Hawken transitioning to Steam, dedicated launcher now defunct

At the moment, there is no way for me to launch Hawken, which is a game I like a great deal, and probably my favorite free-to-play game yet.

At the moment, there is no way for me to launch Hawken, which is a game I like a great deal, and probably my favorite free-to-play game yet. It's making the transition from a dedicated launcher to Steam, which is where I'd prefer it live anyway, but developer Adhesive Games says that the transition will take about a week at the most.

Starting today, Adhesive will begin sending out codes to existing account holders (pilots, as they affectionately call us) to download Hawken from Steam, so check your spam folders. If you don't have a Steam account, you'll need to get one to keep playing. All existing pilots should receive a product code by February 11. If you don't get a code by then, you should submit a help ticket with the subject "Missing Steam Code" at playhawken.zendesk.com.

Your will not lose any of the progress or items you purchased, and all new purchases will be made through Steam. Adhesive will also publish patch notes soon, but for now says that it made some pretty big changes to the game, removing its consumable countermeasures (purchasable items) and tuning points, both for balancing reasons.

If you haven't played Hawken yet and plan to hop in now that it's on Steam, you'll have to wait for the full "February release" to create a new account. You can find out more about the move to Steam on Hawken's official website.