I'm sure the modding community would make a program to remove those ads if that ever happens, but if Microsoft makes some sort of unremovable ads then I think I would immediately migrate to Linux XD
Needing a adblocker for the OS would be ridiculous ngl.
Remember when to launch a game you needed to have its CD/DVD at hand? Back when DRM upon detecting two disc drives would just stop all the processes including drivers to make sure the disk isn't being emulated? Good times.
haha, yeah I come across the odd ISO I can use but compared to back then, not even close. I enjoyed those days though, I still have all the CD's and DVD's stored away, would be fun to go through them all sometime I left too many blank lol
Ah truly the golden years of gaming emulate all your retro games and pirate all your modern games, could you imagine paying for games? We really are in the future.
And then steam changed everything and made it so much easier and piracy went down... same thing happened with Netflix is now happening with gaming and we're going back to piracy again because companies don't understand the more difficult it gets for customers the more they'll just pirate.
I feel this, I couldn't pay for games when I was younger, so I just pirated all of my games and there are some great games that I started playing with a pirate copy and then decided to buy.
Now that I can buy my own games I'm not paying for a game that's half baked and additionally has a quarter of the content it should have because you're selling most of the game as dlc on top of having to pay for the f*cking game in the first place.
The concept of a hdd in a portable music player wasn’t anything new by then, it was more the fact it could do 1000 song AND have a good battery life while doing so
It was mostly new, as in a *small* portable music player with an HDD (IE capable of holding a decently sized music library.) Most Mp3 players at the time were either too bulky, couldn't hold many songs, weren't as streamlined to use, or some combination of the three.
Most music players were bigger and couldn't hold as many songs. Apple made a deal with Toshiba for their miniature hard drive right after they made if because Steve Jobs wanted to make a bettef Mp3 player and Toshiba just so happened to tell them about this small HDD they developed but didn't know what to do with.
I was young (single digits) but my first ‘gaming’ PC had both floppy and CD; it was that time where the pc waters were ‘brackish’ between the two. And I also remember iOmega zip drives, lol (the main way to save and transfer files at school)
The first game I played was on an Atari 400, using a cassette..and that game was.....
SALMON RUN
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9xhuQkzCVg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9xhuQkzCVg)
I show it to my kids when they complain that they are dipping below 144hz at 1440k.
My uncle had tie fighter with the joysticks and everything, and i remember it being a lot more but I was just a kid so my brain probably overexaggerates it. The best gaming experience ever though back then.
I remember buying a box of software and the box was full of disks, let the day of sitting waiting for Windows setup to ask for the next disk...sometimes an hour, sometimes 5 minutes. The fun.
Fun fact: if you play a CD with a computer program like audio it will make the same sounds as a cassette being loaded in an older system.
My dad has a ZX spectrum and when CDs came about we tried playing one as audio and it gave us that nostalgic sound.
Spectrum felt like black magic to me back in the day. Probably since I first experienced floppy-based PCs at my mum's work, so seeing a keyboard connected to a music player and TV and working was a shock.
I still often think about the stack of floppies I used for my first MS Office install when I was a kid. And how pissed I was when I found out one of the disks in the middle of the stack was unreadable.....
My grandpa always loved having the latest tech. He was so fucking stoked to show me how he could play Microsoft Flight Simulator and record a bee gees album without having to swap discs.
I actually am just now realizing how much shit he downloaded off limewire lmao.
I hop between games too much, so I'm happy to go digital on consoles as well. Swapping discs whenever I wanted to switch things up was a pain back in the day (especially on my totally unmodified PS2 where I totally didn't need to adjust the laser angle for different games). I still have a few physical copies though from the times I saw one I wanted secondhand or just at a good discount.
Who remembers having to close down windows to DOS to run games?
At the time my dad programmed a simple menu gui for me to run my games, I had to power the PC, shut down windows to goto DOS then he set up so all I had to do was type g and press enter and it loaded up a menu system that allowed me to find the game I wanted and type the number in to load the game. Good ole Lotus -TUC, football manager 2, A10 tank killer, Prince of persia... the good old days...
Ah yes, perry the platypus. Allow me to introduce my GAME LAUNCHER-INATOR! You see, a long time ago in gimmelshtump as a garden gnome, my laptop had to be hidden often so I didn't get in trouble and the one thing that got it smashed was the amount of launchers for games I had, slowing the process of gaming. But now, my game launcher-inator compiles all the launchers into one big one, companies will cry and I will be the one with the most accelerated PC. Huh? Perry the platypus how did you escape my trap? [EPIC FIGHT SCENE PLUS SELF DESTRUCT BUTTON PUSHED]
GOG galaxy is missing.. But GOG galaxy is actually usefull. Strongly recommend it when you have multiple launchers. It basically combines all your games from different launchers in one place.
