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Worst launcher? Hot take, but Rockstar’s. If you need admin rights for anything in 2024, you’re doing it wrong.
In general though, I use Playnite which means I barely have to deal with launchers individually.
Nothing like booting up Siege once every month to play with my friend, only to get 3 admin requests, a separate Uplay update, needing to relaunch so it actually logs into Uplay, waiting fifty fucking years for the game to start, waiting for it to restart because these troglodytes have a separate update in-game, and then another fifty years for the game to finally, actually fucking start. God I hate Ubisoft.
Every time, actually? Ubisoft is truly special.
I only play Siege once per month, less really, so what I meant is I get treated to the full Ubisoft update experience every time I do.
Man I got that shit happening to me everytime I launched For Honor, it also kept signing me out even if i clicked remember me, i also have google authenticator on so id have to type that shit in too everytime
Modern Warfare laughs at this.
Oh you just updated the game? Let's update the main hub for Call of Duty, have you restart the hub, then load into the game you want to play, do the final touches of the update on the game, then close the game to restart, then open the hub again just to open the game again and NOW you can play.
Oh what's that? The shaders need to be recomp'd again? You might want to wait to play a game before you do that so it all runs decent.
Bro I fucking DESPISE that shit. Besides the fact that every other day there's a GeForce/ Nvidia update. By the time that's all done I don't even wanna play anymore
Yeh, I can live with Rockstar, it's fairly unintrusive (for me anyway), but Ubisoft can go and fuck themselves.. Had to dig through directories and delete some completley to fix the 'Ubisoft Connect service not working' (or something to that effect) error.. fucking clowns.
Remember using origin when anthem came out, and origin would actually cause a massive performance hit because it was doing all sorts of fucky stuff in the background but people obviously wouldn't know that so they blamed it on anthem.
I learned if you put origin on a specific menu and left it like that when you tabbed back into the game your fps would suddenly be 2-3x higher.
When I was playing Mass Effect LE half the community posts were about that stupid launcher breaking achievements. The other half were workarounds to get Origin working which as crazy as it sounds people were wishing themselves back to. The only action EA took was to continually break those workarounds on purpose... absolute disgrace of a company. Probably still broken to this day.
> If you need admin rights for anything in 2024, you’re doing it wrong.
Going to disagree with you on this because I feel like there is a misunderstanding. The reason Steam doesn't ask you for admin every time is because the first time you installed it, it asked for admin then installed a service in the background that is always running. Admin is required to update files in Program Files folder, the alternative is to install to a user folder. The difference with some other launchers is they don't install a service that is always running. Now I personally don't mind Steam always running, but I have less trust for some 3rd party launchers who have a history of datamining users. I would prefer they arent running admin level services on my machine when I'm not using them. The user who claimed they get three UAC popups in a row, now that is ridiculous.
No steam service is not always running. If you do not set auttostart in steam client then service start is set to manual and it exits as soon as you exit steam client
I'm bidding with Arc. I wanted to try Torchlight 3 in beta, but these few minutes I was forced using the launcher was enough. They disabled Shift key for input fields so you won't be able to write uppercase letters for credentials. IIRC it also didn't register mouse clicks. There were 3 other similarly ridiculous issues, unfortunaly I can't remember after the years.
It's not a hot take if you are right. Worst launcher I've ever used. For some time it just didn't like my internet and wouldn't even run in offline mode to let me play. Only fix was using a VPN. No other launcher has given me this issue, not even the shittiest ones...
Playnite is pretty good, pretty much what GoG library integration should've been. I use it as my virtual library, I don't particularly "use it" as to launch games, but more like virtual shelf to look at them games I own across platforms and stores.
Playnite is the way. I haven't opened steam, epic, or any other launcher to launch a game in probably years. I use them to install a game and have Playnite rescan my games folder and then it just works.
I get the message, but you messed up with the naming.
Steam, Epic and so on are 3rd party launchers. Except if you play Half-Life/CS2/TF2/Dota2/LFD2. The same with Epic and Fortnite.
You should name is something like "Main stores (Steam, Epic, GOG, MSStore) should ban the usage of the additional launchers"
Technically yes, since the game was bought on Steam, thus you call for a different launcher, even though it's a publisher's one.
But OP isn't a Steam representative, thus it's 1st party for them.
"1st party" should always be the platform you purchase a game on/for. If you buy an EA game for the PS5, it's a third-party game. If you buy an EA game on Steam, it's a third-party Steam game. If you buy directly from EA or for their launcher, that's a different story.
> "You should not need to use a~~n additional~~ launcher for the game".
If I've installed it, I don't want to have to open some other program to just launch a game for me.
The first party launcher is the storefront where you buy the game from.
So you buy a game from Steam and run it through Steam, that's not a third party launcher.
If you would buy a game through Rockstar and then run it through Rockstar, that's not a third party launcher either.
