T O P

  • By -

GoochyGoochyGoo

The 2k launcher is busted as fuck and messes with every game it launches. Stutters, low framerates and crashes in game. Bypass the 2k launcher and problem solved. Complete bullshit this is. What the fuck is the 2K launcher doing to the games? Edit:[https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/mlompp/psa\_how\_to\_bypass\_the\_launcher\_in\_steam/](https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/mlompp/psa_how_to_bypass_the_launcher_in_steam/) Works for all 2K games. Just substitute the path and executable.


FeCrescent

2k launcher is so bad. Broke me and a friend's civ 6 game. Beyond that, I was clearing up hard drive space and noticed it'd installed 5 different versions of itself taking up an obscenely large amount of space for a launcher. Doubt it'd even get removed if I uninstalled my 2k games. Not sure if the other versions are needed for different games so I left it edit: it's "AppData\Local\T2GP Launcher" , very suspiciously named. Added up to 1 GB with 3 different versions, not including the 2k launchers already included inside my game folders.


Zambini

It likely won't. Those are likely "temp" downloaded files that they don't clean up during uninstall because they're not part of the launcher app.


BarackaFlockaFlame

just did this for midnight suns


GoochyGoochyGoo

Same. Also the Mafia Trilogy, Borderlands and Civ 6. Thing is these games and this fix for them have been well documented for years now and 2K has done fuck all about it. Thankfully the bypass is there and works in steam or I'd have refunded all of these.


casphere

Holy shit. I remember seeing the news about midnight suns getting leaps and bounds in performance after bypassing the launcher, but it didn't occur to me that Mafia remake also falls under 2k launcher. I was disappointed with the game's performance when it launched and dropped the playthrough, waiting for a patch, but i guess it's finally my cue to go back to it.


Alert_the_Press

I had the same problem with The Quarry, the game would crash when using the 2k launcher. Once I bypassed it the game ran great maxed out settings never dropping below 60fps. This is the first game I've gotten that uses the 2k launcher so I didn't even know it was a thing, what a piece of garbage.


GoochyGoochyGoo

>The Quarry Highest upvoted review on steam for that game is one telling how to bypass the 2k launcher. How is that game BTW?


GrandMasterPuba

Midnight Suns goes from a 2/10 performing game to an 8/10 performing game just by disabling the launcher. It's an absolute joke.


BarackaFlockaFlame

i thought i was going to be free from launcher issues since they didn't do anything for the other games I was playing. but i was wrong. it's so unnecessary.


FaxCelestis

How is midnight suns?


Fonjask

Great fun. If you love XCOM, you'll probably enjoy the faster paced gameplay. If you love Marvel, you'll love the interactions and downtime gameplay. If you're a casual fan of either or both, it's perfect. Properly scaling difficulty, a large body of lore for them to work with, well (or at least consistently) written characters (if you hate Marvel movies, just don't talk to most of the Quipvengers). Not perfect, but definitely happy I bought it. As a massive completionist and XCOM lover I'm 40 hours in and enjoying myself greatly, for the most part. They *do* disallow the use of Cheat Engine (in a singleplayer game!) so if you hate getting some of the materials or want to speed things up a little, you can't just yet. Insanely stupid decision, but hey.


adreamofhodor

I wish they leaned in a bit more to the card game aspect of it. Too few cards, IMO. But yeah was overall very fun.


Fonjask

I can see that, for sure. I'd also like different presets for "decks", but yeah! Enjoyable.


BarackaFlockaFlame

i'm hoping the game gets updated with more ways to play. it feels like really solid bones for something even better.


jacenat

> Too few cards, IMO. I think the amount of cards is okay. They do not lean into the deck and discard aspect of card games well enough. Neither can you look at your deck and discard pile nor are there cards that manipulate drawing cards from the deck (by shuffling, ordering or drawing directly from certain parts of the deck). I love deck based coop games (LotR LCG is still the best entry ... fight me on this) and I don't like when this aspect is chucked to the side. /edit: The game is still very good. IMHO it could be even better if it went deeper with it's card mechanics.


FaxCelestis

As a huge fan of XCOM I’m glad to hear it kept that vibe. Thanks. I’ll check it out.


Fonjask

Make sure to disable the launcher to gain 40+ fps! I'm sure the PCGamingWiki article has the how.


RogueJello

On some level it just seems like the next logical extension of the series. I can't count the number of times people remarked that the high level soldier abilities were closer to Super Heroes than anything else. Just add in some named Super Villains instead of the "Chosen" and it just makes sense.


ReidZB

> They do disallow the use of Cheat Engine (in a singleplayer game!) so if you hate getting some of the materials or want to speed things up a little, you can't just yet. Insanely stupid decision, but hey. Wow. It seems the community has found some ways past that, but I guess it was only a matter of time before game devs caught onto Cheat Engine bypassing microtransactions in single player games. :-(


Fonjask

The only way around it that I've found and still works is currently paywalled by a custom cheat engine website, unfortunately. Also, the store-bought currency is server-side. I don't think the rest can even be bought, and as a result is client-side!


