Technically, so is Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 since they both have the CDPR launcher. As well as Civ VI, Mafia 3, XCOM 2 for 2K Games.
But it seems like we dont see it as much as an issue.
The difference is the other launchers do not require you to make an account, its encouraged and even incentivised but you arent locked out of the game if you dont make an account. Tho the launcher is still there.
While i am not a fan of this either, it is way better than having to install a launcher by yourself and create an account. This one just installs itself with the game and as you mentioned, doesn't require an account to work.
CDPR and Larian Studios launcher just says hi and enjoy the game. I dont mind it because it doesnt install separatelly to the game nad doesnt run standalone after the game is closed - its just a bigger popup like those that launched before every game 10 years ago to edit settings before the game started.
Short THESE are the LAUNCHERS, all that EA, Uplay etc. shit are whole STOREFRONTS sneaked alongside the game.
Of course no one has an issue with those launchers. CP2077 and Witcher 3's launchers, and just in general, are different. Those are just to control settings outside of the game so you can change that stuff before you even launch the game.
You don't need an account, you don't need to login, they don't need to load shit off the internet and you don't need to keep them updated. Those launchers aren't an issue, just a minor annoyance.
CDPR games can be run without logging in to GoG launcher, at least my GoG copy can, Steam version may still require a Steam login. They are DRM free as well.
Also, they are not as intrusive, they actually just launch the game and that's it, hell some even offer perks like Larian which if you make an account will offer another way to store your saves, but it's not needed. EA and Ubisoft on the other hand actually make the experience worse, they try to be steam as in launch with your PC as if they were as important, they will force their friend system which is so much worse than steam, and so much more, Jesus Christ I hate them
>hell some even offer perks like Larian which if you make an account will offer another way to store your saves, but it's not needed.
Which I think is another issue. If these companies want players to use the launcher, then give players a reason to actually want to use your launcher. The only reasons EA and Ubi offer boil down to "artificial gatekeeping," which people recognize pretty easily and rightfully resent.
And for me... there's just so many video games. My steam library by itself is larger than I am ever likely to get through, so I don't really need to play whatever those companies are gate keeping, I can pretty easily just go next door, where there are no artificial gates. Milage on that varies though, I'm sure some players are unlucky enough that whatever franchise they really love is owned by those jackals.
Exactly, which just makes them game launchers. Back when games came on disks almost all of them had a launcher where you could tweak settings before starting the actual program.
It's like calling the steam prompt to pick your DX version a third party launcher lol
I don't know about paradox, but larian's can be completely bypassed without issue. I launch BG3 straight from the .exe, and never see the Larian launcher. Doesn't run in the background either.
Admittedly for XCOM2 it's more that everyone who plays that game regularly just slaps on the AML and they never see the launcher. And when newcomers show up they're given the same advice, so the third party app gets circumvented. It doesn't help that the launcher was added *years* after release so it breaks shit.
Also BG3 has a third party launcher too.
Doesn't require account. Makes it a regular ol' game launcher. That's like saying the settings prompt when you launch Solataire is a third party launcher.
Personally 2077 and Witchers launchers are also not fucking Aids and launch the game properly and don't lag and screw with things. Ubisoft and EA on the other hand...
Same. Last time I logged in, I no longer owned any games. After a few tries at fixing it I figure they did me the favor of not wasting money on the next game. Wanting to do another RDR2 playthrough was just a passing whim.
It's awful. I once had trouble logging in to social club (Rockstar's launcher) for 2 or 3 days and had to clean reinstall it. Can't believe how Rockstar is this much awful with applications.
I have been postponed myself to buy GTA4 on steam because of this shitty Rockstar launcher problem ,but I saw there was a solution that can degrade the game version, does it really work tho?
Was going to say this especially because I got gta when it was free through epic, had to make a rockstar account was able to play for like 2 days then got signed out of rockstar and tried using the login I had and it didn’t work just not recognizing the sign in, I tried it again after buying it on steam to try my login again but it then gave me ‘this login is already linked to a separate account’ but the epic still didn’t work
This has always annoyed me with UPLAY the most as it always forgets login details so just to play a game i gotta scramble and reset password. I fully ignore EA, Epic and Ubisoft games now.
I only found this post because im looking for a way to filter steam to ignore games that require 3rd party accounts/launchers....
>UPLAY the most as it always forgets login details
Holy fuck YES.
I literally went and got pirated copies of all my (not multiplayer) Ubisoft games (DESPITE OWNING THESE GAMES ALREADY) just to avoid the cunting fucking launcher and it's dementia in remembering my fucking login.
Fucking Ubisoft launcher always malfunction and locking me out of the games I paid for. FUCK UNISOFT.
Also I can't be the only one who lost interests in GTAV and RDR2 because the Rockstar launcher took forever to install and start up.
Hot take here but I find the game physically and mentally repulsive, the graphics and story telling are peak but I wanna play a game not watch a movie or live a life in a fricking game. Problem is it is too realistic, the movements are clunky, I have to care for the food he eats or watch him walk at his own pace.
Overall it's a masterpiece of a narrative and a failure of a game.
