Updated: Bethesda: Fallout Games Back on Steam a "Priority"

[StewShearerOld]

Updated: Bethesda: Fallout Games Back on Steam a "Priority"

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/Bethblog/status/418871493129302016]

Bethesda says that it's focusing efforts on returning the classic Fallout games to Steam.

<a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130347-Good-Old-Reviews-Fallout>Fallout fans were hit with some bad news recently when GOG revealed that it would be <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130467-GOG-Winter-Sale-Discounts-600-Games-Fallout-Series-Free>losing access to the franchise at the end of 2013. Sure enough, we're now a few days into the new year and the Fallout series is now <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130956-Fallout-Games-Yanked-From-GoG-Due-To-Rights-Issues>nowhere to be found on the site (unless you already own it).

GOG wasn't the only digital retailer to lose access to Interplay's classic post-apocalyptic franchise, however. The game's were recently also pulled from Steam, something that apparently doesn't sit too well with Bethesda Softworks. "We're working to return Fallout games (1, 2, Tactics) to Steam and will provide an update when they're ready to go," said the developer in a recent Tweet. When asked by other Twitter users about whether or not the company was also working to return the game's to GOG, it replied (several times) that its "priority right now is returning the games to Steam at the earliest date possible."

This, of course, may be a bit disappointing to Fallout fans hoping to get their hands on DRM-free versions of the franchise's earlier games, but given the size of <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130914-Steam-Breaks-7-6-Million-Concurrent-Users-Over-Christmas-Weekend>Steam's user base, it's also not that surprising that Bethesda would focus its efforts there first. The real question, of course, is if the company intends to help restore the games to GOG at all. The fact that GOG made a point of giving all of its Fallout titles away for free prior to their removal could, in some ways, be taken as a bad omen. That being the case, Bethesda hasn't said that the games won't ever make their way back to GOG, so we won't make any assumptions just yet. We have, however, reached out to Bethesda for further comments to help clarify what's going on.

UPDATE: Bethesda's Erin Losi has informed us that "Steam is a little easier because we are already a publisher [there]." Conversely, "[Bethesda] are not currently a publisher on GOG so that would require agreements, etc." Losi was unable to confirm if the company would turn its focus to reinstating the GOG versions of Fallout 1/2/Tactics after the conclusion of its business with Steam.

Source: <a href=https://twitter.com/Bethblog/status/418871493129302016>Twitter




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[Angelous Wang]

The thing is GOG is just a store, I'm sure it does have a community but the community doesn't mean anything, it doesn't contribute.

To Steam on the other hand is community is big part of it and actually matters, even more so with Bethesda type games due to things like Steam workshop, this attaches a huge modding community to Steam (Skyrim has the largest mod collection last time I looked on there). A community Bethesda really want to stay on the good side of.

 

[Vaccine]

I think if there was any chance of GOG getting the license back for their store they wouldn't have given them away for free to begin with because it still would've been a source of revenue for them.
I'd be pretty confident in saying they won't be back on GOG anytime soon.

 

[gibboss28]

To Steam on the other hand is community is big part of it and actually matters, even more so with Bethesda type games due to things like Steam workshop, this attaches a huge modding community to Steam (Skyrim has the largest mod collection last time I looked on there). A community Bethesda really want to stay on the good side of.

Except for the fact that Steam Workshop doesn't exist for Fallout 3. And there doesn't seem to be much support from Bethesda to make sure the game is running on Windows 7 and beyond. They didn't give a shit about that 'community'

 

[Teoes]

Point to remember is that that wasn't the first time GOG gave away Fallout for free. Having that in mind makes me think they won't automatically be not getting the games back.

 

[Fasckira]

The thing is GOG is just a store, I'm sure it does have a community but the community doesn't mean anything, it doesn't contribute.

Ouch... I think the bustling community that exists at GOG.com, dedicated to modding and support, would feel a bit hurt by that one.