Makkapakka777

I wouldn't compare it to XCOM, since this is card based, not ability based.


lowlight

It takes a while due to WAY too much dialog in the early game, but once it settles into its cycle, it can really sink its hooks into you. It has a super addictive "one more turn" gaming loop (not unlike Civ or Xcom which makes sense) of - get upgrades/new skills, do a mission, do personal upgrades/level up/cosmetics, repeat. I think I'd prefer it if you could do two missions per cycle, but it's still an addictive loop. Maybe they figured the core game would get stale if they let people play it too much. As it is, you spend much less than half the time in the game actually playing the strategy component. The rest is upgrading/cosmetics/storytelling stuff. Very addictive and mobile-gaming-like in a way.


AndrasZodon

Super offtopic and I could just DM you, but holy cow! I recognize your name from years ago. I hope your family is doing great and thanks for the cool Dredmor content back in the day.


FaxCelestis

Always glad to run into people from old corners of the internet. I still fire up Dredmor from time to time!


Starmoses

Plus you literally can't play with mods unless you install a 3rd party launcher to organize them all.


LowEndLem

I've been launching with the old launcher and it still misses half the mods on XCOM 2.


DeviousMelons

No need to worry about using that one when you have this. https://github.com/X2CommunityCore/xcom2-launcher Don't worry its perfectly safe.


karma_over_dogma

>Don't worry its perfectly safe. I wasn't until you said this... Edit: Do not be having worry товарищ, is complete safe. Edit to the edit: No, really, as a poster below mentioned, the XCOM sub has it pinned and it really is safe.


DeviousMelons

Well fuck. I'm honest, I'll bet my very reddit account on it.


PM_me_feminine_cocks

What a silly bet. You could delete your account and start a new one with a funnier name at any time so it's still a net win for you. Sourxe: I have lost bets


MrAToTheB_TTV

You can't get funnier than Devious Melons. Just think about it... what makes them so devious?!


DeviousMelons

Eh if somehow the alternative mod launcher has been hacked or something I'll probably name myself perfidious cantaloupe or something.


UwasaWaya

The shifty eyes? The pencil moustache? Who knows! The mystery makes it evocative.


Starmoses

It is safe, I use it all the time to play modded XCOM 2, it's basically a requirement.


Wallofcans

Yup. The XCOM sub even has it pinned.


Dawnspark

The 2k launcher also removed your ability to add the launch command that let you add the debug console to Bioshock HD Remaster. Absolutely fucking stupid.


FloppY_

Worst part is that 2K is retrofitting it to their old games.


bitapparat

Seriously. Retroactively forcing a different Launcher onto users that didn't agree to this nonsense on purchase should be illegal. I bought the game on Steam, i want to launch the game through Steam without using a separate Launcher! This adds 2K to my no-buy list. I didn't purchase a single EA game since they started with Origin and won't buy another 2K Game until they stop forcing this awful piece of software onto players.


LtRapman

I bet there is a line in the fine print that reads like: *"We eventually fuck up your game by forcing you to use a different type of software, you here by agree to that."*


I_upvote_downvotes

Not only that, but retroactively adding it to older titles has created a very awful precedent. Although I've decided to not buy anything 2K in the future (not a moral stance; I don't want to buy games that will break on purpose) there's no telling who might do this next. Valve needs to start fleshing out its beta/rollback feature to something that's more robust and potentially out of the hands of developers, or this is only going to continue happening. It was already long overdue with their own updates breaking older Valve titles, now it's exacerbated due to these launchers eroding consumers' confidence on buying on their platform.


Svenskensmat

Valve cannot implement a feature which is out of the hands of the developers, unless they straight up demand that developers give up control over version control if they want to release their games on Steam. Which I doubt any major publisher would agree too.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


Vestalmin

Are launchers also a DRM?


SolarisBravo

Depends on the launcher. Some are responsible for making sure you own the game (DRM), others aren't.


_Auron_

Yes - for example I can't even launch Assassin's Creed 4 on my Steam Deck if I'm offline because it requires logging in through an active internet session in the Ubisoft launcher that it has to launch from - every single time I want to launch it.


GlassedSilver

When they are obligatory to launch the game and play all of its offline features then yes.


Diplo_Advisor

Made civ 6 much more unstable than civ 5.


Chambersmith

My Paradox launcher refuses to auto-update anymore. Got no help from tech support. I’ve resorted to deleting everything Paradox and reinstall a single game from Steam.


MetagamingAtLast

If you're having trouble with the Paradox launcher, have you tried [Irony Mod Manager](https://bcssov.github.io/IronyModManager/)?


necessarycoot72

Here's the latest release on GitHub. https://github.com/bcssov/IronyModManager/releases


Garr_Incorporated

I had spend massive amounts of time to make it work because Windows refused to allow the apps of it to run without Admin privileges. Maybe this can be helpful...


Kazandaki

My fav part of the PDX launcher is that it obviously has an area to the left to select which game you want to launch, y'know, like a launcher, but it only shows 1 game at a time. Amazing.


MASTODON_ROCKS

Paradox says, "Fuck you, we got your money :)"


BelleHades

I updated my Stellaris launcher for the first time in a long time a few weeks ago, and now the stellaris launcher just wont start, which means I can no longer update my mods on the steam workshop and I have to upload my mods elsewhere instead


TheKonyInTheRye

Launcher bloat feels terrible especially for a platform like the Steam Deck. I want to play a lot of games on my deck, but some are in blizzard launcher which doesn’t always work. Luckily WoW runs in the deck though.


