Too many launchers in PC games has turned me off of the platform

[potato]

About a year ago I got back into PC gaming and was astonished at how janky the experience was. Everyone has a launcher. Its ridiculous.

Want to play a Ubisoft game? It will launch UPlay, complete with its own achievements. You'll have to sign up for an account, oh, and also, every time you launch the game, you launch Play first, then launch the game from UPlay.

Same thing with EA games and Origins.

MS games and Xbox Live

I don't remember if Square games did it.

All this on top of Steam.

Its such a janky experience that its turned me off the platform. Although I love the high fidelity graphics, having to sign up for these services and having a fragmented library and achievements suck.

 

[GameZone]

Agreed. It's shit.

IMO everything should be on Steam.

 

[D65]

It's really nothing to it. I don't see why it is a problem when most launchers don't have to be opened first to run a game. I only keep Steam running when I'm about to play a steam game, etc. And AFAIK you can use normal shortcuts to load a Uplay game.

MS games don't require a launcher.

 

[Deleted member 34714]

Seriously? It's just one extra click to get into a game. Im fine with it as long as it's not shit like Bethesda launcher or W10 store.

 

[Stealthy Cockatrice]

A slight annoyance should not keep you away from the best platform. Janky comes with the territory. I dont know anyone on PC that would prefer a console version of windows/platforms or mobile one where everything is simplified. Sure the uplay through steam is not needed but its hardly an issue these days as it was many years ago.

 

[Grim Patron]

Nah. its all about steam. if a game isnt on steam it isnt a real game.

 

[bmdubya]

The only issue I've come across with multiple launchers is I sometimes forget I have a game installed and stop playing it. For example, I was playing the Shadow Complex Remaster, and you had to download it through the Epic Games launcher. I got about halfway through, but I forgot to pin the launcher to my taskbar, and forgot about the game. I still need to finish it.

Outside of that, I don't have an issue with the multiple launchers. I don't care about achievements, so that isn't a big deal to me. I have all of the launchers pinned to my taskbar, and I have a speedy computer, so switching between the different launchers isn't an issue. I can see why it would be an issue if you're coming from just one platform on consoles, but I guess I've just gotten used to it over the 8 years I've been on PC.

 

[Deleted member 2317]

Seems like an incredibly minor complaint and a very small amount of exertion/mouse clicks for what's gained over other platforms but I hear you, two minutes of booting time per day over the course of a year or your life is a really long time when you think about it.

 

[Sprat]

Steam put me off pc gaming around 2005 I like to just pop the disc in and install then go.

I don't want additional crappy software on my computer.

I did get back into it around 2015 but it irritates me to no end.

 

[piratethingy]

I play so many games on windows. Every one I press the windows key, type in the first couple letters of the game, and hit enter.
This really doesn't seem to be a problem for me personally.

 

[Niceguydan8]

I think it's probably for the better that multiple launchers exist as opposed to something like Steam having the monopoly.

I don't think a platform like PC should have a mandatory client that takes ~30% of revenue from every game sale. That seems like a horrible alternative.

 

[LCGeek]

Make shortcuts and keep auto login on problem solved.

 

[Bhonar]

Agreed. It's shit.

IMO everything should be on Steam.

Click to shrink...

I honestly can't tell if this is sarcasm or not

 

[RedSwirl]

I actually use the Xbox app to launch everything. Outside of that I've also gone back to just using the start menu. You click a shortcut and it just boots up whatever launcher you used to install that game.

 

[Aktlys]

I'll take multiple competing stores over one closed platform store any time and always

 

[SunBroDave]

This is silly. Not only can any application be added to Steam as a shortcut, but your interaction with a given a launcher lasts what... 30 seconds?

 

[TesservcT]

Atleast it isnt iTunes.

 

[Deleted member 14400]

I just don't buy the game if it's not on Steam

 

[Newlove]

Nah. its all about steam. if a game isnt on steam it isnt a real game.

Click to shrink...

But is any game real? Or are you saying all games on Steam are like hopscotch and rock paper scissors?

 

[StevieP]

Agreed. It's shit.

IMO everything should be on Steam.

Click to shrink...

Monopolies always lead to good things, fellow corporatetite

 

[Lackless]

I honestly can't tell if this is sarcasm or not

Click to shrink...

