Steam/Valve should do something against additional launcher! - Tell us your bad launcher experience here!

[Myoz]

Some of my experiences with different launcher:

Currently the EA Origin launcher disable the Steam overlay in Jedi Survivor, so no screenshots or chats etc. (No joking!)
This is a No-Go! I guess this is even against the terms of use of Steam. But EA don't care.

Some launcher broke games on Steam Deck or cause heavy performance issues or frame rate drops.

Some launcher also force to online mode, so no offline mode for singleplayer games.

All launcher need a little bit of CPU and GPU to run - also running in Windows start up.

2K announced the 2K launcher (for the ~15 years old Bioshock) as "quality of life update" (no joking!). The announcement still has 0 upvotes.

Sometimes launcher don't sync your game progress. Happened a while ago with the Epic Fail Launcher.

Some launcher denied access to your own games because the verification server is offline, so the game can't registered. (For example the old Anno games from Ubisoft.)

If you play old Ubisoft games (now called "legacy games") on Steam, it required a "special kind of launcher" and you need to login every (!) time you want to play, even with Ubisoft Launcher started!

Dead Island 2 on Steam needs the Epic Fail Launcher to play multiplayer but the Epic Online Service fail to connect to server, so no multiplayer for Steam user, only singleplayer in a multplayer game. Even if you synced your accounts, save game progress won't transfered... Epic fail!



There are countless stories like this!

Tell us your bad launcher experience here!

[HikariLight]

Steam is the third party.
If the Devs/Publishers (the ones who own the game) want their launcher used, that is their choice.
Steam cannot force the devs to do something they don't want.
Last time they did that the devs pulled all of their games from Steam.

[Zarineth]

Stop buying games that require additional launchers. Problem solved.

[DarkCrystalMethod]

There's another forum thread on this subject.

"steam should ban third party launchers and logins"
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/4362376160462106055/

Perhaps it has something more useful to say.

[Nx Machina]

Bad 3rd party launcher experiences? None.

Secondly the developer, publisher of those 3rd party games you licence want one. Why? because they validate you have the licence to play the game on Steam.

The irony? People who complain about 3rd party launchers on Steam can get those selfsame games such as Mass Effect, Dragon Age, GTAV, RDR2, The Division, Diablo IV etc on the actual launchers provided by EA, Rockstar, Ubisoft, Blizzard.

[Start_Running]

Nx Machina님이 먼저 게시:

Bad 3rd party launcher experiences? None.

This is the same for me. I mean i can't say I've had a bad exoperience with an external launcher. At worst there's a little xtra set up time to create the account but after that. It's at worst just an extra screen to click past.

Nx Machina님이 먼저 게시:

Secondly the developer, publisher of those 3rd party games you licence want one. Why? because they validate you have the licence to play the game on Steam.

I think it also allows them to consolidate their various install bases across muiltiple platforms and thusly makes things like delivering updates and patches much easier.

Rather than posting an uopdate to each stores depot (Steam, Ubi, Ea, Gog, etc) they can just have the launcher draw from a common depot regardless of storefront or platform.

Ad to that the fact that a single launcher can manage multiple games from the same publisher..

Nx Machina님이 먼저 게시:

The irony? People who complain about 3rd party launchers on Steam can get those selfsame games such as Mass Effect, Dragon Age, GTAV, RDR2, The Division, Diablo IV etc on the actual launchers provided by EA, Rockstar, Ubisoft, Blizzard.

To be fair....there is a limit to the number of store clients the average gamer is willing to put up with. It seems to be around 2-3. Which is why GoG was smart enough to make their client optional. for now.

[Crazy Tiger]

While I'm not a fan of such launchers, I have no issue with them being on Steam.

[Chika Ogiue]

Anoi Hidalgo님이 먼저 게시:

yeah they should just ban all 3rd party launchers. If i wanted to buy thr game through your store i wouldve

Except Steam is the third party launcher for anything that isn't a Valve developed game. So if first party launchers are no longer allowed on Steam, all that happens is Valve lose out on their cut of the sales. Plus they drive publishers and developers away from the platform, again.

[miakisfan]

People may not like it but that is the way things work ATM.

Hopefully somewhere down the line someone will come up with a way to prove licensing on Steam without having to use an extra launcher. Maybe instead of complaining OP you could be working on that.

Just food for thought.

Oh, and while I might not like extra launchers either I am yet to have a serious issue with one not working through Steam.

Now I can tell you earlier today I logged into my EA app and it deleted one of my games off the launcher (The Saboteur). It said I had to repurchase the game if I wanted it back. The funny thing is The Saboteur was still installed on my laptop as that was happening. I started up the game and it mysteriously popped right back up on the app.

Now I'll have to check it again to make sure it doesn't happen again.

We are dealing with human made technology. If you are expecting perfection from them you have a long way to go in life.

[ReBoot]

Anoi Hidalgo님이 먼저 게시:

Chika Ogiue님이 먼저 게시:

Except Steam is the third party launcher for anything that isn't a Valve developed game. So if first party launchers are no longer allowed on Steam, all that happens is Valve lose out on their cut of the sales. Plus they drive publishers and developers away from the platform, again.

uh-huh, cool story. Like i said if i wanted to use another launcher i wouldve bought it from their store. I bought the game on steam so i want to use the steam launcher, simple as.

... except this isn't how that would play out. Should Valve ban additional launchers, Jedi Survivor water ulsnt he on Steam at all. You wouldn't be able to buy it on Steam, oyu would have to buy it from EA directly. Just like you already can.

[Malfunctioning Robot]

They DO do something about them, they sell them. Doubt they plan to change that

[ReBoot]

Anoi Hidalgo님이 먼저 게시:

ReBoot님이 먼저 게시:

... except this isn't how that would play out. Should Valve ban additional launchers, Jedi Survivor water ulsnt he on Steam at all. You wouldn't be able to buy it on Steam, oyu would have to buy it from EA directly. Just like you already can.

fo you have a point with all that? If they want to sell to steam users they should do away with their extra launcher requirements or just hope their little store can bring in the sales 😆

No, they shouldn't. They should, however, disclose the necessity for a separate account so Steam users can make an informed purchase decision.

... which they do. You and everyone else can make an informed purchase.

[Princess Luna]

HikariLight님이 먼저 게시:

Last time they did that the devs pulled all of their games from Steam.

When?

[Princess Luna]

Zarineth님이 먼저 게시:

Stop buying games that require additional launchers. Problem solved.

THIS

[SLG]

Luna님이 먼저 게시:

Zarineth님이 먼저 게시:

Stop buying games that require additional launchers. Problem solved.

THIS

You might be out of luck in the future since it seems that is the way it is going.

P.S. Question to people who use other digital platforms, do you have launchers there, too like Epic?

[SLG]

Anoi Hidalgo님이 먼저 게시:

Lee님이 먼저 게시:

You might be out of luck in the future since it seems that is the way it is going.

P.S. Question to people who use other digital platforms, do you have launchers there, too like Epic?

GoG has GoG Galaxy, but you can just launch the games from the exe.
Egs is just as bad as steam, but thankfully theyre incompetent and you cant just bypass EGS launcher entirely on most games

If you exactly look at the game hubs, you will more likely found topics showing you how to bypass the launchers. I mean on Steam.