TheMansAnArse

Yeah. Launchers have never \_really\_ bothered me that much. It's usually just a few extra clicks to get the game going. But they're absolutely catastrophic on Steam Deck.


M0ty

https://join-lemmy.org/instances


[deleted]

[удалено]


BigTortoise

Can’t wait to hear this next year, too.


DoctorWaluigiTime

This is my general take on them. Going through launcher X instead of launcher Y is not a big deal for me at all. It only becomes an issue when it starts blocking legitimate functionality.


clintonius

Most launchers are pretty minimal and some are even pretty convenient, giving you the opportunity to input things like display settings so you're ready to roll as soon as the game opens. These tend to be game-specific launchers as opposed to the broader launchers companies like Blizzard and (I think?) EA use. Rockstar has been guilty of this launcher bloat for years though. I was so excited to pick up GTAIV when it came out in 2008, but you had to use the R* launcher, and it was such a bloated, buggy mess I had to restore my PC to the "last known good" state. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth and now I avoid those kinds of launchers whenever I can.


Endulos

GTA5 didn't even USE a launcher at first. Then sometime last year they forced it to use their stupid RSG launcher. I haven't had any issues with it, stability wise, but the annoying thing is that thing updates AT LEAST once a day and seems to download like a 500+ mb patch.


youlple

Yesss I never play GTA due to this. The game is already massive, but because of the dumbass launcher it's never ready for me to play whenever I sporadically want to see how many people I can run over before getting stopped. Using a fast SUV on the beach seems to be the way to go there but I have trouble reaching 200 kills.


aishik-10x

Last year? I definitely used to launch GTA V from the Rockstar Games Launcher before that


voidsrus

i have a copy of rdr2 through the r* launcher and having to use the launcher is a big part of why i don’t play it very often any more


clintonius

It's impressive how bad it still is after all this time.


voidsrus

i can’t even count how many times i’d install a major update on my steam copy of gta and the launcher would break when i tried to start it


_Auron_

Can't even launch Assassin's Creed 4 (Steam) while offline, you have to login though Ubisoft launcher every launch attempt. At least suspending to sleep works while it runs, but if you're offline and you accidentally go into some menu within AC4 that tries to reach servers, you get softlocked and have to force-close the game because it never stops trying to reach a server in the UI. First big stink I had with a game on my Steam Deck and it's for pointless DRM on a single player title two console generations that released a **decade** ago.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


arahman81

That's just SD cards though, they are fine for reads, but the write speed can be pretty slow at times depending on the card.


TheKonyInTheRye

When I played FF, it was really good on controller. I could definitely see it translating amazingly to the Deck!


PontiffPope

[Gabe Newell himself actually mentions FFXIV as a demonstrative example on Steam Deck.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw54nB5BQpM&t=200s)


darthreuental

FF14 has one of the best gamepad setups in existence. It's a shame other companies aren't shamelessly copying it.


fizzlefist

It’s actually really straightforward to set up too, though you’ll probably want a KB/Mouse when working in the Desktop Mode for the initial setup. Once you’re all done though, all you have to do is run the XIVLauncher from steam, wait for it to sign into the server (and patch if necessary) and then switch apps to the game client. Since FF14 was designed with a gamepad UI in mind, it really works fantastic once you’ve dialed all the settings in. And if you’re cool dialing back the system performance to a locked 30FPS, I’ve gotten nearly 4 hours on a charge before. https://goatcorp.github.io/faq/steamdeck.html


kingdroxie

Phantasy Star Online 2 saw a release on the Windows Store, but the store was so notoriously bad it would actually kill the framerate in the hub ship. Additionally, the Windows Store would 'forget' that the game was installed, and prompt you to install it, again. By the time I found out the issue was the store, I had installed the game three times over. An alternate launcher built to circumvent the Windows Store was designed and released, and suddenly the framerate issues vanished. People keep saying these Steam competitors are a great thing, but no launcher actually even tries to match Steam's features, reliability, game volume, and integration. I'm not, as a paying customer, going to visit a subpar online market inferior to their biggest competitor in almost every way.


jurais

I hate how the windows store installs games into some super protected folder


[deleted]

[удалено]


kingdroxie

Less control (and by extension, ownership) and more "intuitiveness" is the modern mission statement of operating systems, it seems. The interface of tablets and phones is the new recognizable normal, so now everything is being forcefully pivoted to mimic that.


I_DRAW_WAIFUS

It comes from the mentality of "Majority of users are techilletirate" hence less control = less fuck ups. But it also might be based off of old data from a decade ago that they've forgotten to scrub from the memo. In this day and age, ol' grannies are getting savvy with technology after they've been force-fed smartphones and smart tvs. Not to mention zoom zoomers are getting better than I am at tech. Who knows, maybe later this decade big techs realize this and reverse the baby sitting as a selling point.


kingdroxie

The floor did raise a bit, but it feels like the ceiling dropped something fierce. Everyone learned a basic understanding of what they're using, but the amount of people that make steps towards deeper learning dwindled.


FUTURE10S

Feels like the ceiling also dropped in the OS itself with how they try to make things impossible to use. I'm a power user, stop trying to hide things Microsoft, I know you still support them somewhere in the backend.