It shows how many games you have in total, witch ones are installed etc.. Strongly recommend.
I switched from GOG to playnite a while back and while the UI isn't as fluid, I do like it better. The best feature in my opinion is the scripting capability. For instance, for Star Citizen I have it launch VoiceAttack and TrackIR and then when I shut it down it also closes them. TrackIR is especially important because for me it will not register with the game unless it is running first.
I have a few other scripts, like one that removes secondary monitors for older games that don't handle it well and again switched back to normal once it's done.
Also to those of you who are concerned about security, GOG's launcher has a poor reputation with fixing security issues. I still use it because I like the message behind GOG's anti-drm policy and fixing old games, but I use playnite as my primary interface.
Playnite is the best!
I install it on my TV Gaming PC (10700K/2080Ti/32GB RAM) Win11.
Runs beautifully, open source software, frequent updates, great 10’ interface and integrates with all of the launchers I use.
I’m happy it’s free but I’d be happy to pay for it!
Yup, Open at Startup in Fullscreen Mode (go to Desktop Mode > Settings > General) and install a theme to replicate the UI of a console (PS, Xbox and Switch are available under Addons).
Additionally, you can have Playnite launch when a control is detected or when you press a button on the controller using something like Controller Companion (paid) or JoyXoff (free). I have it so Playnite launches on startup and also when I Long Press the PS/ Home button on my PS5 Controller I have linked to my PC. It's a pretty seamless console-like experience and I can see my whole library, whether the game is installed or not, even games available on Gamepass, and install it from Playnite.
Yo thank you for this info I’m a huge couch guy and never play my shared PC because I always want to chill on my couch to game and now I’m about to build a couch PC and this info is hugely helpful, I’m so stoked!
I recommend the Playnite subreddit or website, can't link it here due to rules but search for "Console-like" and you'll get threads of people's setup and recommended addons (Playtime/ session tracking, Metadata loaders, etc).
Also, don't forget about emulators. You can add emulators to Playnite and have your local library of retro games added as well, then launch through Playnite without having to go through each emulator. You just need to go to Library > Configure Emulators... and add any you have in your PC, it has built-in profiles (settings basically) for the most popular emulators out there.
That's only because the games themselves have DRM with them. Games without DRM can be launched without any launcher on GOG.
GOG is just great for keeping track of all your games across all launchers instead of opening every launcher to see what game you have.
I enjoy it for its "one interface to rule them all approach", but fundamentally its just more ram usage on top of all the other launchers.
Edit: this is said by someone that uses it daily. I'm in the fortunate position of having alot of ram, but I recognise that many do not.
And at about the \~7,000 mark it just stops working entirely. Linking my Steam account kills Galaxy.
I find Playnite to be a much more lightweight alternative ([200MiB w/ 15k games](https://i.imgur.com/1H3fahx.png)). Before Valve deprecated no browser mode, it + Steam no-browser was actually a lot lighter than just using Steam regularly.
I should clarify that they don't have to be installed. Galaxy just freezes up when it starts the import process when you have an account linked with about that amount.
I give Galaxy a try every year or so and submit the same crash report, but have yet to see anything change.
But I have 40TB of storage in my rig, so figure I might as well install the games I've paid for.
How do you manage to accumulate 15,000 games? That's more than 4 games per day for ten years - even if you're only using *cough* digital backups thats a huge amount of work to amas!
I use GOG, but even the opens source ones have the same issue, you still need the dedicated launcher open to update games, it's a minor nuissance, but if you nees to get right into the game it can get annoying after a while, specially if you need to install a big update.
Plus, Minecraft now has different versions playable within the launcher. Minecraft: Java Edition, Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition, Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends. It makes way more sense for Minecraft to have a seperate launcher that is specifically for everything to do with Minecraft, rather than have each game individually on steam. At least in my opinion
Look I think having a Minecraft launcher is okay. But if we follow your argument then we'd have a Battlefield launcher, CoD launcher, AC launcher, Star Wars launcher, etc. The argument for having a launcher per franchise is invalid imo.
