this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
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third-party DRMs and launchers
Xbox only player here. What’s the problem with launchers? Like is it a separate application open or a different window? My only experience is the Minecraft launcher on Mac so I don’t understand
the problem is that even the steam versions require you to use third-party launchers. imagine buying a sandwich but when you eat it, you have to wrap it up and unwrap it again to eat it. it's just extra steps and for no good reason. and I'd be fine with it if the launchers themselves actually worked. Minecraft doesn't use steam so them having their own launcher is justified, you only need one launcher
I dont mind if they are useful. Like Paradox allows me to manage mods and have different playsets. But so many do nothing other than give you a play button
fucking civ 6. from what i heard, when 2k first put the launcher out it caused issues and the only way to avoid them was to bypass them.
issues seem to be fixed now but its still annoying, all it does is just advertise the dlc and stupid battle royale mode. thankfully you can use launch commands in steam to bypass it still
Hasn't drm been dead for awhile
There's nothing worse than booting up a game that had no launcher and discover that they later added a launcher to it.
general question, what is the purpose of the various launchers? It is something I've noticed recently but most of them aren't that useful (I sort of see why Blizzard has one, and I get why Steam functions as one, but don't understand others)
Steam takes 30% of all sales.
When you spend $80 on Assassin's Creed game off Steam, $24 goes to Steam and $56 goes to Ubisoft.
When you spend that same $80 on that same game but from Ubisoft Connect, $80 goes to Ubisoft.
The same is also true for buying that game on Xbox vs. Ubisoft Connect.
And it's why you see so many mobile games try to encourage you to use a web store instead of the iOS or Android stores for in-app purchases.
It's not very difficult to see why every publisher wants their own launcher.
Okay so there is no other purpose except distribution (and to that end, pricing around distribution)?
It's not pricing, because they're priced the same in every store. But in one store you make a lot less money than the other.
30% of every single transaction is nothing to scoff at. There are other peripheral justifications, like being able to deliver more relevant information about the game to your players than a generic store can, but revenue is the main reason yes.
Publishers think that DRMs would dissuade hackers from pirating their games, but the Pirated version is better as turning off the DRM increases the games performance and being able to play in offline mode.
Same goes for Launchers now since publishers literally force players to their storefront before everytime playing their games. Used to be they are just there to facilitate updates, but ever since Steam store took off, launchers started to be the cheaper knockoff of Steam.
Honestly, there is more than one game in my library that I own legit, but play the naughty version because it's both more performant and more stable than the legit version
i agree
Okay real talk, what's the fucking point of launchers? Like why can't I just have a .exe of a game and that shit be all I need. Why do I need a launcher and why do I need to sign in to a frivolous amount of accounts just to fucking play a game?
it's not about the functionality, it's about sending a message. the big companies want control over steam, they don't want to use steam
Launchers can be fine, just rarely