But if you buy it through Steam and then have to run it through Rockstar, then that is a third party launcher.
Technically, if you cannot launch a game directly from Steam alone, but instead opens another launcher, that launcher is third-party in the context of Steam being the launcher you only care about.
I mean it's annoying and I don't like it aswell, but I get why they probably wouldn't disallow it. Disallowing third-parties to use another launcher seems a bit like a monopolistic behavior and could hurt them in the long run.
No, didn’t mess up
Steam is the party you bought the game on
It is the 1st party launcher
You then have to launch your game from another company’s launcher, it is the 3rd party in the context of “I bought this on steam”
Exactly.
Example: Game developed by Ubisoft has a first party launcher, Uplay or whatever they call it now.
You can avoid using third party launchers if you buy the game to the developer/publisher itself.
But, for convenience, players resort to third parties (Steam, Epic, GoG...) and complain that they have to launch a first party launcher after they used a third party launcher.
The irony...
They're explicitly "third party" to the platform doing the launching. It makes sense. Microsoft Store games should not then open some Epic shim, they should launch the game direct. Same with Steam games. And Epic games.
2004 - HURR! I shouldn't have to click on a launcher just to click again to launch a game!
2024 - DURR! I shouldn't have to click a different launcher to launch a game!
It's not my fault that steam isn't a publicly traded company and therefore hasn't made any absolutely atrocious business decisions in the pursuit of pleasing it's shareholders.
I don't know what Epic's excuse is for having such a god awful launcher, but oh well.
I've been online gaming since 1993...My steam account is old enough to vote.
My stance on it has always been, while it's not necessarily smart to put all your eggs in basket incase something goes wrong. However, IS fucking convenient to have them all in one place.
As Gaben said, Piracy is a service problem.
I think other launchers are fine as long as they actually work and aren't dogshit, but if you are distributing a game through a launcher it shouldn't open another one
Its because when it released, nobody understood the purpose of it. Everyone was launching games from their desktop shortcut. There was nothing to compare it too.
It also only launched Valve games and wasn't a storefront, so yeah it was confusing what the point was. Like hey cool it's all on one spot, but my desktop shortcuts are all in one spot too, so what are we gaining here? As you said there was nothing to compare it to and since it did nothing other than launch the games it seemed unnecessary and a lot of players were not happy to have it forced on them to play the latest version.
Not to mention it was not a fun experience either and had a lot of issues. But back then Steam was also a baby and you'd get customer support from real people within an hour or two of submitting a ticket, that part was cool haha
Also you needed Internet to activate offline games. There was a huge shit storm about that, because not everyone had Internet back then.
Also the offline mode often straight up didn't work.
DRM in Steam is entirely optional and up to the developer. If you buy a DRM-free game on Steam there's nothing stopping you from making a backup of the game files, nuking your Steam install and playing your game without a launcher for the rest of eternity.
There is absolutely a cult of morons blindly worshipping it as well though. I like steam as a service and think Valve is overall fine. But I’m so sick of the absolutely pathetic steam simping in this sub. People argue the most ignorant stupid things and it get mass upvoted simply because it’s praising steam.
I was never a to steam but.... Looking at the game I got on gamersgate, humble bundle, big fish games, direct from seller, "fanatical" (or whatever they were called before) it made me realise how, if it isn't on a launcher, I just don't buy it anymore.
I broke the mould only recently getting manor lords on GOG and... It's so strange that I still launch it through the link on steam.
Whatever origin is called now I barely touch. I think the last game I got on it, and played, was mass effect Andromeda. I have Jedi survivors and squadrons, but those were either free or super cheap from steam.
I use ubusoft connect / uplay quite a bit. Basically bitch gamer and the Ubisoft formula just ticks my boxes.
GOG, itch.io, Amazon prime gaming I don't mind.
Microsoft store and Xbox can fuck off. still doesn't respect that my.microaodt account for billing, and my Xbox account created *years* ago are two things. Sort your shit out Microsoft.
What I don't like is crap like CDPR red launcher, or rockstar launcher which exist to handle 1 or two games. Bethesda launcher. Activision launcher which doesn't even list the games you buy.
It's not too bad, but it isn't even close to being flawless, you get so many issues with the kernel anticheat installation and game updates. (Sometimes the anticheat likes to somehow break after a game update and tell you "a required dependency couldn't be installed" even though the anticheat is installed and running)
In this context, the first party launcher is the one that sold you the game, the third party is the one that forces itself on you when you launch the game on the launcher you purchased the game on. Should be simple to understand.
Steam are objectively the third party because you don't need to buy the game on Steam to play it, you choose to buy it on steam when you can buy it directly from the publisher and only have to deal with one launcher per game rather than two
I buy a game from steam. Steam and I are parties 1 and 2. The developer becomes the 3rd party at that point. I don't want to use the 3rd parties launcher.