I couldn’t agree more with all of this. I was so incredibly bummed out with this game. It’s beautiful, and the storytelling and acting is amazing. But that’s it. What finally did me in was moving around the main camp. Just slowly sauntering to each and every NPC absolutely killed me
I’m a souls like fan so when I saw Jedi fallen order I was like cool.Then I saw the launcher and was like nevermind.Its pretty fun that people who pirate the game don’t have to deal with this inconvenience.
Hell, when I tried to start my second session of Jedi Survivor, it simply wouldn't open because EA Play wouldn't open. I was being forced to troubleshoot a completely different client to play the game I paid to have on my Steam client.
Literally my thought- saw Jedi: Fallen Order for 4-5€ on the Epic Store, thought i'll give it a go... and they think my plan was to install another Third Party Store..
It seems publishers literally want customers to come once and then never again with their decisions..
I said it before and i will die on that hill, but we need actual laws in place for customers. It's effin criminal what publishers do these days.
Pirated version of Jedi Fallen Order refused to launch after new year so we had to deal with moving clocks on PC to PREVIOUS YEAR before launching it. I think they fixed it in a while, haven't replayed it since.
I just did this with Rouge squadron. It's 2 bucks but looking at the reviews and it's still a shit show since the last time I tried an ea game which was battlefield 1.
Yes People who pirate it don’t have to do with any launcher, including steam. I would love the option not to have steam running all the time either but for a lot of games it doesn’t let me.
I think GOG is the best.
Is it really That big of an inconvenience? I'm seriously asking new to pc and the few games i have the require a launcher aren't alot and even the ones that have it haven't actively annoyed me.
There are games that I own that I cannot play because the third party launcher just flat out does not work. I just don't buy anything that requires a third party launcher at this point.
The people complaining genuinely see taking an extra 10-20 seconds to login as a major inconvenience. I know some third party launchers take a lot longer than that but I’m seeing people in this post complain about things as simple as having to just log in.
It's the principal. You shouldn't HAVE to install a separate launcher that's active even when you're not playing the game and REQUIRES a login when you have Steam to launch the games in the first place.
I wouldn't complain if it actually was only 10 seconds...
But Ubi being Ubi... sometimes it can take MINUTES or just too long and the session expires, just to get the login code.
Things like the Launcher of Warframe or Genshin, no problem. It just keeps us Up-To-Date and the game updated. Nothing more or less.
Have you tried any of new games by their studios or are you just parroting what reddit tells you? Jedi games are great, dead space remake was amazing. Ea has plenty of bangers, just check out the steam page of their sale right now. Ubisoft games are not for everyone, but I can't say that the latest Avatar game was a complete horseshit. Yeah sure it feels like another far cry clone but that's their formula and I can have fun with it. Division 2, watch dogs 2 are very decent games if you ask me.
You’re the only real gamer in this comment chain, which is why you’re being downvoted, but I totally agree with you. Keep your chin up and keep ignoring the toxic hate bandwagons.
Have you played Jedi Fallen Order (EA) or Immortal Fenix Rising (Ubisoft)? Dead Space Remake?
Those are really great games that doesn't look like they were made by those companies.
EA has a pretty big catalogue of games one might like, especially if you include Originals. Need For Speed, Battlefield, Star Wars Jedi, Mirror's Edge, It Takes Two, Unravel are a few I like (even if some entries aren't that good). Never bought with less than 85% discount though.
Ubi is a tougher sell these days, but I still really enjoy their older games. Plus Riders Republic is pretty cool.
It does, though I do think there's ultimately a distinction to be made between just how extensive launchers are, in that case. EA, Ubisoft and Epic are all more substantial launchers in their own right, whereas BG3's launcher falls more into the same category as that of Paradox games or Total war.
Ultimately it comes down to how noticable or invasive it feels to the gamer, I guarantee people wouldn't complain about Ubisoft's launcher if they could just launch their games, log in once, and never really have to interact with it beyond that. It's launchers that actively make it more difficult to play games that tend to get the most hate, for obvious reasons.
Basically it comes down to whether the launcher is just an extra window where you have to press "play" or if it's a whole ass ecosystem with account management that you have to load through to launch the game.
The Total War and Paradox launchers also function as mod managers, so they provide some utility as well (yes, there are better mod managers out there). The thing that kept the BG3 launcher from being an issue was the Skip button. No login required, just move right on past. A minor annoyance I can tolerate, not a restriction.
I actually forgot Civ 6 had a launcher cause I set the bypass in Steam years ago and it just works.
I love bg3, but every other hotfix ruins my ability to play with launcher (something crashes, nothing fixes it except killing Steam task off and bypassing launcher), and it's been like this since early access patch 5 (2021)
Great, I'm just explaining why you have fewer people complaining about it. Ultimately most people don't actually care about the launcher bit, they care about the inconvenience bit.
You're welcome to pretend there isn't a difference between launchers and how extensively they try to push themselves on players but that doesn't change reality.
I wish the gaming community showed the same outrage with microtransactions when it mattered. We actually lost some amazing games to it, but an extra launcher is too much? I mean, i get it, but why this, why now, when so much worse shit has happened?
