Fallout 76 is skipping Steam, but that’s not the real threat to Valve

Fallout 76 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 are coming to PC later this year, but you won’t find them on Steam. Like Fortnite and Destiny 2, publishers are leaving Valve’s popular digital-distribution service behind for their own frontend platforms. Fallout 76 will debut on the Bethesda Launcher and Black Ops 4 will join World of Warcraft on Blizzard’s Battle.net, and you can expect these companies and their competitors to continue this trend in the future with more games.

Companies are feeling emboldened after the success of Fortnite and the surging popularity of the Discord communication platform, according to SuperData Research analyst Carter Rogers. That has these huge third parties looking for a way out from underneath the Steam stranglehold and its 30-percent cut on all purchases.