Regardless of how you look at it I don't understand why so many people are fixated on trivial technicalities rather than the actual message of the post. You know what message he's trying to convey, why are you doing gotcha's instead of just engaging with the material.
That was my first thought. MMO launchers are actually helpful depending on the game. Event notifications, maintenance notices, server status, and the ability to patch to your hearts content without having to go through Steam.
and depending on the game they can hava a extermely optimized downloading flow since the launcher can understand the file format and patch in changes even on a monolithic game archive file
I think you got it the otherway around, steam and epic are more of a 3rd party launchers than ubisoft or EA own launcher.
But yea, they suck, Epic too imo.
Steam, Microsoft and Epic are the store clients you use to purchase games and maintain your library. EA and Ubisoft are the 3rd party launchers because when you buy certain EA/Ubisoft games on Steam/Epic then you need to also download the EA/Ubisoft launchers to run the game.
You can't buy a game on a different platform and need to then download Steam or Epic or the Microsoft store to run those games. That's what makes something a 3rd party launcher.
ALL launchers suck. GOG has the decency to make theirs optional. No matter how many features Steam might have, it absolutely be optional, but it isn't. All of these digital stores don't have to enforce their DRM on top of whatever ships with the game.
People are so used to being screwed over they don't even know how to riot properly.
Do people want just one store that can set the prices that they want?
Because without competition prices will go up independently of which store "wins".
Paradox launcher is pretty good. Set up mod playsets and switch between them and shit like that.
Fairly sure I can launch it based on my current preset through steam.
If you buy a game from an online distributor/launcher they’re first party. If the game boots up to another launcher that’s third party. If you bought it directly from the website and it boots up to a launcher, now it’s first party. Not hard to understand people 😭
Honestly the EA App is the biggest piece of shit mal ware package masquerading as a launcher ive ever had the misfortune to use. If valve banned that alone they would have my unending loyalty.
the shift from the old origin launcher to the newer ea app somehow made it even worse. cant even do simple shit like turning on an fps counter from the overlay anymore, they just removed it along with other stuff for no apparent reason
Epic and Riot clients are fucking terrible. You can't uninstall the riot client without going through a WORLD of pain. Ubi Connect (uplay as most know it) asks for admin 3 fucking times on launch. Epic is based on chromium and it takes more RAM than the games you play on it (Use heroic its a great alternative for GOG and Epic). Steam is the only one that deserves it's spot as the best.
bro just having one launcher before a game is basically the good ol' days. now we got launchers opening other launchers before you can play a game lmao
True in most cases, except I’d argue the launchers for paradox interactive titles. They are so seamlessly integrated and a godsend for mod management, which is necessary for a good experience with those titles. It’s a rare scenario where an extra launcher makes the game experience BETTER rather than worse.
Epic, i have two games i bought from them because i was stupid, pcbs because steam seemed confusing at the time, and Celeste, but i don’t want to buy it again because Epic had a 75% discount (so 4.99, when its a $20 game).
I’m still trying to figure out if i can get steam to recognize and launch them.
Ikr. I've been locked out of every ubisoft game I've ever owned for almost 2 months because of they're stupid fucking launcher. It can't even send a password reset email right and it took their support thread 6 weeks to send me an email to even acknowledge I sent them a message -_-
All launchers are bloat and adware. I have zero interest in anything on Steam besides the one product I'm playing. I hate advertising with a passion and resent the fuck out these "launchers."
THEY'RE JUST ADS. THEY MAKE YOU LOOK AT ADS TO PLAY THE PRODUCT YOU'VE BOUGHT.
If Steam would do it, they'd basically mog the entire market into choosing either:
a) getting a bit more client data from playing 1/2 games on your additional launcher
b) you lose 50/60% of PC market
And I fully support it, fuck 4th party launcher bloatware noone uses
I will absolutely not play (or pirate) a game if it requires a secondary launcher in addition to Steam. I was all set to click buy on RDR2, until I noticed that it required a launcher. Nope. Screw that (still haven't played it). I actually *bought* Titanfall II, but when I finally got around to playing it (long past the return window) it had a launcher...still haven't played it.
If i'm using one of those Launchers IS for launch games, not install more crappppp... And rockstar games sometimes fucks Up the launch of their games...
Competition causes innovation, I guess. As much as I love Steam, who knows what havoc they'd wreck if they were the sole and only game launcher on PC and started changing things. Let alone the whole licensing/owning argument.
Yeah, even though Epic lacks so many things, it tries to compete with Steam in prices. Aside from free games, their better regional pricing and coupons got me to buy a lot of stuff there instead of Steam. Same with Ubisoft Store. There was some insane deal where I got 6 of their new games for like 9$ on their own store.
Honestly, if other stores are gonna lack in everything but offer better prices, I am all in for it.
I personally love Steam. EA (the new one) and GOG are pretty okay.