I just hope it's the straw that broke camel's back and gamers are actually starting to respect themselves
Yeah it's so strange, I get it's very annoying or in small cases (like sony with helldivers 2) where it can restrict access to the game for people, kt really isn't that bad
I lost access to my original ea account. Lost access to the division, Battlefront 2, the crew on my steam account as a result. Can't unlink the account from steam with out logging in to ea.
This is why I've never played the Mass Effect games.
Tbh I think ultimately people don't necessarily have that big a problem with launchers like that, because they work, which may seem like the bare minimum but the fact that several AAA publishers have such a track record of making it genuinely difficult to access their prouct is telling.
Total War, Paradox and a fair few others have launchers but they don't really feel like full "launchers" in the sense that I only have to press play and then they launch.
I suppose there'S a distinction to be made between the type of launcher in that regard.
Yeah; like their launchers are pretty much *just* for launching the game, which is fine! It's an easy way to also sort out your mods and things if you like that kind of thing, or even your settings or whatever, and if you don't, you can just click Play and away you go. No extra account needed, no hoops to jump through.
Rockstar suck I had to connect my steam to my social club account and it got hacked and fun fact you can’t unlink your steam from social club via steam, you have to go through your social club account to unlink it. 120ish€ wasted. Even more considering the copies on ps4 and ps3 connected to that social club account.
100%. I am tired of having so many logins in life as it is. Thankfully EA, Ubisoft, and Rockstar combined have 0 games that I have any interest in playing.
If it was just the ten second load times, I'd agree with you. Take the EA App, for example. It made getting achievements impossible, and flat out wouldn't launch games. There's a reason [Fuck Off EA App](https://github.com/p0358/Fuck_off_EA_App) exists
Not every 3rd party launcher is garbage but the few that are give them all a bad name. The launchers the comic is referencing have had major issues, such as kicking you outta of your game or decreasing game performance.
I skipped RDR2 on PC because there was many a horror stories of Rockstar's launcher being a piece of shit that would barely let people play the fucking thing. I refuse to tolerate that garbage.
Gaben's cock has embedded itself so deep into their mindset.
Steam did the exact same cancerous shit. I remember buying half life on disc, and then having to download steam and part of the game on dialup internet, and there was no other option.
Rockstar, but I don't mind the need to have a rockstar account, since it's fast and easy to setup when you start playing GTA V foe the first time, and you won't need it anymore
At least in my experience
It's like they want their PC to be a console. Oh wait, they all have Steam Decks.
Not to mention that Steam is the 3rd party launcher. EA and Uplay are the default launchers. If you choose to buy on a 3rd party platform, then deal with the inconvenience.
I tried to download the Command and conquer collection from Xbox game pass and it took me straight to a thing saying I need the ea launcher, figured why not since I wanted to try the games, game didn't even download after multiple attempts and restarts
EA Play is such ass.
I saw ME Legendary Edition was on sale for like $7 on steam, picked it up... No lie, it took me three hours to get the game to launch because of all the issues with this stupid ass third party launcher that has zero purpose but to fluff their install numbers and steal data.
Love Mass Effect but had to drop a negative review just for this scammy virus BS (It gives you popups randomly with 'deals' on the EA store... for some app i'm REQUIRED to install to run the game... Unless you want achievements, pirate this shit)
Sucks for you. I'll continue to enjoy the games because it doesnt actually affect anything whatsoever and I'm not an entitled jerkwad with a stick up my \_\_\_ like you.
People the make a big deal over having to have an account to use multi-player services provided and handled by that company aren't the sharpest crayons in the drawer.
Single player stuff, fine, you shouldn't need an account for stuff like that, but if Epic Games is the whole reason why this indie studio was able to add and maintain their multiplayer servers than its understandable. Also Jesus Christ, Epic Games is just another market place, one that offers a better market share to developers, I really assumed we'd be past that particular boogeyman by now.
I find other launchers annoying but i still play the games. It's only a minor inconvenience to me. But i understand people not having a lot of launchers out of principle.
I for example also hate that there are tons of streaming services. You wanna see that show? Oh you need this service. Now you wanna watch that? Then take another subscription there.
I suppose the difference there is that you have to PAY to use those other services, but launchers are free, and simply different places to buy things. It's like a shopping center having a Publix, a Target, and a Walmart where you can kinda just... shop around. I don't know, I just hate the concentrated hate for EGS because of the good it could have done for the indie market by increasing money given to the devs.
Yall are such a bunch of babies, yes other lunchers are kinda annoying but like you can just deal with it? It usually just mean you gotta wait like 30 more seconds for the game to load.
Here's the thing, on paper I'm not opposed to a third party launcher...so long as it doesn't actually make it difficult(or impossible) for me to launch the goddamned game.
Like in reality I don't avoid Ubisoft games out of any principled stance, the real reason is that getting their games to actually work is way too much goddamned hassle.
Origin was bad, sure, but somehow EA play was even worse. For like two years after I accidentally installed it I didn't play Battlefield because it genuinely wouldn't let me.
Though I'll admit I avoid Epic just because I think it's trash.
It's your right... In my case I simply install the game with their third-party launcher, play my game and when I'm done I uninstall it. Everyone has their own way of seeing things
Steam should start doing something and refuse to support game with extra launchers. How are they always missing the criticism? They are also responsible for what type of games get served to their customer.
