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Intrusive third party launchers should be banned on Steam

Cyberpunkd

Cyberpunkd

Member
Diablo 4 uses Battle.net , but this is one time login right at the beginning and you are G2G. Playing that game on Steamdeck is incredible.

I understand Ubisoft Connect is also not terrible.

But wait, I want to play ME Legendary Edition.

Mixed Martial Arts Middle Finger GIF by UFC


The Internet is ripe with tales of that shit EA launcher not working one day, working the next, setup being nightmare.

EA & Wilson you metrosexual cuck - nobody gives a fuck about your shit launcher, you don’t give a fuck about your shit launcher. You can go and blow Tim Sweeney in the sauna, you both are equally invested in your storefronts.

Gabe - just drop the axe man. They get rid of this shit or it’s bye bye from Steam.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Gold Member
The only problem i had with launchers on pc was with that piece of shit pc gamepass\xbox app (not even a proper launcher but you get the gist), never had a problem with any of the others, i mean not more than i had with steam because believe it or not, steam also has problems sometimes.
 
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Dazraell

Dazraell

Member
Definitely it should. I played PoP Forgotten Sands a few months ago on Steam Deck by using copy I bought on Steam. Game worked like a charm, but Ubisoft Connect launcher couldn't remember my login and password (while having a toggle on to remember them) so I had to type that shit every time I started the game... This was annoying as fuck, but game was short so I completed it relatively quickly
 
Soodanim

Soodanim

Member
Wishing for Steam to start restricting things more seems like a monkey's paw wish to me, but I avoid any game with a launcher that isn't Steam. I'm not interested in running some thrown together shit that doesn't benefit me in any way.
 
E

Esparadrapo

Neo Member
winjer said:
Agreed.
Launchers within launchers should be banned.
Add denuvo drm to the list.
Click to expand...
Denuvo should be required by law to relax the hell up once it's done with all the initial checks, namely up to the title screen. Denuvo running in the background while you are playing is a level of dumbfuckery I honestly don't know why any publisher and developer agreed with.
 
RagnarokIV

RagnarokIV

Battlebus imprisoning me \m/ >.< \m/
Pisses me right off man. If I need to install any additional launchers to play a game, I just don’t bother buying or playing the game.
 
Z

Z O N E

Member
Account linking should be optional too unless it's for online services and it's done at launch. If it's not in at launch and then they try to trick consumers down the line like "Hey, we're introducing account liking and it's required" then a refund should be allowed.

There should be no reason that God of War REQUIRES a PSN account just for some trophies and to get Sonys MAU up.

All it does is restrict a bunch of other regions on Steam from buying your games.
 
th4tguy

th4tguy

Member
I’m still mad valve made me install its intrusive launcher with Half life 2. Having that run in the background ate into my resources and generally did nothing to benefit me.
Sure they have added some features since then, but still…. Give me back the days of desktops full of exe shortcuts
 
SportsFan581

SportsFan581

Member
I'll agree with this. I don't have a problem with multiple stores, but when you purchase from a specific store that's where everything should happen for that game. Plus, any data collection needed/wanted by the game could be handled with account linking.
 
CliffBronger

CliffBronger

Member
The Mafia DE update that introduced the 2K launcher broke the game, It crashes everytime you select fullscreen.

It's been like this for months.
 
Magic Carpet

Magic Carpet

Gold Member
GymWolf said:
The only problem i had with launchers on pc was with that piece of shit pc gamepass\xbox app (not even a proper launcher but you get the gist), never had a problem with any of the others, i mean not more than i had with steam because believe it or not, steam also has problems sometimes.
Click to expand...
I don't even have any issues with the Gamepass/Xbox app. It works just fine. It's not ideal but it's also not a struggle.
You click on the game and start it, Just like you do in Steam.
Sometimes it's faster than Steam, because Steam app often needs to first update.
 
HogIsland

HogIsland

Member
All launchers need to die in a fire. It should be you click Play in Steam, and the game opens with full gamepad control (unless the game is seriously not gamepad friendly). This isn't hard. Publishers forcing their launcher are doing extra work to make the experience worse.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Gold Member
Magic Carpet said:
I don't even have any issues with the Gamepass/Xbox app. It works just fine. It's not ideal but it's also not a struggle.
You click on the game and start it, Just like you do in Steam.
Sometimes it's faster than Steam, because Steam app often needs to first update.
Click to expand...
Good for you, me and many other people had problems with these shit apps, i remember a time where you couldn't even unistall games properly because they still filled your hard disk after erasing them and you had to do ulterior steps, not even sure if the problem is 100% solved or if it still happen once in a while.

Luckily, i'm barely forced to use it.
 