I get what you mean though, Steam is the bigger beast that exists on more machines and the community makes bigger waves.

 

[loa]

I wonder if ancient games sell better on steam, known for selling modern games with minimal DRM -usually the lesser of 2 evils if there is a non-steam version- or on a site well known for specializing on ancient games and getting them to run reliably on modern machines with the added bonus of not requiring a client.

 

[Grimh]

Goddammit I'm so freaking mad I missed getting Fallout 2 from GoG, should have just bought it when I had the chance.
I really do hope they get it on GoG again because that's the only place I'm buying it from.

 

[craddoke]

The thing is GOG is just a store, I'm sure it does have a community but the community doesn't mean anything, it doesn't contribute.

I won't take offense at this, because it's obvious that you're just not very familiar with GOG. That said, if you ever have a twenty year old game that you would like to optimize and mod, let me suggest that you will find much more relevant content at GOG than Steam regardless of the latter's community size.

Remember: to publishers, Steam is just a store, too. It's just a very big store.

 

[Irridium]

That sucks. The GoG versions of those games were superior. What with being bundled with a bunch of extras, optimized to run on modern PC's, doesn't dick over non-US people with pricing, and there's that whole 30-day money back guarantee in case anything goes wrong.

Really hope they get back on GoG.

 

[Roxas1359]

Oh goody, they return on Steam where you have to download a bunch of other things to even get them to work on your computer, but GoG gets screwed? I hope that's not the case because GoG has it that the games are made to be playable on your computer the moment you download it, no ifs ands or buts. However, the Steam version you must download compatibility mods if your computer is too advanced, which is stupid. *note that I started off with the Steam versions and later got the GoG ones, much prefer the GoG ones*

 

[veloper]

No loss.
I'm sure all the true fans have bought F1, F2 and FT a very long time ago and anyone who was mildly interested and new to the games, already had the opportunity to get the free version on GOG.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Well I partially called it, as when I checked it was still available on Steam.

Legal wranglings with the Fallout series is nothing new. The rights for older games can be more tangled than obsolete driver dependencies. During the legal fight between Interplay and Bethesda over the Fallout MMO, it was [a href=http://kotaku.com/5874561/the-great-fallout-legal-battle-ends-without-a-fallout-mmo]revealed[/a] that Interplay would retain the rights to sell the classic titles until today, December 31, 2013. That said, don't expect Fallout to stay gone for long. It's only a matter of time before the new rights holders strike a deal with GoG and get the post-apocalypse rolling again.

Only GOG? Doesn't Steam sell it too?

It's still for sale on Steam, I suspect its due to Bethesda already having a distribution agreement with Valve but nothing with GOG (at this time).

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Does anyone know if this affect players who already own them on either platform, preventing us downloading them, etc?

 

[Gilhelmi]

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

ALERT ALERT, FLAME-WAR PENDING TAKE IMMEDIATE SHELTER.

THE MEMBERS OF THE ORDER OF STEAM AND THE KNIGHT OF GoG ARE ABOUT TO GO TO WAR.

CASUALTIES ARE EXPECTED TO BE IN THE TENs AS CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME HAS BEEN DECLARED A COMBAT INJURY.

Thank you, and post safely.

Back OT: I think an "I told ya so is in order" too much money to let the games disappear. The added benefit might be the publicity might get a new wave of modders to create new content for 1, 2, and tactics.

 

[RicoADF]

Does anyone know if this affect players who already own them on either platform, preventing us downloading them, etc?

I have it on GoG and I can download them whenever I want, it only effects new purchases.

OT: I hope they sort out GoG asap, and heck add more games to it's list, GoG is FAR supperior to Steam in so many ways, and this is coming from someone with a massive Steam library.

 

[antidonkey]

I'm hoping this will give Bethesda an incentive to start working with GoG. Bethesda does have a rather large library of games that would fine in nicely with what GoG does.