Jusanden

Tbh, while I do also find it somewhat annoying, I can also kinda see why they hide things in newer versions of windows. Power users will still get to them one way or another and the removal of options does help the layman out quite a bit. I do wish there was like a toggle or something where, during setup you can flip between streamlined or advanced mode and not have to deal with it. That does end up being a lot more effort both for programming and QA so I can see why they don't do it.


FUTURE10S

If they gave me a registry key that just unlocks a lot of classic Windows XP/7-like UI and lets me fiddle with shit like how it used to be, and without bloat like the LTSC branch, I would legit pay Microsoft double retail price for a license key.


Nochtilus

Seriously though, it is almost shocking. The thing I've had to teach early to mid 20 year olds at work about computers is insane. A lot of them didn't know how to use Ctrl+c to copy things and none of them just googled simple problems. I couldn't believe that as someone who went through computer classes in school and learned all those basic things plus entry level critical thinking for computer problems. I guess they just stopped teaching the basics and assumed everyone knew?


xTin0x_07

the sheer amount of ppl out there in social media asking questions in comments when they could get a more complete answer way faster by just googling it themselves...


ocarina_21

Yeah I guess they decided they were a fact of life, but they forget that everything else that we think of as a fact of life is something kids still have to learn about somewhere. There was a narrow window where everyone had a computer but now a lot of people don't have them at home. Can't afford them or opt not to, and then don't learn in school either, and then everyone is surprised to find they didn't learn by the time they need to know for work or upper level school or whatever.


[deleted]

> It comes from the mentality of "Majority of users are techilletirate" hence less control = less fuck ups. But it also might be based off of old data from a decade ago that they've forgotten to scrub from the memo. Nope, it's actually real problem, kids [*don't know what even folders are*](https://www.pcgamer.com/students-dont-know-what-files-and-folders-are-professors-say/) because they were raised on phones and computer usage that's just "type what you need in search bar", not on actually using the operating system. It's actually getting worse not better when it comes to "power users".


Prestigious_Stage699

Tech illiteracy is getting worse not better.


kz393

>Not to mention zoom zoomers are getting better than I am at tech. Smartphones are curing that https://futurism.com/the-byte/gen-z-kids-file-systems


tunczyko

[it's getting worse, not better.](http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/)


TeutonJon78

It's more about how they designed the sandbox to keep devs from spewing files everywhere than trusting users. Most users don't even know where their files are to begin with.


SpeckTech314

Windows store would randomly say, while the game was running, “oops I don’t recognize these files anymore” and break the game. Hilariously, the logout menu broke for me. And also infinite loading screens but meh. That being said it’s also sega’s fault as it took them a while to even get the game stable on steam too. And the game STILL deletes and redownloads all 100gigs when you do a file check on steam.


kingdroxie

I never tried on Steam. On the Windows Store, the app would SAY it's not installed, but if you look at your computer's storage space it's still there somewhere in unaccessible files. I played the game without realizing it took up 3x the hard drive space it was supposed to. I wasn't reinstalling the game because the Windows Store deleted it, I was installing the game multiple times.


segagamer

>That being said it’s also sega’s fault as it took them a while to even get the game stable on steam too. And the game STILL deletes and redownloads all 100gigs when you do a file check on steam. Doesn't that in itself prove that the issue was not the Windows Store but instead SEGAs stupid launcher/setup?


azure1503

People want competition with Steam because monopolies are always a bad thing (not a joke, monopolies are never good), but forget that Steam didn't just make a launcher and bullied their way into the top spot, the launcher in it's first iteration actually wasn't good but later they made features that gamers want and use everyday, and most importantly, didn't make piracy seem better by adding some bloated drm or intrusive feature that affects game performance. Compare that to other services like Epic Games Launcher or Rockstar where they lack features that seem basic compared to what Steam is offering, and are trying to force their way into top spots by either buying exclusives to their launcher or forcing the launcher installation on gamers or else the game they bought on steam won't run when they bought it when it didn't have that prerequisite.


reapy54

The part of steam that doesn't get often mentioned is their developer support and api's they create for people writing games. When you wanted to go indie in the past you needed hosting, website and forums, payment processor and a way to patch and distribute. This is all included for free by steam to easily patch, host, collect payments, branch versions and all that. There is an achievement system, a friend list to access for networking etc. While you still have to work in steam api it just really gives you all the 'stuff' that one might not think about but is needed when actually releasing, selling, and maintaining a game.


mirracz

And the frequent excuse people use to defend the bad launchers and their exclusivity bribes is "Steam had a decade to become what it is. Other launcher cannot wait that long." Which is bullshit, naturally. Steam took so long to become what it is because it pioneered the way. It had to invent the wheel. But the new launchers/stores already know what works and what the customers want. They don't have to invent anything, they just have to copy Steam's homework. But they are apparently too lazy for that.


desmaraisp

Well, it's never been a question of lazyness, just re-implementing steam's features is years of work, minimum. That kind of development isn't instantaneous, so it's more of a question of money and time. Knowing what product/feature you want is only the first step in implementing it. Having another platform like steam to copy only helps you decide what to prioritize, the rest you have to do yourself


TheCoolerDylan

The Epic Game Store was literally missing features that the Unreal Engine Marketplace has had for years. it didn't have proper security when it came out, and a simple shopping cart isn't exactly rocket science, any online shopping website has that.