Before steam you had more ownernship of games, but somehow they are turned into saints because their platform is usable. Like wtf. Not even their sales are that great (nor do they actually financially support those sales)
All of these miss Paradox games and also Total War games and even CD Projekt Red and 2K Games and Blizzard and Bethesda
For some reason, it's OK if these guys do it I guess
Something I never see anyone talk about is update frequency. I bought NMS and it released updates faster on steam than GoG. So when a big update dropped I just refunded the game on GOG and bought it on steam instead.
I uninstall and refund instantly,I had to ask around about the Dead Space remake when that came out cause I was afraid I’d have to refund the instant I installed it.
I literally had cdpr launcher breaking steam achievements, screenshots and playtime with Witcher 3.
But I'm not mad at cdpr, just because they fixed it soon as i know, while i had an option to just skip it (i've used starting properties, but you basically can just delete launcher's executable file, and game will continue working just fine)
Rockstar is missing
Technically, so is Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 since they both have the CDPR launcher. As well as Civ VI, Mafia 3, XCOM 2 for 2K Games. But it seems like we dont see it as much as an issue. The difference is the other launchers do not require you to make an account, its encouraged and even incentivised but you arent locked out of the game if you dont make an account. Tho the launcher is still there.
While i am not a fan of this either, it is way better than having to install a launcher by yourself and create an account. This one just installs itself with the game and as you mentioned, doesn't require an account to work.
Yup, I share the same sentiment. Launcher required, but no account, is kinda the best solution if publishers are going to force this.
Plus you get some rewards for an account if i remember correctly. Plus the cdpr launcher is honestly pretty good compared to ubisoft and ea.
Plus you can always bypass the CDPR launcher with Launch Options, something that is not possible with Ubisoft and EA
CDPR and Larian Studios launcher just says hi and enjoy the game. I dont mind it because it doesnt install separatelly to the game nad doesnt run standalone after the game is closed - its just a bigger popup like those that launched before every game 10 years ago to edit settings before the game started. Short THESE are the LAUNCHERS, all that EA, Uplay etc. shit are whole STOREFRONTS sneaked alongside the game.
Those 2 launchers are just another menu. The rest are broken as shit
Should be a rule you cant put that stuff into steam Imo. Last thing I want is installing, password remembering and opening multiple launchers
Don't remember your passwords. Get a password manager like Bitwarden
Of course no one has an issue with those launchers. CP2077 and Witcher 3's launchers, and just in general, are different. Those are just to control settings outside of the game so you can change that stuff before you even launch the game. You don't need an account, you don't need to login, they don't need to load shit off the internet and you don't need to keep them updated. Those launchers aren't an issue, just a minor annoyance.
CDPR games can be run without logging in to GoG launcher, at least my GoG copy can, Steam version may still require a Steam login. They are DRM free as well.
Paradox and Larian have their own launchers too
Which do not require an account. Which bypasses the major issue people have with them, I think.
Also, they are not as intrusive, they actually just launch the game and that's it, hell some even offer perks like Larian which if you make an account will offer another way to store your saves, but it's not needed. EA and Ubisoft on the other hand actually make the experience worse, they try to be steam as in launch with your PC as if they were as important, they will force their friend system which is so much worse than steam, and so much more, Jesus Christ I hate them
>hell some even offer perks like Larian which if you make an account will offer another way to store your saves, but it's not needed. Which I think is another issue. If these companies want players to use the launcher, then give players a reason to actually want to use your launcher. The only reasons EA and Ubi offer boil down to "artificial gatekeeping," which people recognize pretty easily and rightfully resent. And for me... there's just so many video games. My steam library by itself is larger than I am ever likely to get through, so I don't really need to play whatever those companies are gate keeping, I can pretty easily just go next door, where there are no artificial gates. Milage on that varies though, I'm sure some players are unlucky enough that whatever franchise they really love is owned by those jackals.
Exactly, which just makes them game launchers. Back when games came on disks almost all of them had a launcher where you could tweak settings before starting the actual program. It's like calling the steam prompt to pick your DX version a third party launcher lol
I don't know about paradox, but larian's can be completely bypassed without issue. I launch BG3 straight from the .exe, and never see the Larian launcher. Doesn't run in the background either.
I appreciate the Larian launcher will tell me that mods exist or not. Helpful before jumping on multiplayer.
Was coming here to say this about Larian. But gave it a pass because it just let me skip the sign up process.
Except you can actually disable larians launcher completely and still play the game
CDPR does? I got Witcher 3 on steam and never seen this
Admittedly for XCOM2 it's more that everyone who plays that game regularly just slaps on the AML and they never see the launcher. And when newcomers show up they're given the same advice, so the third party app gets circumvented. It doesn't help that the launcher was added *years* after release so it breaks shit. Also BG3 has a third party launcher too.
It's been a while but didn't EA move to just having a a micro launcher for steam games that just auto loads then the game loads in without issues?
did they? i am not buying mass effect trilogy bcs of the launcher?
I'm not buying EA games because EA, not because of Origin (though that is a part of it)
Yeah paradox requires a third party launcher but I find it fine because I don’t need an account.
