3rd party game launchers

[^Tailgator]

H8 them! don't you?

Why would anyone using Steam really want to have a 3rd party game launcher when steam Is a game launcher itself and is all we really need?

It is bad enough these things expect you to love their publishers so much you would be happy to have your system resources sucked dry every boot-up just to load their launchers and receive their advertising?

Maybe you want to see the launcher and play the newly brought game, but how about a month down the line when you have stopped playing the game. The launcher is still there, doing it's thing in the background, sucking resources like a computerised vampire.

Now Imagine every games publisher taking this stance, you could get 10-20 platforms starting every time you switch your device on!

Have you found you systems slowing down lately?

Isn't it enough that we have to endure Steam starting at logon, but to also have steam purchased apps adding their own platforms, is this not taking this a step too far?

This is DRM all over again but in a new guise!
Forcing unwanted, resource hogging, bug ridden protection/advertising systems down our throats will result in losing our support and subsequently our custom!

Publishers listen up!
If you put your game on steam, stop pushing your proprietary launchers on us especially if at purchase these were not a requirement.

Steam Listen up!
If you allow games publishers to circumnavigate your platform and force the use of a their own proprietary interfaces, you make the Steam platform worthless!

We should have the right to a refund for any game that adds a 3rd party game launcher post purchase. We use Steam to avoid these things!

Please show your support and let's try and stop publishers ruining our systems

[Brian9824]

Don't see the issue, your free to uninstall their launcher, disable it from starting when your computer starts, etc. I mean I don't have uplay, battle.net, etc start when my PC starts, just when i launch a game using them

[my new friend]

^Tailgator の投稿を引用：

3rd party game launchers
H8 them! don't you?

Why would anyone using Steam really want to have a 3rd party game launcher when steam Is a game launcher itself and is all we really need?

It is bad enough these things expect you to love their publishers so much you would be happy to have your system resources sucked dry every boot-up just to load their launchers and receive their advertising?

Maybe you want to see the launcher and play the newly brought game, but how about a month down the line when you have stopped playing the game. The launcher is still there, doing it's thing in the background, sucking resources like a computerised vampire.

Now Imagine every games publisher taking this stance, you could get 10-20 platforms starting every time you switch your device on!

Have you found you systems slowing down lately?

Isn't it enough that we have to endure Steam starting at logon, but to also have steam purchased apps adding their own platforms, is this not taking this a step too far?

This is DRM all over again but in a new guise!
Forcing unwanted, resource hogging, bug ridden protection/advertising systems down our throats will result in losing our support and subsequently our custom!

Publishers listen up!
If you put your game on steam, stop pushing your proprietary launchers on us especially if at purchase these were not a requirement.

Steam Listen up!
If you allow games publishers to circumnavigate your platform and force the use of a their own proprietary interfaces, you make the Steam platform worthless!

We should have the right to a refund for any game that adds a 3rd party game launcher post purchase. We use Steam to avoid these things!

Please show your support and let's try and stop publishers ruining our systems

tl;dr... Here we go again.
Complain to the game developers/publishers. Valve is not going to force them to stop using them.
And there are no publishers/developers reading anything here.

[Crazy Tiger]

Quite some people refused to buy games from EA when they weren't on Steam. Such people did buy those games when EA came back to Steam. "No Steam, no buy" actually is a thing, OP.

I think you're making the mistake to think that lots of people actually care about those launchers and use Steam to avoid them. Publishers and Valve have data and information and it certainly wouldn't surprise me when that data will show that the majority does not give a damn. Those games sell, so there is no reason to make a change in that policy for Valve.

Always keep in mind that personal pet peeves are not actually important to businesses.

[^Tailgator]

I recall many years ago visiting a client who's sole purpose was to document the use of tobacco and make arguments against how it wasn't dangerous to our health. Their main revenue source was from the tobacco industry.

Today we see social media abused to confuse those using it to believe non-truths.

I encourage people to make their own opinions based on their own experiences, but it all starts from someone pointing it out!

[nullable]

^Tailgator の投稿を引用：

H8 them! don't you?

Steam is the 3rd party game launcher for non-Valve games. If you don't like additional launchers when you run a game, buy games directly from the publisher then you'll always be using the game's first party launcher.

Most of your arguments are just straight up ignorance, FUD, and hyperbole. The single launcher world is never coming back. So you'll have to make some decisions about how to proceed in PC gaming as a result.

[Brian9824]

Or you know, feel free to just set it up so the 3rd party launchers only run when the game is launched, thats how many of them ALREADY work.

[^Tailgator]

Snakub Plissken の投稿を引用：

Steam is the 3rd party game launcher for non-Valve games. If you don't like additional launchers when you run a game, buy games directly from the publisher then you'll always be using the game's first party launcher.


Great point, but would they have a library containing hundreds of games?

My point is that Steam has hundreds of games and is a launcher platform itself, so why add more launchers through it? do these other app launchers add steam launcher?

brian9824 の投稿を引用：

Or you know, feel free to just set it up so the 3rd party launchers only run when the game is launched, thats how many of them ALREADY work.

I am also quite impressed that there are those tech savvy people knowing how to disable the launchers themselves when many are not. But my point is if we use a game launcher (Steam) why should we have to use another game launcher >?

[^Tailgator]

Another point to add

Some of these game launchers will ask you to create an account outside of steam.

