Steam version of Stellaris does not actually need Steam for playing (Single Player)

[Pete]

Hello!
I just noticed that I'm able to play Stellaris without actually having Steam running. I decided to do a little test and copied my Stellaris (Stellaris Steam folder but not Steam itself, profiles, mods etc) to another computer without Steam or Paradox launcher installed and to my surprise, it works perfectly. Tested version was 2.6.3

[Mansen]

Yup. This isn't exactly news but kudos on the discovery. :)

[Pete]

I just find it weird that why implement obsolete and unusable launcher that servers no purpose whatsoever and make it default way to launch the game when there are better options for it... 🤔

[Mansen]

Such as? You need the launcher to select and deselect mods, unless you feel like editing lines of code in Notepad.

[Meewec]

Originally posted by Pete:

I just find it weird that why implement obsolete and unusable launcher that servers no purpose whatsoever and make it default way to launch the game when there are better options for it... 🤔

it allows you to enable/disable dlc or mods

[Elitewrecker PT]

Ye, the launcher is for mod and DLC management, not DRM.

[Zefnoly]

It's because the devs are nice enough to have the game DRM free... It's not uncommon. Quite many games on steam works like this.