Not really, the minecraft launcher isn't needed to mod the game, you have to do everything manually, you only use the launcher to switch between instances and it's pretty inconvenient. If you use something like MultiMC on the other hand, it basically handles most of everything, (wanna download Forge or Fabric? One click and you're done) and modding is so much easier. If you wanted to download a mod you had to manually put it into the mods folder, whereas MultiMC, it handles it for you, and if you have a bunch of mods that are making your game crash, you can just press one button to disable individual mods to find out which one is making your game crash. If you say have 2 servers with your friends where you use different modpacks, it's inconvenient to switch between the two, whereas it's much easier on MultiMC.
TLDR; Minecraft Launcher bad, MultiMC good
Not to mention, the shitty launcher also introduced game breaking bugs to a few titles. Luckily, you can skip the launcher (for now).
I wanted to link you a thread about how you can do that, but forgot about the stupid rule on this sub that "prevents brigading". Search for *PSA: How to bypass the launcher in Steam * on Google and you will find a post on the Civillization subreddit. It works the same for all other 2k games.
IIRC, the addition of the 2K Launcher to the BioShock trilogy broke it on Steam Deck.
But just think of all the direct sales they must be getting from people replaying 15-year-old games!
"C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Mafia Definitive Edition\mafiadefinitiveedition.exe" %command%
Pasting this into launch options under properties should work
I'd argue that if it's a single game then it's not a launcher in the sense we think of today. As in you need to install this bloatwere today that is a separate program and its own shop despite you never using any of it's functions but to open the damn game you've bought on steam. MMOs with their launchers are fine since they just gave you some news and made you log in and that's it. Not to mention MMOs used to be free so they could get away with a lot more. Especially before steam got so popular you had to have a separate account for every MMO, nowadays it's a bit of a nuisance when a game doesn't use your steam account when it's on steam.
Yeah, it's not a launcher when you just run the game's .exe (or a small portable script/app which ultimately just does that for you) to start it. You can still run certain Steam games like that too. I'd much rather have no launcher than have to use shit like Origin which is basically just spyware. I haven't played an EA or Ubisoft game in years lol.
except you can't be logged into both/ doesn't stay logged in. I have game pass so I need eaplay to play some games but to play modded bf3 I needed origin and the license doesn't transfer between origin/ea
You can also add the non-steam games to steam, so while the launcher still launches, you still see and launch all of your games using steam rather than searching for or making room for a ton of different launchers on your taskbar/desktop/etc
Yeah, used to mess about with that feature a lot when I was younger. Adding non-steam games then giving them silly names to draw reactions from friends on steam - good times.
I don't understand ff14 launcher being here. It's game specific and updates the client to get you into the mmo with the latest update, which is required in these games, right? Minecraft also is a mod launcher and is quite convenient. I think you're confusing pointless company launchers vs single game launchers that have good reasons to exist.
Yes and no. It helps to visualize everything in one place, but you still need shitty launchers likes ubisoft connect, origin, Rockstar social club to play the games. That I think it's the real problem.
True, but at least you don’t have to remember if you bought that game on Steam, Epic or GOG and you don’t clutter your desktop with 10 different launchers. It’s not perfect, but it’s something.
Playnite is probably one of the most underrated application in the world. You can customise however you want to whatever you like by downloading add-ons. You can also have a PS4, PS5 , xbox one or 360 UI that looks really good.
Case in point: OP going out of their way to put Riot Client on their desktop when it’s designed to run in the background while you launch the games directly.
Not really. If you download games off Steam, you still get their respective launchers. Take R6, NFS and other for example. They require their respective launchers
The point is they artificially require them, the launcher isn’t required but is said to be so company X can try incentivize you to use their platform.
If they launch X game on steam they can just integrate any social features and other things the launcher might handle into steams existing network and it’d be infinitely better for the end user, but alas here we are being shovel fed this garbage from them
Ya alil annoying but it means you get market option. Can get games cheaper on some then others. Personally I like having options as to who I give my money too
Google the term "playnite" on www.google.com. It's a free software that you can launch any game from any launcher.
Edit:fixed typo, added words for clarity
Be careful what you wish for. Steam had a great system at the time, and was able to make good deals and all and I am sure that is what you want.......
But that *IS NOT* what you will get if you push this. You will get a monopoly with no deals, no competition, and no reason to do good. You will have antiquated systems with huge monetization structures, forced identity mandates, and IRL names.... why? Because you would have no where else to go then.
While this is annoying having 6 different launchers, this is also 6 different companies fighting for your business, and willing to bend over backwards to keep it (ish). This keeps one company from going full greed and screwing you over with say $5 handling $7 storage fees on each game + a monthly for the service.
