There are so many big games coming this fall, it’s hard to keep track of all of them. For a second, I forgot about Fallout 76 because I’m so focused on Spider-Man and Red Dead Redemption 2. But Fallout 76, Bethesda’s first triple-A venture into the multiplayer space, releases this November for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. If you’re looking for it on PC, though, you might have to do a bit of extra digging – Fallout 76 won’t be on Steam.

“The PC version of Fallout 76, for both the B.E.T.A. [Break-It Early Test Application] and the launch, will be available only via Bethesda.net, not on Steam,” said a Bethesda rep in a prepared statement. Note the wording there – at launch. You might indeed be able to find it on Steam later. It makes sense – Bethesda wants to make its Bethesda.net Launcher more popular, so they’re doing exactly what Steam did 14 years ago: making a popular game exclusively available through the platform. But then Steam is so huge, they’d be stupid to ignore it. This would hit both markets.

Bethesda marketing boss Pete Hines echoed the PR statement responding to a fan on Twitter:

In a rare bout of internet politeness, the user even said thanks in reply to Hines’ answer. That might be the biggest news in this story.

While Fallout 76 doesn’t launch until November, the beta test starts in October. Bethesda says the beta will be the full version of the game and that progress will carry over to the retail release the month after. Bethesda hasn’t released dates for the beta test yet, but keep an eye on the official Fallout 76 page for details. If you’re not into beta testing games, you can catch Fallout 76‘s full release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 14.


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