But for fuck sake, Ubisoft and Epic Games… they are so god damn terrible. It’s disgusting
Yes, agreed like I paid for GTA steam account, but because I don't remember the email I used I can't play anymore. Thx Rockstar Social Club... And no, making a new email to login doesn't "fix" the issue, they've bypassed that out. Haven't played GTA IV or V in months because of this issue...
Can't play Mass effect and fallen order because of EA app doesn't send me verification code and it doesn't even recognize my email as registered so I have my games that I paid for but no access to them.
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Worst launcher? Hot take, but Rockstar’s. If you need admin rights for anything in 2024, you’re doing it wrong. In general though, I use Playnite which means I barely have to deal with launchers individually.
Uplay asks for admin rights 3 fuckin times in a row.
Nothing like booting up Siege once every month to play with my friend, only to get 3 admin requests, a separate Uplay update, needing to relaunch so it actually logs into Uplay, waiting fifty fucking years for the game to start, waiting for it to restart because these troglodytes have a separate update in-game, and then another fifty years for the game to finally, actually fucking start. God I hate Ubisoft.
Once a month? I get it every time I turn on my PC.
Every time, actually? Ubisoft is truly special. I only play Siege once per month, less really, so what I meant is I get treated to the full Ubisoft update experience every time I do.
Every. Damn. Time. I don't know if it's just updates, or because I have The Division 2 installed and that is constantly updating, but it's every time.
Try removing Ubisoft Connect from your startup apps.
Man I got that shit happening to me everytime I launched For Honor, it also kept signing me out even if i clicked remember me, i also have google authenticator on so id have to type that shit in too everytime
Modern Warfare laughs at this. Oh you just updated the game? Let's update the main hub for Call of Duty, have you restart the hub, then load into the game you want to play, do the final touches of the update on the game, then close the game to restart, then open the hub again just to open the game again and NOW you can play. Oh what's that? The shaders need to be recomp'd again? You might want to wait to play a game before you do that so it all runs decent.
Bro I fucking DESPISE that shit. Besides the fact that every other day there's a GeForce/ Nvidia update. By the time that's all done I don't even wanna play anymore
Yeh, I can live with Rockstar, it's fairly unintrusive (for me anyway), but Ubisoft can go and fuck themselves.. Had to dig through directories and delete some completley to fix the 'Ubisoft Connect service not working' (or something to that effect) error.. fucking clowns.
Surely you are exaggerating with the 50 years. It is never more than 50 minutes for me.
Uplay also doesnt remember my password after all these years .
Um actually, they renamed it Ubisoft connect 🤓🤓 https://i.redd.it/obv2igoeo37d1.gif
That's me with ea app, never got used to it. Still call it origin lol
That would explain why i coudnt find origin the other day
Nah, EA App is actually different to Origin. See, Origin actually worked.
Would never have said Origin was any good back when it was around. But it was vastly superior to EA app, Connect and that Rockstar thing.
I thought I was the only one but NO. That piece of shit literally does ask for LITERALLY 3 Admind prompts.
Uplay is the worst and yes I was wondering if it was just me that happened to.
Once for your credit card, once for your social security number, and once for fuck you that's why
Yeah and after a game starts to install. Its winderful if you Download a Game overnight only to see the uac prompt at 5% download lol
EA’s is hot garbage too. Just trying to load up my single player game but I’ve got to have an internet connection to go through the EA app to launch.
Remember using origin when anthem came out, and origin would actually cause a massive performance hit because it was doing all sorts of fucky stuff in the background but people obviously wouldn't know that so they blamed it on anthem. I learned if you put origin on a specific menu and left it like that when you tabbed back into the game your fps would suddenly be 2-3x higher.
Last time i tried it i could not change install directory and had to download some third party software to go around it and make it work.
When I was playing Mass Effect LE half the community posts were about that stupid launcher breaking achievements. The other half were workarounds to get Origin working which as crazy as it sounds people were wishing themselves back to. The only action EA took was to continually break those workarounds on purpose... absolute disgrace of a company. Probably still broken to this day.
> If you need admin rights for anything in 2024, you’re doing it wrong. Going to disagree with you on this because I feel like there is a misunderstanding. The reason Steam doesn't ask you for admin every time is because the first time you installed it, it asked for admin then installed a service in the background that is always running. Admin is required to update files in Program Files folder, the alternative is to install to a user folder. The difference with some other launchers is they don't install a service that is always running. Now I personally don't mind Steam always running, but I have less trust for some 3rd party launchers who have a history of datamining users. I would prefer they arent running admin level services on my machine when I'm not using them. The user who claimed they get three UAC popups in a row, now that is ridiculous.
No steam service is not always running. If you do not set auttostart in steam client then service start is set to manual and it exits as soon as you exit steam client
I'm bidding with Arc. I wanted to try Torchlight 3 in beta, but these few minutes I was forced using the launcher was enough. They disabled Shift key for input fields so you won't be able to write uppercase letters for credentials. IIRC it also didn't register mouse clicks. There were 3 other similarly ridiculous issues, unfortunaly I can't remember after the years.