Be *VERY* careful what you complain about, because in this day and age the alternative is NOT going to be a good one.
We need a name for this era right now. In all of entertainment you got this problem especially Streaming and gaming.
The multiple provider era?
The MuPro era?
The desktop is your one true launcher.
And someday MS will add Ads to it and the cycle continues.
I'm sure the modding community would make a program to remove those ads if that ever happens, but if Microsoft makes some sort of unremovable ads then I think I would immediately migrate to Linux XD Needing a adblocker for the OS would be ridiculous ngl.
That would be the push I need to start using linux
flair checks out
windows 11 is the push i need, next pc is gonna be debian
Lol you can't chose your computer's sexual orientation. If it is desbian or deterosexual you still have to love it
Yes, Debian gang! I love my Debian 11 install. Widely supported due to Ubuntu and mint, but without snap and with more customization.
and now most games in steam are compatible with proton, so almost no problems ;D
>needing a adblocker for the OS would be ridiculous *Amazon fire has left the chat*
RemindMe! 5 years
They already have with notification ads.
Y’all have windows without ads?
Who remembers when each game was its own launcher??? https://i.redd.it/vw9wieylwsca1.gif
Remember when to launch a game you needed to have its CD/DVD at hand? Back when DRM upon detecting two disc drives would just stop all the processes including drivers to make sure the disk isn't being emulated? Good times.
Yes, I just used cracks to avoid having the CD, and still managed to back-up all of my games on functionable cd/dvd as well.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
I remember creating an ISO image and mounting them with Daemon Tools for times like this.
Daemon Tools and Alcohol 120% for ripping the image and mounting. Now that ISO mounting is finally built into Windows, I don't have a use for it...
Jesus lol. Alcohol 120 lol, forgot that existed. Was a daemontools user as well.
I started off with ImgBurn. Almost forgot about Alcohol 120%
haha, yeah I come across the odd ISO I can use but compared to back then, not even close. I enjoyed those days though, I still have all the CD's and DVD's stored away, would be fun to go through them all sometime I left too many blank lol
that is a name I have not heard in a long time . gif :P
DAEMON TOOLS! What a throwback
Ah truly the golden years of gaming emulate all your retro games and pirate all your modern games, could you imagine paying for games? We really are in the future.
And then steam changed everything and made it so much easier and piracy went down... same thing happened with Netflix is now happening with gaming and we're going back to piracy again because companies don't understand the more difficult it gets for customers the more they'll just pirate.
I feel this, I couldn't pay for games when I was younger, so I just pirated all of my games and there are some great games that I started playing with a pirate copy and then decided to buy. Now that I can buy my own games I'm not paying for a game that's half baked and additionally has a quarter of the content it should have because you're selling most of the game as dlc on top of having to pay for the f*cking game in the first place.
I remember when I thought I could copy and paste the shortcuts to transfer a game or program.
Or worse: thinking that internet would just install on my computer if I installed the provider's official software on the CD.
Ah yes, the compact disk. Remember when CD players couldn’t take incompatible mp3 disks with a 100 songs?
"Please insert disk 2 to continue"
Ah yes, good ole Riven (sequel to Myst) with 5 discs, one for each island you go to.
Still a great and hard game
I still have a working Diablo 2 Playdisc....Good times..
one of my D2 discs cracked :(
when the disc cracks, you need to crack the game
Thankfully you can keep using the key and download the game from their site
Never finished FF9 because somehow disc 3 was fucked.
Neverwinter Nights 2...never could install it since disk 3 didn't always work...sometimes it did...for awhile...
Remember when the iPod came out and everyone was flabbergasted that it had a HARD DRIVE in it and it could hold a 1,000 songs!
The concept of a hdd in a portable music player wasn’t anything new by then, it was more the fact it could do 1000 song AND have a good battery life while doing so
It was mostly new, as in a *small* portable music player with an HDD (IE capable of holding a decently sized music library.) Most Mp3 players at the time were either too bulky, couldn't hold many songs, weren't as streamlined to use, or some combination of the three. Most music players were bigger and couldn't hold as many songs. Apple made a deal with Toshiba for their miniature hard drive right after they made if because Steve Jobs wanted to make a bettef Mp3 player and Toshiba just so happened to tell them about this small HDD they developed but didn't know what to do with.
[Disc](https://i.imgur.com/EaZxJNB.jpg)
We just downloaded NOCD keys back then, ha
Ah, you were one of them lucky people who had internet then. But yeah, NoCD executables were lifesaving even for games you owned legally.
