Could/should ban third party launchers?

[Citizen Cook]

Today EA made their app mandatory to play the Mass Effect legendary trilogy.
The app broke achievements and save files. The issue with the app has been known by EA fir over 8 months and yet they have done nothing but cease support for the origin app that did work with Steam.

EA support are useless. Listen to their reply:

Thank you for contacting EA Help! My name is Parvathy and I'll be assisting you today!

I hope you are doing good today! This is a follow-up email regarding your issue with the missing progress in Mass Effect Legendary Edition. No worries will certainly help you with this.

Don't worry! Let me try to help you out with this issue.

Thank you for sharing the details.

I would like to inform you that changing the launcher will not loose progress. If you change the Steam account then you will loose it.

Thank you for your understanding and patience, I really appreciate it.

We await your response, please revert back to the same e-mail address.

Follow this link to contact us:
http://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/new/

Should you have any further questions regarding this or any other issues, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Thank you for contacting EA support. Have a nice day ahead!!

Parvathy
EA help

Where do they get these people? Is it a bot? I made a very detailed email explaining exactly the problem all in the Steam community. What was the point?

These damnable launchers do absolutely nothing to improve our gaming experiences. They simply penalise us for legally purchasing their software.

I wish Steam would just ban them, frankly. Microsoft and Sony won’t allow them on their console systems, why does Valve allow there CorpoRats to harass us with their egregious drm spyware?

I mean, now we can’t play Mass Effect in offline mode!

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Citizen Cook の投稿を引用：

Could/should ban third party launchers?

Today EA made their app mandatory to play the Mass Effect legendary trilogy.
The app broke achievements and save files. The issue with the app has been known by EA fir over 8 months and yet they have done nothing but cease support for the origin app that did work with Steam.

EA support are useless. Listen to their reply:

Thank you for contacting EA Help! My name is Parvathy and I'll be assisting you today!

I hope you are doing good today! This is a follow-up email regarding your issue with the missing progress in Mass Effect Legendary Edition. No worries will certainly help you with this.

Don't worry! Let me try to help you out with this issue.

Thank you for sharing the details.

I would like to inform you that changing the launcher will not loose progress. If you change the Steam account then you will loose it.

Thank you for your understanding and patience, I really appreciate it.

We await your response, please revert back to the same e-mail address.

Follow this link to contact us:
http://help.ea.com/en/contact-us/new/

Should you have any further questions regarding this or any other issues, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Thank you for contacting EA support. Have a nice day ahead!!

Parvathy
EA help

Where do they get these people? Is it a bot? I made a very detailed email explaining exactly the problem all in the Steam community. What was the point?

These damnable launchers do absolutely nothing to improve our gaming experiences. They simply penalise us for legally purchasing their software.

I wish Steam would just ban them, frankly. Microsoft and Sony won’t allow them on their console systems, why does Valve allow there CorpoRats to harass us with their egregious drm spyware?

I mean, now we can’t play Mass Effect in offline mode!

Valve isn't going to ban 3rd party launchers.

You also omitted your initial inquiry and only gave us the response.

[Wolf Knight]

PC and consoles are very different. if sony says you wont have something, then you can either agree to it or not have your game(s) available on the playstation. if steam says you wont have something, the dev has the option of not using steam.

[JVC]

Customers don't dictate a company's business model.

You're free to take your business elsewhere, so is everyone else. But you, me and everyone else have no influence at all about how steam runs its business.

Steam wouldn't get anything out of banning those launchers. So it isn't going to happen.

[blunus]

Not gonna happen.

Vote with your wallet and don't buy games that requires 3rd party launchers.

[ShelLuser]

Meanwhile dozens of others* are playing EA games using the new launcher without any issues. Granted: I haven't tried Mass Effect yet but I'm a vivid Madden '23 player and that launcher was also changed from Origin to EA, 0 issues.

So something tells me that your issue isn't necessarily caused by a problem with the launcher.

* Edit: at the time of writing there are approx. 1490 people playing Mass Effect. Seems odd if the launcher is all b0rked up ;)

[Large Tomatoes]

JVC の投稿を引用：

Customers don't dictate a company's business model.

You're free to take your business elsewhere, so is everyone else. But you, me and everyone else have no influence at all about how steam runs its business.

Steam wouldn't get anything out of banning those launchers. So it isn't going to happen.

That is a contradiction, we DO have control and a say in how things are run, if enough people stop buying a product the company will be forced to adjust or sink.

General discussion:

I'm in the same boat as OP I ****ing hate that I have to install another launcher, with another account and yet another corporation consuming my details. So I just don't buy from them anymore, it's a shame because I like some of their games, but this is what they are counting on.

For example, RDR2 - Rockstar, any Ubisoft game.