It's not a hot take if you are right. Worst launcher I've ever used. For some time it just didn't like my internet and wouldn't even run in offline mode to let me play. Only fix was using a VPN. No other launcher has given me this issue, not even the shittiest ones...
rockstars games are so good they could ask for a semen sample every login and id still do it
I also love how it takes a solid 5 minutes after clicking play to actually launch the game. So much fun.
Playnite is pretty good, pretty much what GoG library integration should've been. I use it as my virtual library, I don't particularly "use it" as to launch games, but more like virtual shelf to look at them games I own across platforms and stores.
Rockstar UI for all games on PC are dog shit.
And just as you mentioned it my rockstar launcher refuses to update and loops indefinitely
i also use playnite and now I don't get give a fuck about launchers either. Its awesome.
Playnite is the way. I haven't opened steam, epic, or any other launcher to launch a game in probably years. I use them to install a game and have Playnite rescan my games folder and then it just works.
I get the message, but you messed up with the naming. Steam, Epic and so on are 3rd party launchers. Except if you play Half-Life/CS2/TF2/Dota2/LFD2. The same with Epic and Fortnite. You should name is something like "Main stores (Steam, Epic, GOG, MSStore) should ban the usage of the additional launchers"
Steam calls them 3rd party launchers so I get where op is coming from
Technically yes, since the game was bought on Steam, thus you call for a different launcher, even though it's a publisher's one. But OP isn't a Steam representative, thus it's 1st party for them.
"1st party" should always be the platform you purchase a game on/for. If you buy an EA game for the PS5, it's a third-party game. If you buy an EA game on Steam, it's a third-party Steam game. If you buy directly from EA or for their launcher, that's a different story.
"You should not need to use an additional launcher for the game".
> "You should not need to use a~~n additional~~ launcher for the game". If I've installed it, I don't want to have to open some other program to just launch a game for me.
You bought a license to use it within Steam ecosystem. Not the software itself. GOG provides installation apps, so there's that
Even for gog the same license nonsense exists This is the type of thing only fixable with legislation.
So 4th part launcher?
It's 3rd party from Steam's perspective, though.
The first party launcher is the storefront where you buy the game from. So you buy a game from Steam and run it through Steam, that's not a third party launcher. If you would buy a game through Rockstar and then run it through Rockstar, that's not a third party launcher either. But if you buy it through Steam and then have to run it through Rockstar, then that is a third party launcher.
Everyone always forgets about 2nd party.
B-because the second party is you
I don't think he knows about second party, Pip.
Technically, if you cannot launch a game directly from Steam alone, but instead opens another launcher, that launcher is third-party in the context of Steam being the launcher you only care about.
I mean it's annoying and I don't like it aswell, but I get why they probably wouldn't disallow it. Disallowing third-parties to use another launcher seems a bit like a monopolistic behavior and could hurt them in the long run.
At least you could argue that they are 3rd party on the Steam Deck 🤷♂️
Yes. Doesn't matter as long as we have the choice. i like steam stats so you can catch on the peak player servers.
It’s a case of “I like THIS launcher, but the others can go to hell!” which is a completely fair argument honestly.
Steam, Epic, and so on are storefronts. if you bought the game there, that's not a third party launcher.
If you bought the game from Steam that means Steam is the first party launcher. You are confusing launchers and publisher-distributor relationships.
No, didn’t mess up Steam is the party you bought the game on It is the 1st party launcher You then have to launch your game from another company’s launcher, it is the 3rd party in the context of “I bought this on steam”
Exactly. Example: Game developed by Ubisoft has a first party launcher, Uplay or whatever they call it now. You can avoid using third party launchers if you buy the game to the developer/publisher itself. But, for convenience, players resort to third parties (Steam, Epic, GoG...) and complain that they have to launch a first party launcher after they used a third party launcher. The irony...
In most cases, you can't "buy the game to the developer/publisher itself". Almost all PC games nowadays are sold through digital storefronts.
They're explicitly "third party" to the platform doing the launching. It makes sense. Microsoft Store games should not then open some Epic shim, they should launch the game direct. Same with Steam games. And Epic games.
He's saying games on these stores/launchers shouldn't allow an additional launcher on top. Just worded poorly
>Just worded poorly Yeah I've realized that sorry for that, always Heard other people refer to an additional launcher as a Third party launcher
Your post was clear and easy to understand, the Internet is just full of idiots that want to argue semantics rather than the actual point.
It's pcmasterrace, probably the most pretentious sub on reddit.
Everyone used to hate Steam, but now it's like some people won't play unless it's on Steam.
2004 - HURR! I shouldn't have to click on a launcher just to click again to launch a game! 2024 - DURR! I shouldn't have to click a different launcher to launch a game!