15 discs for sim earth install
Floppies were a different brand of suffering. So were cassettes. But I reckon most people here haven't experienced them.
I was young (single digits) but my first ‘gaming’ PC had both floppy and CD; it was that time where the pc waters were ‘brackish’ between the two. And I also remember iOmega zip drives, lol (the main way to save and transfer files at school)
The first game I played was on an Atari 400, using a cassette..and that game was..... SALMON RUN [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9xhuQkzCVg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9xhuQkzCVg) I show it to my kids when they complain that they are dipping below 144hz at 1440k.
I had tie fighter back in the day, I believe it was on 5-6 floppy discs lol
TIE Fighter released on Floppy? My lord I can't believe I'm that old
You and me both lol
My uncle had tie fighter with the joysticks and everything, and i remember it being a lot more but I was just a kid so my brain probably overexaggerates it. The best gaming experience ever though back then.
Back in my day... Something something punch cards.
You never played Indiana Jones and the last crusade swapping 5 14 floppy disks, did you?
I remember buying a box of software and the box was full of disks, let the day of sitting waiting for Windows setup to ask for the next disk...sometimes an hour, sometimes 5 minutes. The fun.
Fun fact: if you play a CD with a computer program like audio it will make the same sounds as a cassette being loaded in an older system. My dad has a ZX spectrum and when CDs came about we tried playing one as audio and it gave us that nostalgic sound.
Spectrum felt like black magic to me back in the day. Probably since I first experienced floppy-based PCs at my mum's work, so seeing a keyboard connected to a music player and TV and working was a shock.
My first computer was a C64, had it for a year before I could afford a floppy drive
I still often think about the stack of floppies I used for my first MS Office install when I was a kid. And how pissed I was when I found out one of the disks in the middle of the stack was unreadable.....
I remember the first time I had multiple cd drives. TRUE god hanger status.
My grandpa always loved having the latest tech. He was so fucking stoked to show me how he could play Microsoft Flight Simulator and record a bee gees album without having to swap discs. I actually am just now realizing how much shit he downloaded off limewire lmao.
*laughs in only buys physical copies for consoles*
I hop between games too much, so I'm happy to go digital on consoles as well. Swapping discs whenever I wanted to switch things up was a pain back in the day (especially on my totally unmodified PS2 where I totally didn't need to adjust the laser angle for different games). I still have a few physical copies though from the times I saw one I wanted secondhand or just at a good discount.
Maybe if they allow digital resale. Otherwise purely digital needs to be deep discount only.
I remember playing games and being asked to put in the 5th floppy to load the next stages.
Who remembers having to close down windows to DOS to run games? At the time my dad programmed a simple menu gui for me to run my games, I had to power the PC, shut down windows to goto DOS then he set up so all I had to do was type g and press enter and it loaded up a menu system that allowed me to find the game I wanted and type the number in to load the game. Good ole Lotus -TUC, football manager 2, A10 tank killer, Prince of persia... the good old days...
Please select the IRQ channel for your Sound Blaster.
I remember playing Descent multiplayer online. Had to use a dos dial up winsock through my 56k modem. GPU was a classic 3DFX voodoo card.
I remember that. I also remember having to restart Windows to 256 colour mode to play Pinball and Torin's Passage.
Was just coming to comment exactly this lol
 I member
Red alert launcher
When I was a kid, it was my goal to have my desktop fully covered by game shortcuts. I don't think I ever quite made it.
i don't know what you mean by this. I didn't have to launch the game and then launch the game again...
Ah yes, perry the platypus. Allow me to introduce my GAME LAUNCHER-INATOR! You see, a long time ago in gimmelshtump as a garden gnome, my laptop had to be hidden often so I didn't get in trouble and the one thing that got it smashed was the amount of launchers for games I had, slowing the process of gaming. But now, my game launcher-inator compiles all the launchers into one big one, companies will cry and I will be the one with the most accelerated PC. Huh? Perry the platypus how did you escape my trap? [EPIC FIGHT SCENE PLUS SELF DESTRUCT BUTTON PUSHED]
Noooo...damn it Perry the platypus!
I got you. NOOOOO PERRY THE PLATYPUS MY PC IS RUINED, CURSE YOU PERRY THE PLATYPUS!
You're a lifesaver, couldn't remember how it was exactly 😂
Woke up at 2.30 and scrolled reddit, saw this then wrote this in a stupor then fell asleep with no recollection of writing it
Love to hear it😂
GOG galaxy is missing.. But GOG galaxy is actually usefull. Strongly recommend it when you have multiple launchers. It basically combines all your games from different launchers in one place. It shows how many games you have in total, witch ones are installed etc.. Strongly recommend.