For real. He's literally saying, every single game company needs to give 30% of their profits to Steam while Steam holds a monopoly. Screw that. And friendly reminder that Steam didn't put actual effort into their offline mode until Origin came out. Competition is good. Also, I have six launchers (GOG, Steam, Blizzard, Epic Games, uPlay, Battle.net) and it takes 2-5 seconds to start it up and none of them ever forget my login info. It's no big deal and I like the idea of 100% of my money going to the people who made the game.

 

[GameZone]

I honestly can't tell if this is sarcasm or not

Click to shrink...

It's not.

 

[ghibli99]

Most of my stuff's on Steam, I occasionally launch GOG, and rarely -- if ever -- have the need for anything else. Can't remember the last time I launched Origin or Uplay... I've launched the MS Store more recently, which is kind of a sad statement for EA and Ubi's ecosystems. The way I see it, at least you have options.

 

[WillyFive]

Well, the thing is you want everything on Steam. You are adding Steam as an extra step.

Just launch directly from your desktop or taskbar.

 

[DevilMayGuy]

Click twice to open up a launcher. I don't understand this mindset at all.

 

[Hella]

I thought this thread was going to be about config launchers, not logins...

But anyways, I'm kinda with the OP. My problem isn't so much the practice of having accounts or even separate storefronts, but the sheer number of games sold on those services that push additional accounts on you. It's like, if I need to log into two accounts to play one game, something has gone terribly wrong somewhere along the way.

 

[Rodney McKay]

This used to HATE this back when Origin launched and Uplay became a thing, but after the 5 or 6 years its been, it hasn't ever been a problem.

Uplay games launch right from Steam (my only problem there is that I accidentally have TWO Uplay accounts, so several of my Ubisoft games are in one account and the rest are in the other, so I have to rememebr my two different logins sadly). Only problem I had was early on with Uplay when the launcher would mess with certain games (audio not working right in Assassin's Creed for example), but that hasn't been a problem for years.

Origin I used to hate when it first got made (oh no, my EA games wont be on Steam anymore! AHHH!), but it's fine now and it's not hard to remember that my EA games are there, and pretty much everything else is on Steam (plus you can just add the games to Steam and launch them from there).

Microsoft stuff... haven't had a problem honestly. Most of the MS games I want eventually come to Steam. Plus even if I did buy a game from the Win10 store, I can again just manually add it to steam and launch from there.

And GOG is my last one and while I do have a few games on there, I honestly don't think I've used GOG that much. Plus again, you can just add them to Steam if you want.

All I need is my Password Manager to remember the individual accounts and I'm fine. It's more annoying have a million different bank accounts for cards, and logins for every online store I use than just the few launchers/logins that games occasionally use.

 

[GameZone]

Click twice to open up a launcher. I don't understand this mindset at all.

Click to shrink...

Can I get my PC version of Destiny 2 refunded?

 

[Patazord]

This is really silly, i got no problem with other launcher and it will take you only a few seconds to use them.

 

[DarthWalden]

I have a but of OCD about this type of thing and it drives me nuts. I'll manually add blizzard and as games to steam but it's kind of annoying that it just launched another launcher. I like to have my entire library through one service where I can see everything, steam does an okay job with that but you are correct when you say it's a bit janky.

 

[DevilMayGuy]

Can I get my PC version of Destiny 2 refunded?

Click to shrink...

I suppose not. As far as I know, the only platform that offers that functionality is steam. It's great functionality to be sure, one that I wish every platform offered.

That has little to do with the OP, though, so I wonder why you thought it was a relevant reply to my post.

 

[Ain't Nobody]

This is the height of BFD.

What is way past annoying, though, are things like Rockstar Social Club that require a login to play. Now THAT thing is a pain in the swimsuit area.

 

[Herbz]

Too bad it bothers you. PC is a fantastic gaming platform.

 

[nded]

It would be nice if the different storefronts agreed to support some sort of universal launcher protocol. Basically do for PC digital games what email apps like Outlook do for separate mail accounts.

 

[medyej]

No problem here with multiple launchers, I love that it leads to cheaper games as they have to compete with one another. Steam, Uplay, Origin, Epic, and Gog are all fine now. Origin used to be a little heavy but they improved it a lot.

 

[bemusedchunk]

Nah. its all about steam. if a game isnt on steam it isnt a real game.