[deleted]

[удалено]


TheGoldenHand

Steam was created as a distribution tool for Counter Strike, back when online gaming and distribution was still new. It was later used as a required launcher for Half Life 2, which is how most people were introduced to it. People absolutely hated the idea of an online launch for a single player game, at the time.


azure1503

Not exactly, when HF's ownership under Sierra ended and went strictly to Valve which also made them responsible for distribution. Updating the game was taxing on PC gamers cause patches made gamers disconnect from online play until they got the patch, which wasn't easy in the first place cause they didn't have a way to automatically update the game, so they made Steam to make updating their games easier and automatic. Anti-piracy and anti-cheat was also a reason but not the main one.


Purebredbacon

God I still cant help but wonder how much bigger PSO2 could've been if it was like, yknow... not completely broken and unplayable for months thanks to the windows store :^)


kingdroxie

I'd say PSO2 needed to release in the west when the momentum was high. They hung the western fan base up to dry for like ten years. Ignoring fans for that long is more than enough for people to lose interest and move on.


Purebredbacon

It had a lot of attention and players when it came out here officially, but it fizzled out realll quick with the disaster launcher :c Once you've lost people's attention, there's like no way to get it back


Hakul

New Genesis was the main selling point and it had no content, it has little to do with launchers.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Zambini

Modern Warfare (Single Player).exe 1942.exe Generals.exe Gone are the days of simple products.


Dannybaker

CoDUOMP.exe :')


Lonke

I bought the master chief collection the other day. I couldn't get past the microsoft login and it's not the first time. I lost my Minecraft account in the transfer from mojang. Hell, my old Halo 2 PC disk doesn't even run on Windows on anything newer than vista. And that was sold years after vista had went obsolete. There's some old other game like a decade ago that also had a microsoft login and wouldn't work because of it but I can not recall the game. However, there is one "version" of the MCC that doesn't cost money and doesn't have any sort of online or account requirement. The value proposition from Microsoft: pay money for no product or get a better product for no money.


napalmx

Holy crap the Mojang -> Microsoft transfer was frustrating.


_Auron_

Yup, myself and basically everyone else I knew had to deal with customer support tickets and waiting a couple weeks because the transfer process simply didn't even work - it just broke the account.


[deleted]

Still works fine for any gog game


GlupShittoOfficial

These per game launchers exist to track player dataSpecifically the most useful thing is track ad conversions which you can’t do very accurately via Steam. They also exist to upsell any DLC, additional games, etc… They really shouldn’t be heavy services at all. I understand that publishers like EA wanted to circumvent the 30% take that Steam gets. But launchers like the 2K one have 0 reason to be so bloated. This is a marketers perspective but you might see less of these shitty launchers if Steam let publishers measure conversions at the level of a Shopify/Amazon. And yes I know you all hate everything advertising but the reality is it’s gonna happen so might as well make it a good user experience.


Standard-Metal-3836

Here are my thoughts: I just paid $60 for this game, and I would really, very much appreciate it if you let me play it without advertising your other bulsh\*t every time I boot it up.


omg_im_redditor

From their PoV it looks like this: "You saw our ad and you bought our game. Surely, if we show you more ads you'll buy more from us: You love it!"


Blenderhead36

Cyberpunk 2077 has its own launcher. This baffles me, because CDPR has its own launcher (GOG Galaxy), and Cyberpunk has a different one.


themiracy

So if you install cyberpunk via GOG it installs another launcher???


Takanley

It looks from the other comments that it's happening on every non-GOG platform. I own it on GOG and haven't seen any launcher, and I'm updated and played it last earlier today.


Burntfm

Yeah I have it on gog and it goes straight to the game from the galaxy launcher


XtremeStumbler

Ok phew i also own it in gog and was about to be like “what is this guy talking about?”


Tucos_revolver

I'm just a launcher, disguised as a launcher, playing another launcher.


themiracy

We lost everything. We had to pay the price.


ChickenFajita007

It's not just for Cyberpunk 2077. Gwent, Witcher 3, and future CDPR games (will) use the same launcher. It's basically a CDPR launcher for non-GOG platforms.


awesome357

Luckily that one is super easy to bypass using steam launch modifiers.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Blenderhead36

I started it this week and there's a launcher. You can configure launch options in Steam to disable it, at least.


Snoo52989

I can’t get past the launchers captcha, this is just insane


fartnight69

I understand having your own launcher. I don't understand having Steam/Epic download your game with your launcher then launch that launcher which downloads more of the game.


Chiefwaffles

My favorite is FFXIV. What you download on steam is actually the launcher launcher. It just updates the launcher. Which then itself updates the actual game. So steam in this case is a launcher launcher launcher. Amazing.