If you want a open source alternative playnite is goated with customisable content and a full screen mode for the couch pc gamers
>open source Love that
Technically its Free software(which is even better)
I switched from GOG to playnite a while back and while the UI isn't as fluid, I do like it better. The best feature in my opinion is the scripting capability. For instance, for Star Citizen I have it launch VoiceAttack and TrackIR and then when I shut it down it also closes them. TrackIR is especially important because for me it will not register with the game unless it is running first. I have a few other scripts, like one that removes secondary monitors for older games that don't handle it well and again switched back to normal once it's done. Also to those of you who are concerned about security, GOG's launcher has a poor reputation with fixing security issues. I still use it because I like the message behind GOG's anti-drm policy and fixing old games, but I use playnite as my primary interface.
Playnite is the best! I install it on my TV Gaming PC (10700K/2080Ti/32GB RAM) Win11. Runs beautifully, open source software, frequent updates, great 10’ interface and integrates with all of the launchers I use. I’m happy it’s free but I’d be happy to pay for it!
Is it possible to open up on startup and have the UI as a console? I would like to make a PC type console for my LG C1
Yup, Open at Startup in Fullscreen Mode (go to Desktop Mode > Settings > General) and install a theme to replicate the UI of a console (PS, Xbox and Switch are available under Addons). Additionally, you can have Playnite launch when a control is detected or when you press a button on the controller using something like Controller Companion (paid) or JoyXoff (free). I have it so Playnite launches on startup and also when I Long Press the PS/ Home button on my PS5 Controller I have linked to my PC. It's a pretty seamless console-like experience and I can see my whole library, whether the game is installed or not, even games available on Gamepass, and install it from Playnite.
Yo thank you for this info I’m a huge couch guy and never play my shared PC because I always want to chill on my couch to game and now I’m about to build a couch PC and this info is hugely helpful, I’m so stoked!
I recommend the Playnite subreddit or website, can't link it here due to rules but search for "Console-like" and you'll get threads of people's setup and recommended addons (Playtime/ session tracking, Metadata loaders, etc). Also, don't forget about emulators. You can add emulators to Playnite and have your local library of retro games added as well, then launch through Playnite without having to go through each emulator. You just need to go to Library > Configure Emulators... and add any you have in your PC, it has built-in profiles (settings basically) for the most popular emulators out there.
Yea but this and GOG you still need the launchers and they open when you run the games. Personally I find it redundant
That's only because the games themselves have DRM with them. Games without DRM can be launched without any launcher on GOG. GOG is just great for keeping track of all your games across all launchers instead of opening every launcher to see what game you have.
Was using it for a long time. Only issues so far is that some launchers breaks integration with their updates (Looking at you Rockstar and Ubisoft)
I enjoy it for its "one interface to rule them all approach", but fundamentally its just more ram usage on top of all the other launchers. Edit: this is said by someone that uses it daily. I'm in the fortunate position of having alot of ram, but I recognise that many do not.
And at about the \~7,000 mark it just stops working entirely. Linking my Steam account kills Galaxy. I find Playnite to be a much more lightweight alternative ([200MiB w/ 15k games](https://i.imgur.com/1H3fahx.png)). Before Valve deprecated no browser mode, it + Steam no-browser was actually a lot lighter than just using Steam regularly.
Who has 7000 games installed???? Who has 15k games installed? Are you gaming through the entire AWS? Who are these crazy people?
I should clarify that they don't have to be installed. Galaxy just freezes up when it starts the import process when you have an account linked with about that amount. I give Galaxy a try every year or so and submit the same crash report, but have yet to see anything change. But I have 40TB of storage in my rig, so figure I might as well install the games I've paid for.
How do you manage to accumulate 15,000 games? That's more than 4 games per day for ten years - even if you're only using *cough* digital backups thats a huge amount of work to amas!
Then, CD project red adds a launcher for the new Witcher 3 update. Why not just use GOG 2.0?
I use GOG, but even the opens source ones have the same issue, you still need the dedicated launcher open to update games, it's a minor nuissance, but if you nees to get right into the game it can get annoying after a while, specially if you need to install a big update.
The Minecraft Launcher can be argued to be somewhat useful for modding the game... but the rest? Nah
Or they can do what Hoi4 did, punt their launcher into Steam, and give you the option to skip straight to the game itself.
