, knowing Bethesda you'll get that refund in Bethesda Store credit for their own launcher.

Supplied in a nice 'canvas' bag, too

 

[THU31]

Microsoft cleaning up nicely. Hopefully they do the same with Battle.net and put all Blizzard games and Call of Duty on Steam and Windows Store.