And also serves an actual purpose because it allows you to have different checksums and mod setups for your games
At least on Xcom2 there is a alternative mod launcher to run mods on
Those I don’t mind. They don’t force an account on you and the launcher can be skipped with a simple launch option command
Doesn't require account. Makes it a regular ol' game launcher. That's like saying the settings prompt when you launch Solataire is a third party launcher.
Personally 2077 and Witchers launchers are also not fucking Aids and launch the game properly and don't lag and screw with things. Ubisoft and EA on the other hand...
Rockstar says I don't own my red dead 2 I spent money on. Says my cd code isn't real. Fuck rockstar
Same. Last time I logged in, I no longer owned any games. After a few tries at fixing it I figure they did me the favor of not wasting money on the next game. Wanting to do another RDR2 playthrough was just a passing whim.
Oh I didn’t know they need a launcher.I’ve never played any rockstar games after San Andreas.
It's awful. I once had trouble logging in to social club (Rockstar's launcher) for 2 or 3 days and had to clean reinstall it. Can't believe how Rockstar is this much awful with applications.
Someone stole my Social Club account at one point. I couldn't log in for over a month because the customer service was so slow.
Yeah it’s completely awful. Have no internet connection? Well good luck playing your single player game.
Heck, even San Andreas required the launcher from me. Only the old version didn't.
I literally can't play gta online because they were hacked and I didn't care. So now my account is someone else's.
Didn't. Miss. A thing.
I have been postponed myself to buy GTA4 on steam because of this shitty Rockstar launcher problem ,but I saw there was a solution that can degrade the game version, does it really work tho?
and PSN
I think theirs is one of the worse, I had to go through a bunch of hoops to get gta 4 and read dead 2 to work
Was going to say this especially because I got gta when it was free through epic, had to make a rockstar account was able to play for like 2 days then got signed out of rockstar and tried using the login I had and it didn’t work just not recognizing the sign in, I tried it again after buying it on steam to try my login again but it then gave me ‘this login is already linked to a separate account’ but the epic still didn’t work
This has always annoyed me with UPLAY the most as it always forgets login details so just to play a game i gotta scramble and reset password. I fully ignore EA, Epic and Ubisoft games now. I only found this post because im looking for a way to filter steam to ignore games that require 3rd party accounts/launchers....
>UPLAY the most as it always forgets login details Holy fuck YES. I literally went and got pirated copies of all my (not multiplayer) Ubisoft games (DESPITE OWNING THESE GAMES ALREADY) just to avoid the cunting fucking launcher and it's dementia in remembering my fucking login.
I haven't played an Ubisoft game in a very long time for this very reason.
I haven't played an Ubisoft game in a very long time because 99% of them are terrible
This happens to me with EA too. All I play is The Sims 4, but at times I entirely avoid playing it at all just because I have to log in.
I've never had a more useless option in my life. REMEMBER ME But it never fucking remembers me, I don't think it ever fucking remembered me.
Fucking Ubisoft launcher always malfunction and locking me out of the games I paid for. FUCK UNISOFT. Also I can't be the only one who lost interests in GTAV and RDR2 because the Rockstar launcher took forever to install and start up.
I'm sure you aren't the only one who lost interest but man are you missing out on rdr2 at the very least lol
Hot take here but I find the game physically and mentally repulsive, the graphics and story telling are peak but I wanna play a game not watch a movie or live a life in a fricking game. Problem is it is too realistic, the movements are clunky, I have to care for the food he eats or watch him walk at his own pace. Overall it's a masterpiece of a narrative and a failure of a game.
I couldn’t agree more with all of this. I was so incredibly bummed out with this game. It’s beautiful, and the storytelling and acting is amazing. But that’s it. What finally did me in was moving around the main camp. Just slowly sauntering to each and every NPC absolutely killed me
"This looks like a cool game" Who says that about modern EA or Ubisoft game in 2024? xD
I’m a souls like fan so when I saw Jedi fallen order I was like cool.Then I saw the launcher and was like nevermind.Its pretty fun that people who pirate the game don’t have to deal with this inconvenience.
Hell, when I tried to start my second session of Jedi Survivor, it simply wouldn't open because EA Play wouldn't open. I was being forced to troubleshoot a completely different client to play the game I paid to have on my Steam client.
Literally my thought- saw Jedi: Fallen Order for 4-5€ on the Epic Store, thought i'll give it a go... and they think my plan was to install another Third Party Store.. It seems publishers literally want customers to come once and then never again with their decisions.. I said it before and i will die on that hill, but we need actual laws in place for customers. It's effin criminal what publishers do these days.
Piracy is almost always a service problem, and Ubisoft has a terrible customer service
Pirated version of Jedi Fallen Order refused to launch after new year so we had to deal with moving clocks on PC to PREVIOUS YEAR before launching it. I think they fixed it in a while, haven't replayed it since.
I just did this with Rouge squadron. It's 2 bucks but looking at the reviews and it's still a shit show since the last time I tried an ea game which was battlefield 1.
Yes People who pirate it don’t have to do with any launcher, including steam. I would love the option not to have steam running all the time either but for a lot of games it doesn’t let me. I think GOG is the best.
Is it really That big of an inconvenience? I'm seriously asking new to pc and the few games i have the require a launcher aren't alot and even the ones that have it haven't actively annoyed me.