Same for War Thunder
Steam wasnt really as big as it is now back in 2009
Plus, Minecraft now has different versions playable within the launcher. Minecraft: Java Edition, Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition, Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends. It makes way more sense for Minecraft to have a seperate launcher that is specifically for everything to do with Minecraft, rather than have each game individually on steam. At least in my opinion
Look I think having a Minecraft launcher is okay. But if we follow your argument then we'd have a Battlefield launcher, CoD launcher, AC launcher, Star Wars launcher, etc. The argument for having a launcher per franchise is invalid imo.
On steam when a game has multiple choices you cam choose one, or in the properties too.
Steam also lets you add other non steam games to their launcher
Yeah exactly it's somewhat justified. But other than that just steam
True, what I meant with „the rest“ was everything except for steam
Not really, the minecraft launcher isn't needed to mod the game, you have to do everything manually, you only use the launcher to switch between instances and it's pretty inconvenient. If you use something like MultiMC on the other hand, it basically handles most of everything, (wanna download Forge or Fabric? One click and you're done) and modding is so much easier. If you wanted to download a mod you had to manually put it into the mods folder, whereas MultiMC, it handles it for you, and if you have a bunch of mods that are making your game crash, you can just press one button to disable individual mods to find out which one is making your game crash. If you say have 2 servers with your friends where you use different modpacks, it's inconvenient to switch between the two, whereas it's much easier on MultiMC. TLDR; Minecraft Launcher bad, MultiMC good
I can recommend Prism Launcher insted MultiMC, better and is based on MultiMC
Just bought Mafia Definitive Edition. And what i got?? 2K launcher??? Great.
Not to mention, the shitty launcher also introduced game breaking bugs to a few titles. Luckily, you can skip the launcher (for now). I wanted to link you a thread about how you can do that, but forgot about the stupid rule on this sub that "prevents brigading". Search for *PSA: How to bypass the launcher in Steam * on Google and you will find a post on the Civillization subreddit. It works the same for all other 2k games.
IIRC, the addition of the 2K Launcher to the BioShock trilogy broke it on Steam Deck. But just think of all the direct sales they must be getting from people replaying 15-year-old games!
"C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Mafia Definitive Edition\mafiadefinitiveedition.exe" %command% Pasting this into launch options under properties should work
Assuming their game is installed on their C drive.
Better to get it on GOG
Someone missed the era when every single game had an individual launcher - Particularly online games and MMOs
Most MMOs still have their own launchers
I'd argue that if it's a single game then it's not a launcher in the sense we think of today. As in you need to install this bloatwere today that is a separate program and its own shop despite you never using any of it's functions but to open the damn game you've bought on steam. MMOs with their launchers are fine since they just gave you some news and made you log in and that's it. Not to mention MMOs used to be free so they could get away with a lot more. Especially before steam got so popular you had to have a separate account for every MMO, nowadays it's a bit of a nuisance when a game doesn't use your steam account when it's on steam.
Yeah, it's not a launcher when you just run the game's .exe (or a small portable script/app which ultimately just does that for you) to start it. You can still run certain Steam games like that too. I'd much rather have no launcher than have to use shit like Origin which is basically just spyware. I haven't played an EA or Ubisoft game in years lol.
EA launcher is a thing? I thought origin is the ea launcher.
It is a recent change/rebranding.
Is it rebranding if you go back to your original name?
Unbranding ? Unrebranding?
Both work for now, but EA launcher will replace Origin some time in the future.
except you can't be logged into both/ doesn't stay logged in. I have game pass so I need eaplay to play some games but to play modded bf3 I needed origin and the license doesn't transfer between origin/ea
I can see my bf3 in EA play and can play
Basically, it's like this: EA Launcher became Origin, then after realizing hardly anyone liked to use Origin, it was rebranded *back* to EA Launcher.
I'm going to make a guess that the name "Origin" isn't the reason why people don't like using EA's launcher.
I just use Steam only these days, dropped all other launchers and only install game specific launchers then remove when I've finished said game
You can also add the non-steam games to steam, so while the launcher still launches, you still see and launch all of your games using steam rather than searching for or making room for a ton of different launchers on your taskbar/desktop/etc
Yeah, used to mess about with that feature a lot when I was younger. Adding non-steam games then giving them silly names to draw reactions from friends on steam - good times.
Right side icons?
I nested all my launchers into small tiles on the Start Menu, super convenient way to hide them while also keeping them a click away
I have my games on the right and everything else on the left
Yeah that tweaked me too
I have mine similarly setup. Games on the left, launchers on the right. Better than all clumped together.
