Why do now all companies make launchers?

[Lep]

It's kind of stupid to have a launcher for every game. Bethesda, Steam,, Uplay, Epic Games, Battlenet, just to name a few.

is this the new trend?

[TheRandomGuy]

引用自 Rikka Takanashi：

引用自 Jej：

Amusingly enough the opposite tends to happen as a result.

its always like that, make it hard for someone to get something legally and if they really want it , pirating often is an easier step than playing along

until i had anime on demand , which i can just pay for with prepaid cards from gamestop , i had to stream all anime for free , now that i can pay for it (could pay for crunchyroll too but idk naruto is free there anyway ) i do that

Crunchyroll is free with ads, only bad thing is that since Funimation split with them their library is somewhat smaller

It is ironic that companies, in trying to prevent piracy, make it harder to buy the product legally and therefore increase piracy. Look at GOG for instance, their launcher is 100% Optional, and I'm not sure how often they have piracy, but they survive without DRM of any kind, which just goes to show you that DRM and Launchers only increase the problem.

[whatamidoing]

引用自 TheRandomGuy：

引用自 Rikka Takanashi：

its always like that, make it hard for someone to get something legally and if they really want it , pirating often is an easier step than playing along

until i had anime on demand , which i can just pay for with prepaid cards from gamestop , i had to stream all anime for free , now that i can pay for it (could pay for crunchyroll too but idk naruto is free there anyway ) i do that

Crunchyroll is free with ads, only bad thing is that since Funimation split with them their library is somewhat smaller

It is ironic that companies, in trying to prevent piracy, make it harder to buy the product legally and therefore increase piracy. Look at GOG for instance, their launcher is 100% Optional, and I'm not sure how often they have piracy, but they survive without DRM of any kind, which just goes to show you that DRM and Launchers only increase the problem.

The quality on crunchyroll, even when I tried and paid for it for a month, is horrid and gave me a proper appreciation for the good old saying ">streaming anime"

Big man Gaben himself said that piracy is a service issue, and I agree with him.

[Powellinho.72]

引用自 Kilroy Was Here：

引用自 99% Crit Chance：

Steam is a launcher ∧ Steam is a client
∴ Steam is a launcher (by simplification)
It is incorrect to say Steam is not a launcher.

Yes cause even steam themselves says it's a client not a launcher. When steam has an update it says steam client update not steam launcher update.

Steam launcher sounds like you are going to launch a game called steam.

so basically what your saying is, i can call anything literally anything and it can mean the complete opposite.

steam is a drm to launch loads of pc games, its a launcher.

[Trundle]

Look like a platform to me.

[Mikasa Ackerman]

引用自 TheRandomGuy：

引用自 Rikka Takanashi：

its always like that, make it hard for someone to get something legally and if they really want it , pirating often is an easier step than playing along

until i had anime on demand , which i can just pay for with prepaid cards from gamestop , i had to stream all anime for free , now that i can pay for it (could pay for crunchyroll too but idk naruto is free there anyway ) i do that

Crunchyroll is free with ads, only bad thing is that since Funimation split with them their library is somewhat smaller

It is ironic that companies, in trying to prevent piracy, make it harder to buy the product legally and therefore increase piracy. Look at GOG for instance, their launcher is 100% Optional, and I'm not sure how often they have piracy, but they survive without DRM of any kind, which just goes to show you that DRM and Launchers only increase the problem.

i just know gamestop had some crunchyroll premium prepaid cards and i think on the naruto stream it said "available for standard users : since 12th of august 2017 "

so i thought not everything is free there , like new series stay exclusive for paying users for 3 months or something

also funimation doesnt allow me to visit their site because i live in austria , i once even had a uk import dvd box of soul eater , which is licensed ( and made ?) by them ,kinda funny how they then proceed to not let me on their site

and very true , its ironic how trying to prevent piracy almost always just hits the paying customer

always online drm ? if it gets cracked ,the pirate can play it offline while the paying customer has to be online and if he tries playing offline the drm will stop them

tons of accounts , wether its for launchers ,or for stuff like the square enix whatever thing just cause 3 signs you into / social club in gta 5 , its more complicated for those that bought the game legally

same if the drm ever gets shut down but the game doesnt remove them (looking at you games for windows live ) for one game you even need some files so the game thinks you have GFWL
i think lost planet 2 has that problem

meanwhile , anyone who pirated a games for windows live game like fable 3 ( which cant even be bought on steam anymore ) they probably just get to play it without any of these issues


now , i dont mind the drm ubisoft does , if they want me to have uplay running , whatever, my pc isnt from 1990 , running one more program wont kill it , uplay atleast is ubisofts own client and store , not just a drm or a 3rd party store like the epic store that has nothing to do with the publisher


i think what ubisoft did with some games is the true way to fight piracy , alot ubi games like division , wildlands , and even watchdogs 2 to some degree , have online , and honestly , its fun to play wildlands online , either you drive around with a 4 man squad , or you split in teams of 2 and do different missions , if i had 3 rl friends who all like shooters, i bet we would grind that game for hundreds of hours