To me the benefit of using steam is you have one account for all your games.

I have had friends on steam, able to install a game but have having lost their 3rd party account access or linked email to recover the account who have lost the game.

Am I really being that unreasonable to ask that Steam could be allowed to manage ALL my steam purchased games and access so I don't need a database of logons?

[Crashed]

Here's the issue. Many games were developed with third party DRM launchers in mind. Sometimes it is just easier to have a special version of the publisher's launcher that gets invoked by Steam to unlock the game using a ticket retrieved from the Steamworks API.

[Crazy Tiger]

^Tailgator の投稿を引用：

My point is that Steam has hundreds of games and is a launcher platform itself, so why add more launchers through it? do these other app launchers add steam launcher?

Because the publishers who put those games on Steam also own the launcher/platform and bundle them. As they see it, the game+launcher just is one package.
Since Valve does not sell their games on other stores/launchers on PC, there are no games to add the Steam launcher to.

^Tailgator の投稿を引用：

I am also quite impressed that there are those tech savvy people knowing how to disable the launchers themselves when many are not.

Tech savvy? I don't have many games on Steam with an additional launcher, but those I do have all close the launcher when I exit the game by default. Though they're Stardock, Kalypso and Paradox games.

^Tailgator の投稿を引用：

But my point is if we use a game launcher (Steam) why should we have to use another game launcher >?

Because the owners of those games include them, Valve sees no issue with it and from the looks of it plenty of users also see no issue with it.

[cinedine]

^Tailgator の投稿を引用：

Maybe you want to see the launcher and play the newly brought game, but how about a month down the line when you have stopped playing the game. The launcher is still there, doing it's thing in the background, sucking resources like a computerised vampire.

Task Manager -> Autostart -> deactivate what you don't need.
Or remove the stuff alltogether via Programs and Features.

IMO we should not be required to run Steam when playing third party programs with their own account binding already. In many cases it's just an additional layer of unneeded DRM which can ♥♥♥♥ with you.

[^Tailgator]

Crashed の投稿を引用：

Here's the issue. Many games were developed with third party DRM launchers in mind. Sometimes it is just easier to have a special version of the publisher's launcher that gets invoked by Steam to unlock the game using a ticket retrieved from the Steamworks API.

Great if it is seamless and I don't need anther account to logon or invoke another launcher to start it.

[Crashed]

^Tailgator の投稿を引用：

Crashed の投稿を引用：

Here's the issue. Many games were developed with third party DRM launchers in mind. Sometimes it is just easier to have a special version of the publisher's launcher that gets invoked by Steam to unlock the game using a ticket retrieved from the Steamworks API.

Great if it is seamless and I don't need anther account to logon or invoke another launcher to start it.

It may be possible that games that require external accounts could have external launchers so they can perform security updates on the login process without having to rebuild the game binaries.

[^Tailgator]

Crashed の投稿を引用：

It may be possible that games that require external accounts could have external launchers so they can perform security updates on the login process without having to rebuild the game binaries.

Good point regarding not having to rebuild binaries from scratch, but would incremental patching not be possible through steam?

[nullable]

^Tailgator の投稿を引用：

Snakub Plissken の投稿を引用：

Steam is the 3rd party game launcher for non-Valve games. If you don't like additional launchers when you run a game, buy games directly from the publisher then you'll always be using the game's first party launcher.

Great point, but would they have a library containing hundreds of games?

Depends on how you purchase games I suppose. Steam isn't owed some privileged position and doesn't have a monopoly on large catalog of PC games.

^Tailgator の投稿を引用：

My point is that Steam has hundreds of games and is a launcher platform itself, so why add more launchers through it? do these other app launchers add steam launcher?

Publishers want people to use their launchers, and have decided their launcher is a required part of their games. Developers and publishers are free to make whatever decisions about their games. Valve has long operated and been very successful being developer friendly and not meddling with developer/publisher control of games.

If Valve were to sell their games on other launchers Steam may well be a requirement.

The MS Game Store also includes EA Play if you pay for Game Pass, and that requires you launch EA games through the MS Game Store launcher which then launches the EA launcher. It's the same sort of thing.

If Valve had opinions in line with yours they might have tried forbidding it, and watched as publishers migrate away from Steam. Or perhaps they'd attempt to pay developers to forego the developers launcher. Neither one would be in line with Valve's historical approach to the games industry and other developers.

And again, their developer friendly approach has helped them retain their position. And it's not like this is a new issue either, so one would have to think if Valve was going to move against it we'd have seen something by now.

^Tailgator の投稿を引用：

But my point is if we use a game launcher (Steam) why should we have to use another game launcher >?

It being a requirement of the game is reason enough.

If that decision starts costing publishers money maybe they'll change their ways. But good luck convincing gamers as a whole to boycott games with first party launchers. Didn't exactly work when people complained about DLC and micro-transactions. And since first-party launchers have long been normalized it's a little late to have that fight now even if some minority hates the current status quo. Even if some users are willing to fight the good fight, Valve has never shown that interest, so good luck there.

All the arguments you have about the convenience of things revolving solely around Steam, I get it. It would be convenient. I've been using Steam for nearly 18 years. I remember those early days. But they're gone, and there's no way to rewind that clock regardless of how many arguments of convenience you make.