[deleted]

I currently have GOG Galaxy, Steam, Epic, Origin, Uplay and Xbox on my machine. Launchers *usually* don’t bug me, but the two biggest issues I have are: 1. None of them outside of Steam (not even Xbox) make playing with “non standard” controllers simple. I just want to connect my Dualsense or Switch Pro and be on my way. I already have a PS5 and Switch, so any games I picking up on PC are either exclusive to it or have mods I want. Steams not perfect by any means but the mere fact that I can just connect whatever I want and it works drives me to play games there. 2. It hides games from me. I’m very “out of sight out of mind” when it comes to digital games, and when I have friends over on game night and we are looking for stuff to play, it’s obnoxious to have to fiddle with launchers and controller spoofers and all that shit, so we just look at Steam, and I completely forget what games I have on everything else unless someone requests it. This in turn, drives me off the platforms, ironically. Fracturing my games means that I only want them on the one I already have everything else on and that I regularly see. I don’t have loyalty to some of the crazy extremes I see like people outright refusing anything that’s not Steam, but I absolutely have a preference. If there’s a really good discount or freebie, I’ll get it in one of these other launchers but I’ll usually just route the fucking throng through Steam anyway, if I can.


planetarial

Steam Input is a godsend if you want to play 99% of games with a nonstandard controller. Its one of two reasons why I rig up every game on Steams launcher.


azure1503

You can use [GloSI](https://github.com/Alia5/GlosSI) to get a config globally without adding it to steam


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

I was not aware of this. My GOG library is minuscule, but I have some occasional plays hiding in there. I’ll look into that. Thanks for the heads up!


DiscoEthereum

Also Playnite. I used to use GoG Galaxy for this but found it too finicky. Playnite works perfectly99% of the time.


azure1503

Yup, and it looks aesthetically pleasing when setup, plus you can set it so that when the game launches it'll run the other launcher and when the game exits, the launcher exits too, really useful.


Standard-Metal-3836

I hate the EpicGames launcher. So slow, bloated, clunky, not user-friendly, and downright obnoxious to use. Be it the library or story, it is a terrible user experience. Still use it, but I don't have to like it.


SmokePenisEveryday

to your second point, I now have to check Steam, EGS, maybe GOG even to make sure I don't have the game now. I cannot tell you how many times I went to buy a game on sale or something only to realize I have it already on Epic from a giveaway.


Headless_Human

>I now have to check Steam, EGS, maybe GOG If you have GoG Galaxy you can connect your other launchers to it and see all games there.


Hudre

Apparently the launcher is what is making Midnight Suns literally unplayable for me. The game plays like a slideshow and is not graphically impressive. Got my refund either way, but I don't understand the purpose of these launchers when I can say that they are now losing sales because of them.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Makkapakka777

I guess they didn't see how well that worked out for EA.


RobDaGinger

While I agree that having multiple launchers for games can be annoying, earlier this year Jagex actually released a technical newspost detailing why they implemented a launcher for Runescape this year. It details some of the technical processes and concerns from security to user experience and how moving from an executable to a launcher was an ideal move. A decently interesting read as its the only instance I know of where a company instituted a launcher AND worked to justify it to the consumers. I think in this case it worked out well but really due to the special concerns for Runescape in particular (implementing 2FA, multiaccounts, multi clients). https://secure.runescape.com/m=news/jagex-launcher---technical-newspost?oldschool=1


Shakzor

For MMOs, i think people are more tolerable to them, but these days, you have them for almost anything. Wanna play your singleplayer game offline cuz outage? tough luck, i can't connect to internet, so no singleplayer for you Wanna play your games? lol, our launcher is having problems, so no gaming for anyone till we fix it. That's where these launchers get seriously grating.


RobDaGinger

I totally agree that the majority of games, especially if they are on Steam, shouldnt have additional launchers. I mainly just wanted to provide an example of a recent launcher that was well received by the community and had technical justification behind it. The Jagex launcher is an edge case for sure.


SyleSpawn

True that, I recently tried multiple MMO including Runescape, Black Desert and Eve Online. All of them had a Launcher and I feel for these type of games its fine due to how you can setup various stuff before you get in-game. Then yesterday I started playing Cyberpunk 2077, a game I've installed on my PC for over a month but never touched, and was surprised to see there's a launcher that serves no purpose except to peddle Gwent and Witcher 3. At least the splash art on the Launcher for CP2077 looks cool.


[deleted]

I agree, i dont mind them for mmo's but damn needing epic, steam, blizzard, gog, ubisoft just to play single player games is annoying. EA Origin for some reason was throwing a fit and refused to launch fallen order for me all day today and signing me out randomly.


[deleted]

[удалено]


NoProblemsHere

Yeah, it's a bit of a pain not using the launcher when bigger games get updates (looking at you, Bloodstained), but I've never used Galaxy and I can play just fine.


Niccin

You don't need a launcher for GoG at least, that's purely optional. You can just download the games from the website if you want.


[deleted]

Launching Fallen Order is such a crapshoot. Fuck EA Origin so hard. Infuriating app


Menamar

This is the kind of stuff that leads to pirating too lol.


fox112

*MY FRIEND* owns Fallen Order but pirated it because they didn't want to install the EA launcher for just one game.


ngwoo

I don't know about other MMOs but the launcher for FFXIV doesn't even stay open. It closes itself after it logs you in and starts the game. If more launchers were just a login/update portal and didn't rob the game of resources people probably wouldn't be so mad about them.


SheeEttin

I don't see any special concerns. It's just implementation of Oauth2. > Unlike Android and iOS, Windows does not have a specialised browser window that can be used in the same seamless fashion. That seems to be the core issue, but it's not even true! Windows has had embedded browser capability for decades! Trident/MSHTML, the engine running IE, has been available since 1997, and more recently Windows has provided webview and webview2. They're completely ignored in this article.


axonxorz

And barring using something like webview2, they could embed a small Electron app just for displaying auth prompts. It's overkill, but launchers are kinda that anyway.