Click to shrink...

today i learned that blizzard games aren't real.

 

[Deleted member 6949]

At one point I bought Trackmania and it launched the jankiest launcher that I've ever seen, which was apparently only for the Mania games. I just closed it down and uninstalled.

 

[Shroki]

I do think it's a slight pain in the ass to have games across Origin, Uplay, Steam, Battle.net, Epic and Windows 10 games but since I'm usually just launching from a shortcut and very rarely am I sorting through a platform that ISN'T Steam, I can't imagine being turned off on PC gaming for that sole reason.

 

[matimeo]

I just launch everything from steam otherwise I forget I even own games on the other ecosystems. It works decent enough.

 

[KillLaCam]

It is pretty annoying

 

[SiG]

IMO launchers and the main game executable should be separate, and one could run the game directly via executable without having to launch the launcher...unless you do something like right click.

I feel this is a missed opportunity, especially from people coming from the SETUP.EXE days. The Launcher should be considered the new configuration menu, since usually within the game, you want to focus less on tinkering with your setting and focusing more on the actual game.

 

[Conkerkid11]

It only sucks when the publisher doesn't deserve their own launcher because the launcher sucks. Origin sucks. Windows Store sucks.

Steam, Uplay, and BattleNet are great. I don't use any others.

 

[Deleted member 17092]

Honestly I do feel like all pc games should have an option to launch the game without the launcher running, at least for single player games. Yeah you can have shortcuts but why does running the game have to also launch another program, which then results in the launcher downloading a bunch of updates and hogging all your bandwidth. I also feel like games don't need to install an update just because there's one available. I know that you can kind of work around all this, but the default should just be simpler instead of having to run workarounds to just launch a game easily.

 

[Emerald Hawk]

I haven't used Origin or UPlay, so I can't comment on those.

I buy from Good old games, Steam, and Itch.io. For all three of them I just launch games directly from shortcuts without actually running the launcher first. I don't even have the GoG launcher installed, actually. ("GOG Galaxy is also built with optionality in mind") It's true I had to sign up for accounts, but that's true of all consoles as well at this point, if you want to buy anything digitally. So it's not a big deal for me. I find some of the features (friends lists) useful as well. Other features like steam wishlists for being alerted to sales work fine from just the website, though.

 

[GameZone]

I suppose not. As far as I know, the only platform that offers that functionality is steam. It's great functionality to be sure, one that I wish every platform offered.

That has little to do with the OP, though, so I wonder why you thought it was a relevant reply to my post.

Click to shrink...

My point is that I prefer to have all my games in the client all my friends are, and the client with most benefits for me a a custemor. That's Steam.

 

[TaterTots]

I like to have all my games in one place too. I've even forgot that I've owned games before. I wish achievements gave me the same good feeling on PC that Xbox does. That's my only issue.

 

[Gestault]

I hate launchers being involved in things like the install/start/settings for individual games. I get why they're needed for some account systems, but I still don't like it.

I think more games can just be started from a regular link than people realize (meaning they sidestep a launcher), but not always. On the one hand, Steam is my go-to, but maaaan, I despise the hostility in the PC market to non-Steam games (specifically including straight-up traditional, standalone non-DRM games). Itch.io devs catch all sorts of shit when they publish anything just there, rather than Steam, and they're some of the most indie-of-the-indie, and Steam is already a dump when it comes to shovelware.

I understand ease-of-use, but the more assertive people are that games should only exist on their marketplace of choice, the less I think they have a worthwhile opinion when it comes to PC gaming. It's as rediculous as someone insisting that the industry at large should ONLY be on Xbox (or wherever), because their friends happen to play there (rather than just having a personal preference).

 

[woodcutter]

It's the price we have to pay to play the best version of video games. I had to use uplay a few months ago and I gotta say, I kinda like their new interface. Not sure when they updated it.

 

[Koren]

Too bad it bothers you. PC is a fantastic gaming platform.

Click to shrink...

I can understand the feeling (even if I don't share it completely) though even in this case

WINDOWS may be a fantastic gaming platform

Even if it's getting better, other OS support is still really bad. And honestly, I disagree more and more with the path Microsoft take with Windows. And if you're stuck with Linux, well it's hell.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Click this, click that, done. I'm in the game.

Non-issue.