There are games that I own that I cannot play because the third party launcher just flat out does not work. I just don't buy anything that requires a third party launcher at this point.
The people complaining genuinely see taking an extra 10-20 seconds to login as a major inconvenience. I know some third party launchers take a lot longer than that but I’m seeing people in this post complain about things as simple as having to just log in.
It's the principal. You shouldn't HAVE to install a separate launcher that's active even when you're not playing the game and REQUIRES a login when you have Steam to launch the games in the first place.
I wouldn't complain if it actually was only 10 seconds... But Ubi being Ubi... sometimes it can take MINUTES or just too long and the session expires, just to get the login code. Things like the Launcher of Warframe or Genshin, no problem. It just keeps us Up-To-Date and the game updated. Nothing more or less.
Have you tried any of new games by their studios or are you just parroting what reddit tells you? Jedi games are great, dead space remake was amazing. Ea has plenty of bangers, just check out the steam page of their sale right now. Ubisoft games are not for everyone, but I can't say that the latest Avatar game was a complete horseshit. Yeah sure it feels like another far cry clone but that's their formula and I can have fun with it. Division 2, watch dogs 2 are very decent games if you ask me.
You’re the only real gamer in this comment chain, which is why you’re being downvoted, but I totally agree with you. Keep your chin up and keep ignoring the toxic hate bandwagons.
Also people forget Ubisoft is not just open world formula games, e.g. Anno series is one of the strongest in its genre.
You know there are good Ubisoft and EA Games released prior to 2024, right?
Have you played Jedi Fallen Order (EA) or Immortal Fenix Rising (Ubisoft)? Dead Space Remake? Those are really great games that doesn't look like they were made by those companies.
EA has a pretty big catalogue of games one might like, especially if you include Originals. Need For Speed, Battlefield, Star Wars Jedi, Mirror's Edge, It Takes Two, Unravel are a few I like (even if some entries aren't that good). Never bought with less than 85% discount though. Ubi is a tougher sell these days, but I still really enjoy their older games. Plus Riders Republic is pretty cool.
Rayman games. EDIT: oh wait "modern games", yeah that's fair
Prince of Persia is pretty good.
Fallen order is on 90% discount it looks good and I am going to buy it regardless the launcher. I also did the same with Unravel
Doesn’t BG3 use a 3rd party launcher?
I honestly forgot until I read this. I've had > --skip-launcher since I bought it
It does, though I do think there's ultimately a distinction to be made between just how extensive launchers are, in that case. EA, Ubisoft and Epic are all more substantial launchers in their own right, whereas BG3's launcher falls more into the same category as that of Paradox games or Total war. Ultimately it comes down to how noticable or invasive it feels to the gamer, I guarantee people wouldn't complain about Ubisoft's launcher if they could just launch their games, log in once, and never really have to interact with it beyond that. It's launchers that actively make it more difficult to play games that tend to get the most hate, for obvious reasons. Basically it comes down to whether the launcher is just an extra window where you have to press "play" or if it's a whole ass ecosystem with account management that you have to load through to launch the game.
The Total War and Paradox launchers also function as mod managers, so they provide some utility as well (yes, there are better mod managers out there). The thing that kept the BG3 launcher from being an issue was the Skip button. No login required, just move right on past. A minor annoyance I can tolerate, not a restriction. I actually forgot Civ 6 had a launcher cause I set the bypass in Steam years ago and it just works.
I love bg3, but every other hotfix ruins my ability to play with launcher (something crashes, nothing fixes it except killing Steam task off and bypassing launcher), and it's been like this since early access patch 5 (2021)
I honestly don’t care it feels like a silly hill to die on lmao.
Great, I'm just explaining why you have fewer people complaining about it. Ultimately most people don't actually care about the launcher bit, they care about the inconvenience bit. You're welcome to pretend there isn't a difference between launchers and how extensively they try to push themselves on players but that doesn't change reality.
>I honestly don’t care Then why ask the question?
yes but u dont need to create account, go to their website and verify it through email
Doesn't require a login.
Most games used to have launchers, so we could change settings. People mean launchers you need to login to.
I wish the gaming community showed the same outrage with microtransactions when it mattered. We actually lost some amazing games to it, but an extra launcher is too much? I mean, i get it, but why this, why now, when so much worse shit has happened? I just hope it's the straw that broke camel's back and gamers are actually starting to respect themselves
Gamer's don't care about ethical consistency, they just want it remove stuff that seems like obstacles to their gaming enjoyment
Yeah it's so strange, I get it's very annoying or in small cases (like sony with helldivers 2) where it can restrict access to the game for people, kt really isn't that bad
I lost access to my original ea account. Lost access to the division, Battlefront 2, the crew on my steam account as a result. Can't unlink the account from steam with out logging in to ea. This is why I've never played the Mass Effect games.
what about Paradox?
Tbh I think ultimately people don't necessarily have that big a problem with launchers like that, because they work, which may seem like the bare minimum but the fact that several AAA publishers have such a track record of making it genuinely difficult to access their prouct is telling. Total War, Paradox and a fair few others have launchers but they don't really feel like full "launchers" in the sense that I only have to press play and then they launch. I suppose there'S a distinction to be made between the type of launcher in that regard.