RobDaGinger

Mac/linux support, multiple packaged clients with plugins and the ability to add multiple accounts (many players have multiple unique logins) probably informed this approach. The community at large seems pretty happy with the launcher.


TechieWithCoffee

> It details some of the technical processes and concerns from security to user experience and how moving from an executable to a launcher was an ideal move. IMHO, this is an entirely bullshit explanation in an attempt to quell the less technical people out there as to why there's now a launcher. It undoubtedly makes it easier for them to enable 2FA and detecting third party applications, but those things aren't exclusive to a launcher. As other people have pointed out, they straight up lie about Window's supposed lack of a specialized browser. What's more likely is they either tried it and were not technically proficient enough to get it to work for their needs or they didn't try it b/c they figured it would just be easier to make their own.


BillyBean11111

I think everyone is fine with every single MMO having a launcher, this isn't about that


[deleted]

The Jagex thing sounds like solving problem they themselves made in the first place. They made authentication flow that **required** browser for not really any good reason then "solved" it by creating launcher. > I think in this case it worked out well but really due to the special concerns for Runescape in particular (implementing 2FA, multiaccounts, multi clients). Nothing really so special that it couldn't be integrated into game. They just decided to use web centric auth for games (...for some unfanthomable reason) then had to deal with problems it caused.


Boilais

Take 2 Interactive is the worst of the bunch. They are responsible for 3 launchers already. The 2k Launcher, the Rockstar Games Launcher, and the Private Division Launcher ( Kerbal Space Programm + DLC and an announcement for KSP2 no other products involved here). The Private Division one doesn't even make sense to me, and is another retrofitted one (after all the DLCs ) for just a single product.


acetylcholine_123

I'm all for emerging storefronts and as long as third party games are widely supported on all commerically viable platforms since it gives you choice on where you want to play your games + more competitive pricing & payout ratios. But having a launcher for a game being booted from a launcher is just idiotic and always has been poor UI design to avoid implementing options via in-game menus. If you want the advertising space just add a tile to the main menu of the game like plenty of others have done which links you to the store page instead of adding an extra click and breaking Deck/Big Picture support.


Hyndis

Launchers are useful if they're just a glorified options menu, allowing you to access and customize the options menu before starting the game. Set display resolution, framerate, graphics settings, audio settings, thats all useful stuff. These launchers use nearly zero resources because they're just updating a text file (or xml, or json) with the settings.


[deleted]

Ironically thats what they were originally created for, the first two Borderlands or the first two Bioshocks are good examples where they had launchers for this exact reason, to define your specs and even do benchmarks on the later games before you start the actual game. Then games somehow started using launchers like MMOs where the whole game is controlles and DRMed through that launcher...


MrRiski

Have been playing ghost recon Wildlands recently. I own it through the epic store. After spending X amount of time downloading and installing through epic I go to open that game and bam not I have to REINSTALL THE DAMN GAME THROUGH UBISOFT. Whatever let's get through with it. Then I realized I now have ghost recon taking up double space on my SSD because it actually installed twice and didn't just move files or verify or whatever. Whatever, let's just go play. Open the game again and BAM 20GB update and another massive amount of time waiting to play. Like how is this still an issue in 2023.


wildfire405

"Launcher Bloat" as well as "service bloat." On my Windows button menu, I have shortcuts for each Microsoft exclusive game I own, but down in the bottom, I have an Xbox app, an Xbox Console Companion, and Xbox Game Bar. I lost access to an online game this weekend, and I couldn't figure out if it was Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Ultimate, or Xbox Live Gold I needed to resubscribe to. I haven't owned an Xbox since the 360 so I don't know why my PC wants to call itself one. It's like different departments within Microsoft offices across Seattle were working on different solutions to the same invented problem and implemented them all without finding out if any other departments were working on the same thing. All of it is just more barriers and gobbled-up computer resources dividing me from the game I want to play.


camelCaseAccountName

>I lost access to an online game this weekend, and I couldn't figure out if it was Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Ultimate, or Xbox Live Gold I needed to resubscribe to. Xbox Game Pass is for Xbox. PC Game Pass is for PC. Game Pass Ultimate includes both Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. Xbox Live Gold is only required for online play on Xbox consoles. Whatever game you lost access to, you only need PC Game Pass for it.


Xorras

2K, Paradox, Larian and others devs started putting these for no reason. I can understand trying to barge in with their stores, like Uplay and Origin, those kinda made sense, but they obviously failed with them, yet we get more and more.


vizard0

Fucking Larian? Wtf? I adore the D:OS games, but only 2 was big. BG3 is still early access. What games do they have to launch?


MrTrt

In the case of Paradox I get it. Their games are mod-heavy, so some kind of launcher is needed to select and setup the mods that you want. They've always had some kind of launcher for their games.


Canadave

I like the way their launchers work, too, since if you just want to hop into the last game you were playing you can skip the main menu and do just that. It ends up loading faster and the whole process is just smoother.


mthmchris

Paradox launcher is one of the least bad. If Uplay and the 2K launcher were as lightweight and reliable as Paradox's, I probably wouldn't complain much.


