BethesdaNet is the Skyrim publisher’s new dedicated portal

LOS ANGELES — Bethesda wants to run your gaming through its network.

The company announced BethesdaNet, which is a portal that will operate all of its online services, tonight at the Electronic Entertainment Expo game-industry tradeshow. The publisher didn’t provide many details about how BethesdaNet will work, but it will likely serve as a way for players to get updates and more for Bethesda games. If you go to Bethesda.net right now, you’ll find a placeholder page.

This is not new to the world of gaming. Bethesda joins a list of companies that includes Blizzard, EA, and Ubisoft that all run their own services.

Since we know so little about BethesdaNet, it’s difficult to say if it will look more like a Steam-clone — along the lines of Origin — or if it will behave like a client that delivers updates and checks DRM, like Blizzard’s Battle.net

What’s clear is that this will give Bethesda — a megapopular publisher — a way to directly reach its gamers. That is important as the company starts rolling out its first big free-to-play releases like Battlecry, and The Elder Scrolls Legends. And if Bethesda ever decides to go this route, this could absorb The Elder Scrolls Online. When it released The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in 2010, it launched with Steam Workshop support.