[Large Tomatoes]

ShelLuser の投稿を引用：

Meanwhile dozens of others are playing EA games using the new launcher without any issues. Granted: I haven't tried Mass Effect yet but I'm a vivid Madden '23 player and that launcher was also changed from Origin to EA, 0 issues.

So something tells me that your issue isn't necessarily caused by a problem with the launcher.

Maybe it is that you have to have another pointless launcher and give away information to yet another corporation? There was a time when you just installed a game and ran the executable.

[ShelLuser]

nodnol の投稿を引用：

Maybe it is that you have to have another pointless launcher and give away information to yet another corporation?

You don't "have" to do anything. Store pages clearly tell you if a game uses 3rd party launchers so if you want to avoid all that then you can.

Not to mention that I have plenty of games in my library for which the 3rd party launcher is plain out awesome because it gives you a lot more options. For example it's much easier to read a manual by clicking "Read manual" in a launcher than having to go the installation folder in order to find & open those PDF files yourself.

[Large Tomatoes]

nullable の投稿を引用：

Yeah, "if" we all agreed and took a stand, then maybe something could be done. But we didn't, and we ain't gonna, so keep dreaming about if's and maybes.

But, we do have the power and the control, we just don't use it. The key here is in the definition.

[Large Tomatoes]

ShelLuser の投稿を引用：

You don't "have" to do anything. Store pages clearly tell you if a game uses 3rd party launchers so if you want to avoid all that then you can.

If you want to play that particular game, then yes you do.

ShelLuser の投稿を引用：

Not to mention that I have plenty of games in my library for which the 3rd party launcher is plain out awesome because it gives you a lot more options. For example it's much easier to read a manual by clicking "Read manual" in a launcher than having to go the installation folder in order to find & open those PDF files yourself.

I would much prefer to not have another corporation tracking my details and information, if I want to read a manual, I will just go online and read it. Each to their own - launchers are for one purpose and one purpose only - and that purpose ain't your convenience.

[Chika Ogiue]

nodnol の投稿を引用：

But, we do have the power and the control, we just don't use it. The key here is in the definition.

Not really. For every one like you who refuses to buy whatever because it's got a launcher, there's at least ten or even a thousand others who will happily buy it. You'll just have to get used to the fact that the vast majority of people simply don't mind first-party launchers. And for the ones who do mind having overlapping launchers (e.g., Steam + Ubisoft) they're cutting out the excess by not buying on Steam.

[Large Tomatoes]

Chika Ogiue の投稿を引用：

Not really. For every one like you who refuses to buy whatever because it's got a launcher, there's at least ten or even a thousand others who will happily buy it. You'll just have to get used to the fact that the vast majority of people simply don't mind first-party launchers. And for the ones who do mind having overlapping launchers (e.g., Steam + Ubisoft) they're cutting out the excess by not buying on Steam.

Therefore, we DO have the power, we just don't use it.

[ShelLuser]

nodnol の投稿を引用：

ShelLuser の投稿を引用：

You don't "have" to do anything. Store pages clearly tell you if a game uses 3rd party launchers so if you want to avoid all that then you can.

If you want to play that particular game, then yes you do.

Naah. 3rd party launcher also implies that it's sold by themselves as well. So.. go buy it there. Or, of course, what I was hinting at: avoid the game and go play something else.

As for tracking and such: that's a lot of assumptions you have there. There's no cure for paranoia, sorry.

[Large Tomatoes]

nullable の投稿を引用：

Well in that case, we've used that power and control to allow these things, and you're just in a minority who can't accept that your beliefs and values aren't represented by the majority. IE we've decided against you. Sorry.

Or does it only count when gamers as a whole agree with you? :KentWinning:

Personally I'm fine with PC gaming in 2023, the pros outweigh the cons. I don't have nostalgia for 2003 or days bygone. And I'm not on your side at all. We're never going to go back to the way it was, and I'm prepared to accept that gaming will keep evolving.

Indeed, the majority are on your side, the gaming community sure do love having multiple launchers, multiple accounts, never actually owning a game, DRM coming out of the eye balls, DOA games, loot boxes etc etc.

Nobody likes this crap, most people are just too easily swayed or too easy to say "it is what it is".

Good luck with everything though and thank you for the input.

[Large Tomatoes]

ShelLuser の投稿を引用：

Naah. 3rd party launcher also implies that it's sold by themselves as well. So.. go buy it there. Or, of course, what I was hinting at: avoid the game and go play something else.

As for tracking and such: that's a lot of assumptions you have there. There's no cure for paranoia, sorry.

Are you kidding? Did you get an email at the end of last year about your Year in Review? The one that showed you every game you've played, how long for, what type of game, what age of game etc? That is information that Steam collects and decides to share with you, they also collect your personal information.

Do you realise how big the data collection market is and how much it is worth. Tell you don't care that is your choice, but don't tell me I'm paranoid about the stuff that they actually do and even send you an email about.