What is going to happen to the collection of Bethesda games Gog sells? The Microsoft Bethesda buyout. They going to be pulled? Do I need to start downloading my purchased copies now? We need one more Bethesda sale.. one sale to rule them all.

The games you have already purchased will be fine (though you should always back up your stuff, don't wait for something bad to happen). The rest of the Bethesda catalog will likely also be fine, since I doubt Microsoft would cancel existing contracts for no good reason (otherwise, we would have already seen removals such as games from InXile and Double Fine). Depending on the degree of freedom that Bethesda will have, I wouldn't count out future releases.

If you have the space, you should always be downloading the "Offline Backup Installers" of your purchases. They are the whole point of shopping here...to effectively "own" a DRM-free product.

No one can answer that question, as that would require mystical powers to see into the future.

But it's certainly highly possible that they could be pulled in the future.

In fact, any & every game that is on GOG could be pulled in the future. There is no guarantees that any of them will stay 100% for sure for all-time. Nor that GOG itself will stay for all-time.

So if you are worried about such things, then yes, you must backup all your games.

And having only one backup isn't secure either by the way, because the backup source could become defective, or there could be a fire or flood that destroys it, or something like that.

So the safest possible method would be to have multiple different backups, and not all stored in the same physical location, and with some of them stored in Cloud storage. But they wouldn't need to "cancel existing contracts" in order for the games to be pulled from GOG. Rather, they'd need only to let them expire, and then choose not to renew them again...which is a very likely possibility.

The OP is worried that the games would disappear pretty soon ("we need one more Bethesda sale"). Contract expiration will take years, which would neatly allow all sorts of sales, since Bethesda released stuff even this very year.

Hopefully Microsoft let's Bethesda keep their creative rights. I thought bethesda was strong enough to stand on their own, wonder why they sold out. Now I'm curious enough to do some research.

It's not that I dislike Microsoft, I just don't like some of their practices or maybe my thinking is colored a bit from using Windows 10.
. Never ever stop backing up game files. Sage advice that will never get old. :)

Heck, even backup the prior version of game files in case an update borks the game lol. Although the idea of backing up Cyberpunk 2077 or Baldur's Gate 3 twice makes me shutter.
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Bethesda has been a horribly anti-consumer company for a number of years now... IMHO seems fitting they're at Microsoft.

I hope they don't Beth has had a string of horrible releases.

As with Bioware there's "2000s era Bethesda" vs "Bethesda today" whose difference in attitude could almost make them two different game developers. They've put out some amazing games in the past but post Skyrim have just stopped trying to be a game developer and have been coasting along relying on cr*p over-monetization like "Creation Club" and publishing 3rd party titles. This is the #1 reason why we have a string of 2012-2017 "Bethesda" (developed by Arkane / MachineGames) AAA's like Dishonored, Wolfenstein & Prey, but Skyrim (2011) still isn't on GOG.

Saw this and thought it was fitting...

https://www.pcgamer.com/au/bethesda-important-games/

Also just to add. Microsoft did not buy only Bethesda, but its parent, Zenimax and thus all that was under it (including Bethesda).

I am worried too. Some of those games are region locked and are only available on GOG. Let's hope for the best.

My Take is, as announced 'some' of the new, hence future game releases will be exclusive in Xbox Game Pass. For the time being MSFT is giving bethesda full authonomy, there is nothing that suggests otherwise so far.

Hence Old Bethesda titles should not be affected and should remain on other digital storefronts. It would be dumb to pull them out.

Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Bethesda Softworks as part of the Xbox Team at Microsoft.
https://bethesda.net/en/article/193piE646914YSCGpeYxGC/bethesda-xbox-just-getting-started

Since Bethesda focus mainly on very long RPGs I think it's a type of games which probably don't work well on a subscription model like Xbox pass. Most people I know who subscribe Xbox pass use it mostly to play shorter types of games.
Even if big titles like Elder Scrolls 6 become exclusive to Xbox Game Pass I'd guess it'd be only for less than 2 years.

No, I don't think so, Microsoft bought a lot of studios but often leave the direction intact, for example InExile was bought time ago but they still can release the games where they want, Microsoft is like a Sugar Daddy for this companies, provide the money but not much else. Let's hope it's stay that way!