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Magic Carpet

Magic Carpet

Gold Member
GymWolf said:
Good for you, me and many other people had problems with these shit apps, i remember a time where you couldn't even unistall games properly because they still filled your hard disk after erasing them and you had to do ulterior steps, not even sure if the problem is 100% solved or if it still happen once in a while.
Click to expand...
My biggest gripe with the xbox app is I have no idea if the games themselves are updated. It doesn't give any indication of an update or when the last one was applied.
 
Kacho

Kacho

Member
One of the worst parts of PC gaming. Every time I have to deal with managing my account on one of those apps it makes me want to go back to consoles.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Gold Member
Magic Carpet said:
My biggest gripe with the xbox app is I have no idea if the games themselves are updated. It doesn't give any indication of an update or when the last one was applied.
Click to expand...
There is the update page in the store, you can just click on update everything to check if they are updated or not :lollipop_grinning_sweat:

Never had a problem with that because i usually use gamepass to try some microsoft games that i'm not fully convinced about and they never endure on my hard disk enough to get patches:lollipop_squinting:
 
NeverYouMind

NeverYouMind

Member
They should be banned on every major platform. A few days ago I opened up Riders Republic on Xbox and received blind accessibility AI voice prompting me to log into UBI cancer. They already screwed me out of one account I made. Fuck them. Deleted.
200.gif
 
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GHound

GHound

Member
I'd go so far as to say Steam should also ban Steam until I can open every game from a shortcut on my desktop without it even trying to open Steam.
 
AtomicStarving

AtomicStarving

Member
A while ago I downloaded GTA IV on Steam to replay it. I was so pissed off that you need a Social Club account to play. What a disgrace. I'm happy to pirate the game just to get around this fucking bullshit.
 
ResilientBanana

ResilientBanana

Member
Missing out on that lucrative 30% per sale would be a pretty big bummer for Valve, especially due to the size of the userbase of some of those games. I agree, but not making money isn't an option.

Holammer said:
So people are patching out the login requirement in GoW: Ragnarök. We should have more of that, I might actually buy some Ubisoft games it was possible.

wccftech.com

God of War Ragnarok PC Mod Removes the PSN Account Requirement; Patch 2 Fixes NVIDIA DLSS Frame Gen

A PC mod for God of War Ragnarok removes the much-maligned PlayStation Network account requirement mandated by Sony.
wccftech.com wccftech.com
Click to expand...

Sure, that may work for Single Player games, but not all and not often.
 
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Miyazaki’s Slave

Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
Why?

They build brand cases (portfolio growth, YoY users acquisition/growth, etc) and collect engagement data from user sessions. If you don't want to use their launcher then don't buy the game. If you want to play the game, then pay the money and accept the license terms.

This isn't unique to PC games at all either, your console is a "3rd party launcher" as well....so is your phone, your TV, and based on your level of tech investment, refrigerator, oven, coffee maker, washer/dryer, and tooth brush.

If the core of the argument is that "well...they should not be able to force me to use X" then it's time for a reality check. We don't live in "should be" land and the companies that publish these games are leaning more into being "data companies" than traditional game publishers anymore.
 
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AndrewRyan

AndrewRyan

Member
Used to think the problem just hadn't made it onto Gabe's radar, but once he realized the shit it puts us through he'd put a swift stop to it. However, looking at the top Steam games by revenue they're almost all pulling this crap. So we probably won't see this fixed anytime soon.
 
simpatico

simpatico

Member
Honestly it’s not much of a problem anymore since EA and Ubi games are naturally skippable. Doesn’t even sting when you pass on buying them.
 
Fess

Fess

Member
Yeah. I installed Trials Rising on Ubisoft Connect. Couldn’t start it. Googled on the problem, tried everything, couldn’t get it to work, played some death metal, went back and tried to uninstall it instead but couldn’t do that either, it left some tiny data that couldn’t be erased for whatever reason.
So now I have it in the library among installed games but it’s not installed and can’t be played.

Steam just works. Just let me use that instead so I can keep my sanity.
 
RoboFu

RoboFu

One of the green rats
The one good thing about Battle.net is you can play the same characters on pc and your consoles.
 
Pandawan

Pandawan

Neo Member
10000000% agree
I am tired of it.
This launchers went completely out of control.

Wanna play Mafia? Download 2K laucher. Wanna play GTA? Download Rockstar Laucher. Wanna play Cyberpunk? Download CDPR launcher. Wanna play Ubi game? Download Ubi launcher. And more and more and more.

This is completely ridiculus.
 
AJUMP23

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
I do not want to load into the launcher, I do want to launch the game. But steam is a launcher. But it should not be a launcher launcher.
 
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