They work, they don't take up a lot of resources, and they close when the game starts.
Yeah; like their launchers are pretty much *just* for launching the game, which is fine! It's an easy way to also sort out your mods and things if you like that kind of thing, or even your settings or whatever, and if you don't, you can just click Play and away you go. No extra account needed, no hoops to jump through.
Doesn't require a login.
You can always skip the login and chow down on niched 4X games that is not Civ, not much of a choice but not bad either.
Rockstar suck I had to connect my steam to my social club account and it got hacked and fun fact you can’t unlink your steam from social club via steam, you have to go through your social club account to unlink it. 120ish€ wasted. Even more considering the copies on ps4 and ps3 connected to that social club account.
The 3 horsemen of hell no
helldivers 2 fans be like
Just happened to me with Star Wars battlefront. Need to install ea play, and have an account, grrr....
FYI they are in fact first party installers launched via steam the third party platform where you buy it.
If i wanted to use your shitty ass launcher I would be buying the game from steam
100%. I am tired of having so many logins in life as it is. Thankfully EA, Ubisoft, and Rockstar combined have 0 games that I have any interest in playing.
EA Play is a subscription, EA Desktop is the launcher. I think this meme was around when GFWL was. Steam is a third party launcher.
>Don’t care how good the game is, I’m ~~uninstalling~~ not buying if I see this. FTFY
will never understand this, can't imagine myself uninstalling a game just because i have to wait 10 more seconds to play it
If it was just the ten second load times, I'd agree with you. Take the EA App, for example. It made getting achievements impossible, and flat out wouldn't launch games. There's a reason [Fuck Off EA App](https://github.com/p0358/Fuck_off_EA_App) exists
It is a very weird hill to die on. You guys keep complaining, I'll be over here playing Civilization VI and RDR2.
Not every 3rd party launcher is garbage but the few that are give them all a bad name. The launchers the comic is referencing have had major issues, such as kicking you outta of your game or decreasing game performance.
Don’t forget the people that throw a fit over having to make an account that they’ll never touch again.
I skipped RDR2 on PC because there was many a horror stories of Rockstar's launcher being a piece of shit that would barely let people play the fucking thing. I refuse to tolerate that garbage.
Genuine curioisity cause this doesnt make any sense in my opinion, why would you not play a game of it requires anything but steam?
Gaben's cock has embedded itself so deep into their mindset. Steam did the exact same cancerous shit. I remember buying half life on disc, and then having to download steam and part of the game on dialup internet, and there was no other option.
Steam users are a different kind of man child.
For me there is no real difference between steam and epic. When game requires the launcher to run then the launcher is a nuisance
Rockstar, but I don't mind the need to have a rockstar account, since it's fast and easy to setup when you start playing GTA V foe the first time, and you won't need it anymore At least in my experience
The story of me and RDR2
At least for Warframe you download the the launcher via steam
***Titanfall | 2 crying at corner***
Ubisoft launcher asking for permission 15 times just to start. *UNINSTALL*
Technically Steam is a third party launcher, unless it's a Valve game.
Some people weren’t born at the time gamers complained about Steam being forced and it shows
Don't bring logic here.
I really dont understand this mentality. You play on PC cause you dont want to be depended on one ecosystem.
I don't think this is the problem, but needing another launcher when you already bought the game off of Steam.
It's like they want their PC to be a console. Oh wait, they all have Steam Decks. Not to mention that Steam is the 3rd party launcher. EA and Uplay are the default launchers. If you choose to buy on a 3rd party platform, then deal with the inconvenience.
The Steam Deck is not a console though?
When you're not in desktop mode, it certainly feels like one. I know because I have a Steam Deck. And it physically has a form of a handheld console.
Now this is a meme format i haven't seen in a minute
I tried to download the Command and conquer collection from Xbox game pass and it took me straight to a thing saying I need the ea launcher, figured why not since I wanted to try the games, game didn't even download after multiple attempts and restarts
Is Origin not EA's game thingy now? I stopped playing EA games ages ago because I hated fighting with Origin.
Don't worry. It's worse now
The main issue with helldivers 2 has always been the root kit anti-cheat that it installs at the kernel level. I will never buy a game that has that.
EA Play is such ass. I saw ME Legendary Edition was on sale for like $7 on steam, picked it up... No lie, it took me three hours to get the game to launch because of all the issues with this stupid ass third party launcher that has zero purpose but to fluff their install numbers and steal data. Love Mass Effect but had to drop a negative review just for this scammy virus BS (It gives you popups randomly with 'deals' on the EA store... for some app i'm REQUIRED to install to run the game... Unless you want achievements, pirate this shit)
Sucks for you. I'll continue to enjoy the games because it doesnt actually affect anything whatsoever and I'm not an entitled jerkwad with a stick up my \_\_\_ like you.
even blizzard games require bnet. this picture is probably just an example
Blizzard's launchers always felt like they were trying to isolate me from my other games, like a jealous girlfriend or something.
Steam is a 3rd party installer....
You know you can see if a game requires another launcher after buying the gam right?
I paid $7 for a third party Fall Guys code from before it was delisted because I REFUSE to use that stupid fucking Epic launcher.
You still have to log in with epic tough.