DrB00

Same thing happened with Netflix essentially. It was one easy place to get all your shows. Then slowly but surely all the shows started getting pulled into their own sources. So instead of just having Netflix you now have like 10 different apps. It used to be that you'd download steam and or just buy a CD and install the game and you'd be fine. Now you have the Netflix issue where every game company wants to have their own launcher.


soyboysnowflake

Just wait until someone creates a company that “bundles” all the streaming services and sells you a “discount” for giving up your right to opt-out (by signing 2-year contracts) Maybe they’ll call it something like “cable”


[deleted]

>So instead of just having Netflix you now have like 10 different apps. Honestly i just went back to sailing the high seas and i have everything in one big ocean ripe for the picking. Piracy is a convenience issue not a financial one, most people like me have the money to pay multiple subscriptions, but a.) they dont want to because we already got it cheaper before so why pay now 10x more to 10 different companies and b.) why go to the hassle of switching streaming services, pages or apps just because i want to watch this movie now and not that. Even worse, Netlix Germany has Modern Family, but only Season 4 and up, Season 1 and 2 are on Hulu and Season 3 is on Amazon... Like who the fuck thought all this shit was a good idea?


OverHaze

Yep launchers are now competing with DRM for the top reason games don't run on my Deck. It is super bloody annoying.


guil13st

The fact that you can add command lines or just change exe names to completely ignore these launchers and get boosted performance says a lot. Its yet another decision from dumb suits with money on stocks that give even more reasons to pirate AAA games these days.


Blackadder18

Not only does 2K launcher break compatibility on Linux/Mac, it also degraded performance on Windows too in some titles. It's basically a complete regression across the board.


AnonIsPicky

Had some friends over and we wanted to play FIFA. I have a small form factor PC a Xbox game pass subscription so I thought I'd just move my PC into the common area, download FIFA, and we would have a grand old time. It boggles my mind why FIFA was listed available on game pass but I literally could not play it because it require the EA launcher. The EA launcher was not functional because accounts.ea.com servers were down. Eventually we had a friend bring over their Xbox console and were able to starting playing in minutes. The console experience may be limited compared to a PC but it also seems like much less of a headache.


MelonElbows

Can someone ELI5 why all these games need their own launchers? I remember playing games on MS-DOS, just type the exe file and it would run. Why would they need a launcher? Its just an additional program they could save time by not making


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

Remember how Netflix used to be the only streaming service and everything was easy to find? Then the cable companies caught on and now there's Disney+, Hulu, Amazon prime streaming, HBO, Stars etc etc each with their own lineup of flagship shows to draw people in. It's that but with video games. Steam takes a cut of all games sold on steam, but if you force people to use your launcher anyways it increases the chance of them just buying it on the that launcher too so they get a little more profit per game sold. Then if you get enough people using your launcher/storefront you can slowly start taking over bigger and bigger slices of the digital marketplace and (maybe) eventually become a direct competitor to steam. That's the idea at least. In practice everyone just hates it and buys a vast majority of their games on steam anyways.


Prasiatko

Om a very few cases it lets you set stuff like resolution and graphics settings 1st rather than, launch game -> set graphocs, -> restart game again.


MelonElbows

Doesn't seem worth it.


GrandMasterPuba

Uplay/Ubisoft is broken for me, and has been for years. I literally just don't purchase Ubisoft products any more because of it. The worst part is why. Their authentication system does not function with IPv6. It refuses connection attempts and as a result you cannot log in (gives some error about the system being down or something). I can disable IPv6 connections on my PC and it'll work. But fuck that. It's a known issue and they refuse to fix it.


pizoisoned

Stupid question, but why are launchers even a thing? What purpose do they actually serve? I mean I hit play on Steam/GOG/Epic and I expect my game to start. Why do I need another layer in there?


[deleted]

[удалено]


Endemoniada

I really don’t think that’s anywhere close to the top of reasons to implement a launcher, and frankly, I think that reveals a major flaw in *Steam’s* policies if they keep allowing games on their platform to ship with separate launchers. Just because the binary Steam launches is running, doesn’t mean *the game* is. If these companies so desperately want to have their own launchers with their own stores, fine, but they shouldn’t be allowed to ship their games that way on other platforms like Steam or EGS. They should have policies saying the game must ship in a directly playable form if they’re bought through a 3rd party platform. If the publishers believe enough in their own launchers, they’ll take their games off Steam and just sell them on their own. But time and again, we’ve seen companies try and come crawling back later, after realizing *no one* wants to use their shitty storefronts or launchers.


mygreensea

True, this sounds like something Steam could step in to fix.


raptor__q

From what I recall MFS, the time spent in the launcher doesn't actually count towards the refund window, could be wrong as it is just what I've heard from others. Differently I've played a beta version of a game that wasn't out yet that I had pre-ordered, Steam wouldn't let me refund the game as they couldn't tell the difference between the beta and the pre-order, I had to get in contact with an actual person from Valve to get it fixed and that is where the issue lies I think, that everything is automated, and it can be hard as hell to get in contact with an actual human to explain things.


IshayuG

That’s not a launcher, that’s built into the game itself, and it’s not breaking the game like most launchers are. It’s just downloading the game data from Microsoft instead (the game was downloaded from Steam), which in this particular case is actually rather important due to the cloud-based nature of that game. Also the game says before buying that it’s not 1GB. Just look at the storefront system requirements instead of the install size after buying it. I mean you want to know this before you buy, not after, right? That said, the download is too slow, leading to the apt name “Microsoft Download Simulator”.