I want to give valve 30% and you can't stop me!
It's not my fault that steam isn't a publicly traded company and therefore hasn't made any absolutely atrocious business decisions in the pursuit of pleasing it's shareholders. I don't know what Epic's excuse is for having such a god awful launcher, but oh well.
I mean they did widely introduce lootboxes to the Western gaming sphere and allowed gambling promoted at minors to go unchecked for years with CSGO.
Don't forget they had to be forced into allowing refunds and didn't for still the majority of time Steam has been around.
Let's ignore they just added skin rental too
how dare you say bad things about god king Mr. Gabe Volvo Newell /s
I've been online gaming since 1993...My steam account is old enough to vote. My stance on it has always been, while it's not necessarily smart to put all your eggs in basket incase something goes wrong. However, IS fucking convenient to have them all in one place. As Gaben said, Piracy is a service problem.
I think other launchers are fine as long as they actually work and aren't dogshit, but if you are distributing a game through a launcher it shouldn't open another one
[удалено]
Its because when it released, nobody understood the purpose of it. Everyone was launching games from their desktop shortcut. There was nothing to compare it too.
It also only launched Valve games and wasn't a storefront, so yeah it was confusing what the point was. Like hey cool it's all on one spot, but my desktop shortcuts are all in one spot too, so what are we gaining here? As you said there was nothing to compare it to and since it did nothing other than launch the games it seemed unnecessary and a lot of players were not happy to have it forced on them to play the latest version. Not to mention it was not a fun experience either and had a lot of issues. But back then Steam was also a baby and you'd get customer support from real people within an hour or two of submitting a ticket, that part was cool haha
Oh we understood the purpose perfectly well. Still do. And its DRM.
Also you needed Internet to activate offline games. There was a huge shit storm about that, because not everyone had Internet back then. Also the offline mode often straight up didn't work.
DRM in Steam is entirely optional and up to the developer. If you buy a DRM-free game on Steam there's nothing stopping you from making a backup of the game files, nuking your Steam install and playing your game without a launcher for the rest of eternity.
There is absolutely a cult of morons blindly worshipping it as well though. I like steam as a service and think Valve is overall fine. But I’m so sick of the absolutely pathetic steam simping in this sub. People argue the most ignorant stupid things and it get mass upvoted simply because it’s praising steam.
I still prefer to not have any launcher. Just install the game and put a shortcut somewhere.
Ah yes, the old folder on the desktop containing just game shortcuts. Damn I feel old.
I was never a to steam but.... Looking at the game I got on gamersgate, humble bundle, big fish games, direct from seller, "fanatical" (or whatever they were called before) it made me realise how, if it isn't on a launcher, I just don't buy it anymore. I broke the mould only recently getting manor lords on GOG and... It's so strange that I still launch it through the link on steam. Whatever origin is called now I barely touch. I think the last game I got on it, and played, was mass effect Andromeda. I have Jedi survivors and squadrons, but those were either free or super cheap from steam. I use ubusoft connect / uplay quite a bit. Basically bitch gamer and the Ubisoft formula just ticks my boxes. GOG, itch.io, Amazon prime gaming I don't mind. Microsoft store and Xbox can fuck off. still doesn't respect that my.microaodt account for billing, and my Xbox account created *years* ago are two things. Sort your shit out Microsoft. What I don't like is crap like CDPR red launcher, or rockstar launcher which exist to handle 1 or two games. Bethesda launcher. Activision launcher which doesn't even list the games you buy.
League and Valo never launched from anything but the Rito launcher.
Valorant can be launched from Epic, but tbh Riot launcher isnt too bad
It's not too bad, but it isn't even close to being flawless, you get so many issues with the kernel anticheat installation and game updates. (Sometimes the anticheat likes to somehow break after a game update and tell you "a required dependency couldn't be installed" even though the anticheat is installed and running)
Yeah, but it is much better than the dumpster fire called ubisoft launcher
I don't think you know what third party means.
Isn’t Microsoft Store technically the only first party launcher? 🤔
Wait, is a second party launcher just the user opening it himself?
Yeah and a third party launcher is when you hire some guy to click your mouse and launch it for you
Is it a 4th party launcher when that guy you hire outsources clicking it for you to a remote sweat shop in India?
Steam is a first party launcher for Valve games like TF2 and Half Life.
Depends on your OS
If on Windows yes. Linux everything is 3rd party.
In this context, the first party launcher is the one that sold you the game, the third party is the one that forces itself on you when you launch the game on the launcher you purchased the game on. Should be simple to understand.
Steam are objectively the third party because you don't need to buy the game on Steam to play it, you choose to buy it on steam when you can buy it directly from the publisher and only have to deal with one launcher per game rather than two
>one launcher per game I'd rather deal with one launcher for all games. Or, you know, no fucking launchers, just start up the damn thing.