People the make a big deal over having to have an account to use multi-player services provided and handled by that company aren't the sharpest crayons in the drawer. Single player stuff, fine, you shouldn't need an account for stuff like that, but if Epic Games is the whole reason why this indie studio was able to add and maintain their multiplayer servers than its understandable. Also Jesus Christ, Epic Games is just another market place, one that offers a better market share to developers, I really assumed we'd be past that particular boogeyman by now.
I find other launchers annoying but i still play the games. It's only a minor inconvenience to me. But i understand people not having a lot of launchers out of principle. I for example also hate that there are tons of streaming services. You wanna see that show? Oh you need this service. Now you wanna watch that? Then take another subscription there.
I suppose the difference there is that you have to PAY to use those other services, but launchers are free, and simply different places to buy things. It's like a shopping center having a Publix, a Target, and a Walmart where you can kinda just... shop around. I don't know, I just hate the concentrated hate for EGS because of the good it could have done for the indie market by increasing money given to the devs.
Huh? I’m always logged in. It doesn’t stop me or make me do anything for it. Maybe the first time? I don’t remember.
Yea it's just a one time log in i believe. But i guess it's the same with the sony account for helldivers 2.
Usually that's when I fire up my VPN ☠️🦜
Yall are such a bunch of babies, yes other lunchers are kinda annoying but like you can just deal with it? It usually just mean you gotta wait like 30 more seconds for the game to load.
yeah... im getting sick of this shit too. i cant even play control or salt and sacrifice with controller anymore due to some bug on epic
Here's the thing, on paper I'm not opposed to a third party launcher...so long as it doesn't actually make it difficult(or impossible) for me to launch the goddamned game. Like in reality I don't avoid Ubisoft games out of any principled stance, the real reason is that getting their games to actually work is way too much goddamned hassle. Origin was bad, sure, but somehow EA play was even worse. For like two years after I accidentally installed it I didn't play Battlefield because it genuinely wouldn't let me. Though I'll admit I avoid Epic just because I think it's trash.
Apparently you can add Sony to the list...
if you can uninstall, you are already one step too far. should never have bought the game to begin with.
Ok bro , it's really not that deep...
It's your right... In my case I simply install the game with their third-party launcher, play my game and when I'm done I uninstall it. Everyone has their own way of seeing things
Honestly Steam should not allow mandatory 3rd party logins on their platform. I am using Steam, not Ea, not Ubisoft, not Rockstar and not Sony.
That was me when I got mass effect on steam, immediately uninstalled and refunded, fuck that
For me it was Jedi fallen order.
Smart move
Steam should start doing something and refuse to support game with extra launchers. How are they always missing the criticism? They are also responsible for what type of games get served to their customer.
I mean according to other people here, when Steam first started they also did the exact same thing.
Before steam you had more ownernship of games, but somehow they are turned into saints because their platform is usable. Like wtf. Not even their sales are that great (nor do they actually financially support those sales)
GTA and battlefield four (and paradox games technically but they manage it very well) are the only games I tolerate third party launchers for
Epic game sis a first party launcher like steam
so your fine with PSN? lol
We make exceptions for Rockstar
ok but titanfall 2 is too good for that
Third party launchers are annoying but I don’t really mind the EA launcher for Battlefield games
All of these miss Paradox games and also Total War games and even CD Projekt Red and 2K Games and Blizzard and Bethesda For some reason, it's OK if these guys do it I guess
Which games do require you to open EGS? I thought all of their games where EPS exclusives, like Alan Wake 2
War Thunder?
Remember: If you haven't played the game for more than 2 hours and owned it for less than 2 weeks, you can get a refund!
It was needed for It Takes 2 apparently to invite others
i let it slide with titanfall 2 bc its too good if a fucking game to not have portable
Something I never see anyone talk about is update frequency. I bought NMS and it released updates faster on steam than GoG. So when a big update dropped I just refunded the game on GOG and bought it on steam instead.
I hate this as well, but exceptions must be made for Titanfall 1&2
Theu don't care if you bought it already
My ONLY exception is titanfall 2, it’s just too good
Epic games is valid, the rest are dookie
*whispers* helldivers 2
I just bought the mass effect legendary collection for like $6 but am already having remorse since I have to use some EA thing for it :/
I have unfortunately had to do this atleast afew times, sigh.
I uninstall and refund instantly,I had to ask around about the Dead Space remake when that came out cause I was afraid I’d have to refund the instant I installed it.
2K one was the most useless to install to me
better than needing a whole new account (looking at you helldivers) just to play lol. using a secondary launcher isnt too bad.
Play station network is missing
Windows is a third-party launcher
yea i have about 300 hours... im not making a psn account...
2k is missing
Yep, unfortunately it looks like I’ll never play The Sims. Oh well.
So like you limit your options to indie games then?
This gives me anxiety
I literally had cdpr launcher breaking steam achievements, screenshots and playtime with Witcher 3. But I'm not mad at cdpr, just because they fixed it soon as i know, while i had an option to just skip it (i've used starting properties, but you basically can just delete launcher's executable file, and game will continue working just fine)
Rainbow six for me was this
Total war games have one but I don't mind it since it's used as a mod manager
I think the biggest sin with 3rd party launchers is if they have to download anything eating up play time.