i kinda wish all games were online like that in the future , it would just be fun in final fantasy to see other people in real time like anytime you visit besaid, someone could just be starting the pilgrimage and you can chose to help them if you want, it would stop games from having a point X where you have no more stuff to do , same with watchdogs 2 and its online missions , those are endless , so you can always do them if you are bored and dont need to start all the way from the start if you want something to do again


thats a good way to fight piracy , make a pirate miss out on super fun features , it would also be great if ff15 had that , instead of that meh online mode that has time zone servers , it should have been single player co-op , you can always find others who just appear as normal hunters in your world and you can team up with them, same with the dog tag missions , if someone dies in the game , you get a new of those missions and have to actually go looking for the dogtag


but back on topic , if anti piracy measurements annoy paying customers you are doing it wrong , its the same with DVDs , i am so sick of getting told like 3 times that i may not put this online or watch it online for free , i dont fully remember it , but i think there even was a short clip on a dvd about how you should only get them legally , i think it was like "your family is going to stream it , have a great time , etc and then they show someone illegally downloading it , with slow speed and all sorts of problems (download corrupted etc), if i already bought a dvd or paid for a ticket , why do you annoy me with that , i think the slogan was something like "with real dvd" in it ( just remembered another "they are having a great time , while he is wasting his" ( the person that illegally downloads a movie))
says alot about an anti piracy ad if it was so annoying i remember parts of it years later and i as a paying customer had it on a dvd i paid for , so not only did i give them their money , i get ads !!!)

i dont remember the clip clearly it just randomly popped into my head while writing this

lastly , if it was such a problem that people pirate games , why dont they just offer it for free themselves , like the game is always free , but the free version is locked at 240p , lowest settings , has ads interupting you and more , if you pay 10 -20€ you get a way better experience , if you pay 21-30€ you get access to patches if the game gets them , idk how it should be done so its best but that would really fight piracy , because everyone can just play the game for free , those that cant afford it , just play it for free , those that can but dont want to pay full price get a cheaper "dlc" to get rid of some annoying things

maybe the free version could have wall textures replaced with "support us in any way financially and this will be gone" , just make it like an really obnoxious website that spams you with ads if you dont use adblock , same with microtransactions , if all or most games are free wheres the reason to pirate them ? another thing they could do is maybe not include a save feature, or not being able to keep saves for more than a week , so you can always play through a game once and if its a long game you just cant realistically beat in a week , and you like it ,you buy it


thats an idea that i literally just came up with as i was writing the dvd thing , i mean , lets seriously think about this for a moment , if all games by default are free , what reason will pirates have to crack it , someone who pirates games , doesnt care about the quality , just like i didnt care if most anime streams where low resolution , i really notice this now that i have anime on demand because there the stream is in 1080p

and no matter what you do , a pirate will find a way to crack your game ,so why not let them have it and instead not punish those that are willing to pay

lastly , some ideas how the paying could work :

free = just the first stable release of the game ,without graphic settings , often telling you to buy it if you like it (like winrar ) , maybe not letting you play more than an hour before the game auto terminates itself and you have to start it again , or maybe you can only play a limiited time a day

10-20€ = you get the version you would get today on launch day , with graphic settings , but no option for windowed , borderless window , you can fully access the game , but there are some minor things missing, maybe the game will be full of microtransactions ( lets take watchdogs 2 for example , every single car you can get in car on demand ,costs like 1-2€ in the form of a microtransaction) if the game gets updated you get the update 2-4 weeks later

20 - 40€ = you get a version that has all the microtransactions included , you get all updates day 1 , if a few dlc are announced, you have to either buy a season pass or buy the dlcs one by one


40-60€ the ultra version of the game , every upcoming content is free , you have a few cosmetic things that are exclusive to this version ( like idk ,a golden car paint job , fun cheats like infinite ammo )


ofc, its just a rough example what the tiers could be like , its just an idea i had , but i think it would be the best way to fight piracy , simply because , those that would pirate now , just will play the game f2p , you cant really fight those that dont want to pay , they will find a way around your drm , or they will just not play that one game and not really give a damn

i waited for just cause 4 to get a 50% discount , if the game already had that system i mentioned above , i would have bought it on launch for 20-30€

the problem with 60€ games , you know in a year they will be discounted and you also know your backlog will keep you busy for a year ,so the publishers miss out on alot of money , if the games was cheaper from the start, more would buy it right away and if the game was free, who would pirate it , if you just want it free, you can play it for free ,those that think "i want free but i want the best version " might still try to pirate but if the demand is gone , most will just say "if you care about that, pay for it"


like i said, its just a random thought i had , i would love if some would discuss about it with me, maybe point out some flaws in my idea , or make their own additions to it

edit , sorry , i didnt realize how much text this was , lol

[Knee]

back in the 2000s it seemed like every pc game had it’s own launcher

[SpaceyMatt]

引用自 Knee ни：

back in the 2000s it seemed like every pc game had it’s own launcher

Pretty much. This is nothing new per se how things are trending. Just a return to how it used to be.

[crgzero]

Several reasons, companies want full control over their product, and they're probably tired of Steam robbing them of their 30% cut. Back in the day when bandwidth was more expensive it was probably reasonable, but it's not like that now.

I'm sure there are other reasons, I'm just to tired to think at the moment.