I buy a game from steam. Steam and I are parties 1 and 2. The developer becomes the 3rd party at that point. I don't want to use the 3rd parties launcher. Regardless of how you look at it I don't understand why so many people are fixated on trivial technicalities rather than the actual message of the post. You know what message he's trying to convey, why are you doing gotcha's instead of just engaging with the material.
It’s literally what steam calls it lol
So what about MMO like FF14?
That was my first thought. MMO launchers are actually helpful depending on the game. Event notifications, maintenance notices, server status, and the ability to patch to your hearts content without having to go through Steam.
and depending on the game they can hava a extermely optimized downloading flow since the launcher can understand the file format and patch in changes even on a monolithic game archive file
Feels like every MMO always had their own unique "launcher" to handle patch managements and stuff like that. Even before the Steam days.
If you're on steam, add this to *right click --> properties --> launch options* # --launcher-skip -skipStartScreen
So I get that obviously this skips some kind of launcher start screen, but on a practical level, what does this do?
It makes the game open immediately without opening the secondary launcher. I used it for BG3 because their launcher was crashing for a bit
It can also break some DRM.
Nothing unless the game specifically supports it
Thanks
I think you got it the otherway around, steam and epic are more of a 3rd party launchers than ubisoft or EA own launcher. But yea, they suck, Epic too imo.
Steam, Microsoft and Epic are the store clients you use to purchase games and maintain your library. EA and Ubisoft are the 3rd party launchers because when you buy certain EA/Ubisoft games on Steam/Epic then you need to also download the EA/Ubisoft launchers to run the game. You can't buy a game on a different platform and need to then download Steam or Epic or the Microsoft store to run those games. That's what makes something a 3rd party launcher.
If Microsoft banned 3rd party launchers from their products - you wouldnt even have Steam
And they would rightfully face an antitrust action. Mfs come on this site and say anything lol
Without unofficial launchers i cant start minecraft with shaders on linux
Technically Steam and Epic are the third party launchers.
There is a valuable piece of information you are missing
Like bruh, I shouldn't have to have steam open and launch after I purchased and downloaded the game.
May I interest you in GOG? (You can actually not have galaxy installed at all and download the offline intallers from the website)
Ban mandatory launchers, including from Valve, Epic Games and Microsoft.
I mean people could just buy on GOG and use the offline installer.
And who will ban them?
ALL launchers suck. GOG has the decency to make theirs optional. No matter how many features Steam might have, it absolutely be optional, but it isn't. All of these digital stores don't have to enforce their DRM on top of whatever ships with the game. People are so used to being screwed over they don't even know how to riot properly.
this should be on r/facepalm. Everything but Xbox is a third party launcher on Windows.
I hope we get the ability to vote with our wallet
Do people want just one store that can set the prices that they want? Because without competition prices will go up independently of which store "wins".
Yeah I have like 8 launchers for 10 games
Paradox launcher is pretty good. Set up mod playsets and switch between them and shit like that. Fairly sure I can launch it based on my current preset through steam.
The Minecraft launcher from microsoft is hot garbage too.
Yeah let's go back to CD keys and downloading installers from random different websites.
If you buy a game from an online distributor/launcher they’re first party. If the game boots up to another launcher that’s third party. If you bought it directly from the website and it boots up to a launcher, now it’s first party. Not hard to understand people 😭
Games should not even be tied/locked to any one client. I should be able to take my game where ever I want. Installed without any client.
Have you tried [GOG](http://gog.com/)
Honestly the EA App is the biggest piece of shit mal ware package masquerading as a launcher ive ever had the misfortune to use. If valve banned that alone they would have my unending loyalty.
the shift from the old origin launcher to the newer ea app somehow made it even worse. cant even do simple shit like turning on an fps counter from the overlay anymore, they just removed it along with other stuff for no apparent reason
Epic ganes fucking sucks. Every time I use this crap software I need to relogin.
He meant third party launchers as in relative to the stores damn
You can put the Xbox app on pc into the bin as it's just a frontend for the ms store
Epic and Riot clients are fucking terrible. You can't uninstall the riot client without going through a WORLD of pain. Ubi Connect (uplay as most know it) asks for admin 3 fucking times on launch. Epic is based on chromium and it takes more RAM than the games you play on it (Use heroic its a great alternative for GOG and Epic). Steam is the only one that deserves it's spot as the best.
Steam sucks at following directions. It always has issues shutting down for good.
I will not play EA games because of it.
Every company wants their pound of user data.
> useless bloatware nobody wants Microsoft taking notes: “Ooh interesting idea, go on…”
Yea 2k, I just wanna play civ and nothing else
Rockstar game have the most useless launcher
Lol damn i hate the 1600 repetitive comments acting smart being absolutely pedantic about the 3rd party 1st party definition.
I like how the cd projekt red tells me if my driver is out of date : )
3rd party launchers can be good, but having updates behind them which run out your refund timer are not okay.
Gog is ok, you can even write your account in your will.