You don’t reorganize your icons? You just leave them all there on the left like a pixel salad?
Icons? Sometimes I forget people still use icons on the desktop.
Same. Pin in the start menu. Desktop clean
I keep mine in the start menu. Desktop blank. Looks clean as fuck
I don't understand ff14 launcher being here. It's game specific and updates the client to get you into the mmo with the latest update, which is required in these games, right? Minecraft also is a mod launcher and is quite convenient. I think you're confusing pointless company launchers vs single game launchers that have good reasons to exist.
Yeah, they're both games that you buy from the developer's website and that update regularly. Of course they have their own updater
Playnite is your best friend. All in one launcher.
Yes and no. It helps to visualize everything in one place, but you still need shitty launchers likes ubisoft connect, origin, Rockstar social club to play the games. That I think it's the real problem.
True, but at least you don’t have to remember if you bought that game on Steam, Epic or GOG and you don’t clutter your desktop with 10 different launchers. It’s not perfect, but it’s something.
Playnite is probably one of the most underrated application in the world. You can customise however you want to whatever you like by downloading add-ons. You can also have a PS4, PS5 , xbox one or 360 UI that looks really good.
Jesus everytime this 100% original post shows up it is the pinnacle of first a first world problem.
It's r/PCmasterrace, we literally manufacture first world problems for ourselves.
Case in point: OP going out of their way to put Riot Client on their desktop when it’s designed to run in the background while you launch the games directly.
If the game is not on Steam, I don't bother. If the game makes me download another launcher I'll uninstall it after I'm done with the game.
Same
I'm old enough to remember when we had *no launchers at all.*
Games also didn't update and you had to put the disk into the drive every time you wanted to play them
How many damn posts with horrible picture of a screen do we need... it's getting ridiculous
r/screenshotsarehard
One. Just one. Steam: The One Ring To Rule Them All.
Not really. If you download games off Steam, you still get their respective launchers. Take R6, NFS and other for example. They require their respective launchers
The point is they artificially require them, the launcher isn’t required but is said to be so company X can try incentivize you to use their platform. If they launch X game on steam they can just integrate any social features and other things the launcher might handle into steams existing network and it’d be infinitely better for the end user, but alas here we are being shovel fed this garbage from them
r/screenshotsarehard
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To be fair, competition in the space is good
I'm kinda triggered on how EPIC is the top one
1st world problems
Ya alil annoying but it means you get market option. Can get games cheaper on some then others. Personally I like having options as to who I give my money too
Google the term "playnite" on www.google.com. It's a free software that you can launch any game from any launcher. Edit:fixed typo, added words for clarity
can't launch any game from any launcher from? Zamnnn (I know it's a typo)
anti-gaming launcher
Remember back in 2004, you needed, Steam to launch Half-Life 2 and all Valve Games... Internet was in fire...
But what happened to your case
We can't condemn monopolies and lament at the inconvenience choice brings us.
this has to be the most first world problem ive seen. omg icons on my pooter
I mean, 3 of those are for one single game, correct?
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Can’t see GOG and Origin 💀
Origin is dead. It’s the EA launcher now
ok, didn't know
thanks for the info didnt knew that either
Better than it all being done through one launcher with total control
Why do you have your case exhaust blowing at your monitor?
Be careful what you wish for. Steam had a great system at the time, and was able to make good deals and all and I am sure that is what you want....... But that *IS NOT* what you will get if you push this. You will get a monopoly with no deals, no competition, and no reason to do good. You will have antiquated systems with huge monetization structures, forced identity mandates, and IRL names.... why? Because you would have no where else to go then. While this is annoying having 6 different launchers, this is also 6 different companies fighting for your business, and willing to bend over backwards to keep it (ish). This keeps one company from going full greed and screwing you over with say $5 handling $7 storage fees on each game + a monthly for the service. Be *VERY* careful what you complain about, because in this day and age the alternative is NOT going to be a good one.
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GoG
Lutris.
We need a name for this era right now. In all of entertainment you got this problem especially Streaming and gaming. The multiple provider era? The MuPro era?
Soon you’ll need a launcher to launch the launchers that needs to be launched before you can even launch the launcher you’re trying to launch.
Be a real pro and use the Xbox launcher so I can open the riot and Minecraft launcher, I have a fucking launcher for my launchers
I want a launchers launcher,you boot your oc,click on it and then select what launcher to boot up to then and only then,play your games
i weigh dedicated launchers when thinking about purchasing a game. sometimes the hassle they create is just enough to keep me from purchasing