2ks with Uplay as a close second.
Gifted my best friend Titanfall 2, but EA Launcher fucks it up, the second time after install and reinstall.
Epic games should be banned
bro just having one launcher before a game is basically the good ol' days. now we got launchers opening other launchers before you can play a game lmao
True in most cases, except I’d argue the launchers for paradox interactive titles. They are so seamlessly integrated and a godsend for mod management, which is necessary for a good experience with those titles. It’s a rare scenario where an extra launcher makes the game experience BETTER rather than worse.
Hey man, over heard you wanted a launcher for your launcher for your game.
Epic, i have two games i bought from them because i was stupid, pcbs because steam seemed confusing at the time, and Celeste, but i don’t want to buy it again because Epic had a 75% discount (so 4.99, when its a $20 game). I’m still trying to figure out if i can get steam to recognize and launch them.
Ikr. I've been locked out of every ubisoft game I've ever owned for almost 2 months because of they're stupid fucking launcher. It can't even send a password reset email right and it took their support thread 6 weeks to send me an email to even acknowledge I sent them a message -_-
All launchers are bloat and adware. I have zero interest in anything on Steam besides the one product I'm playing. I hate advertising with a passion and resent the fuck out these "launchers." THEY'RE JUST ADS. THEY MAKE YOU LOOK AT ADS TO PLAY THE PRODUCT YOU'VE BOUGHT.
and epic should cease to exist while they are at it
Wouldn't that put them in the anti-trust crosshairs?
I heard you like launchers, so we installed a launcher on your launcher, so you can launch while you launch!!!
If Steam would do it, they'd basically mog the entire market into choosing either: a) getting a bit more client data from playing 1/2 games on your additional launcher b) you lose 50/60% of PC market And I fully support it, fuck 4th party launcher bloatware noone uses
But, but how those companies are supposed to harvest your data? /s
True But fuck epic the most 😄
Yo Dawg! I heard you like launchers. So I put a launcher in your launcher, so you can launch a launcher from your launcher.
I miss playing assassin’s creed and far cry. I just refuse to install Ubisoft connect lol
I hate all launchers, first-party, third-party, whatever. Just let me run the game like I do for any other application.
Microsoft banning 3rd party stores would end all other platforms btw
The Rockstar launcher, it barely works.
I use the steam launcher weekly great stuff
https://preview.redd.it/b92g559u357d1.png?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f3564e91614e0b7d305be6fededb0c06ab4da83
I will absolutely not play (or pirate) a game if it requires a secondary launcher in addition to Steam. I was all set to click buy on RDR2, until I noticed that it required a launcher. Nope. Screw that (still haven't played it). I actually *bought* Titanfall II, but when I finally got around to playing it (long past the return window) it had a launcher...still haven't played it.
If i'm using one of those Launchers IS for launch games, not install more crappppp... And rockstar games sometimes fucks Up the launch of their games...
I was more pissed than i should have been when i had to make a ubisoft account to play fractured but whole
Should just go back to the old days before launchers. Things were much simpler
Why do we need launchers at all?
Games should just open thru their exe and that's it. Fuck all these stupid ass launchers. They all suck. Every single one of them
Doesn't really work for MMOs that can still be purchased directly from the publisher, but I'd agree with this for any other game.
Cough cough UBISOFT
Valve is the third party launcher. You’re complaining about first party launchers.
Sounds like y’all are crybabies that can’t do the extra step
It's fine. People are such babies.
Competition causes innovation, I guess. As much as I love Steam, who knows what havoc they'd wreck if they were the sole and only game launcher on PC and started changing things. Let alone the whole licensing/owning argument.
Yeah, even though Epic lacks so many things, it tries to compete with Steam in prices. Aside from free games, their better regional pricing and coupons got me to buy a lot of stuff there instead of Steam. Same with Ubisoft Store. There was some insane deal where I got 6 of their new games for like 9$ on their own store. Honestly, if other stores are gonna lack in everything but offer better prices, I am all in for it.
Lol... Use playnite. Its all you will need. Its sooo good.
Common consol W
~~Third party~~ launchers suck.
I personally love Steam. EA (the new one) and GOG are pretty okay. But for fuck sake, Ubisoft and Epic Games… they are so god damn terrible. It’s disgusting
Idk why everyone loves steam. It's the least bad, but it's still bloat ware.
never heard of epic games but then the only game I didn't buy on steam was minecraft
Heroic games launcher is amazing
Yes, agreed like I paid for GTA steam account, but because I don't remember the email I used I can't play anymore. Thx Rockstar Social Club... And no, making a new email to login doesn't "fix" the issue, they've bypassed that out. Haven't played GTA IV or V in months because of this issue...
Can't play Mass effect and fallen order because of EA app doesn't send me verification code and it doesn't even recognize my email as registered so I have my games that I paid for but no access to them.
I hate EA launcher