Everything except making a store people wanted to use? Ethan Evans, who was previously Vice President of Prime Gaming at Amazon, has a short retrospective of trying to take on Steam.
Yeah, people say this. And sometimes they say this even if the “other launcher” just pops up for a second, does a thing and automatically goes away, because that’s how Ubisoft’s one has worked for a while and people still complain about it A LOT.
But in any case, that’s a bug. I’ve encountered games that have gamebreaking bugs, second launcher or not, and with both EA and Steam. They both will give you a refund automatically, at the very least. That’s neither here nor there.
Yes, it’s a bug. You can find many reports on the internet, it’s existed for years and EA doesn’t care.
Oh, awesome, so I just have to accept that the second launcher prevents me from playing the game? I have to buy the DLC for a higher price in the EA store if I want to play them?
Awesome, who doesn’t want such a great second launcher! Please give me one in front of all my games, I’d hate being able to use Steam as my primary launcher!
Well, no, you found a bug in a poorly maintained game. You don’t have to accept anything, but if the customer support for both of the affected companies won’t help you fix it then the recourse is to get a refund.
But that is true regardless of whether the bug is on Steam, whatever EA is calling their authorization system these days or the game itself. It’s not a problem with the concept of a game featuring its own login flow, it’s a problem with the concept of not maintaining games properly. There are plenty of games in that same situation with no second launcher in them.
No, the bug is not in Titanfall 2, it’s in the EA app. Titanfall 2 doesn’t start, the EA app blocks it before that. It’s only the second launcher that’s problematic.
You’re just wrong here, because the problem is the second authentication flow which apparently isn’t implemented correctly.
Not that it would be any better if you’re correct, as it’s still EA selling a game that’s broken due to their second launcher, but that’s not the case here.
What I’m saying is a bug is a bug is a bug. It doesn’t matter which part is borked if it doesn’t let you play the game. The problem isn’t that the game has a launcher, the problem is the launcher is broken. If the broken part was the main menu you’d be just as boned.
And yes, they should fix it. And if they don’t you should get a refund.
None of which has any bearing on the conversation we’re actually having here. Because you’re not blocked by having a launcher, you’re blocked by having a broken one.
Yes, a bug is a bug is a bug. EA doesn’t care about this bug and hasn’t fixed it in years. I would not be encountering this bug if they didn’t insist on a second launcher.
If the broken part was the main menu you’d be just as boned.
Yet the main menu works fine, and it’s only the second launcher that’s boning me. It’s well known that the more code you have, the higher the chances of a bug.
And yes, they should fix it. And if they don’t you should get a refund.
Which would leave me the option to buy the DLC for a higher price from EA, or not play at all. Amazing, this second launcher is really helping me!
Because you’re not blocked by having a launcher, you’re blocked by having a broken one.
But I haven’t encountered such issues with Steam. It’s the opposite, Steam is actively helping me to make games more playable. Other launchers are making them less playable, because the companies don’t care.
My issue is the second launcher, not any random bug.
That depends on what you’re doing. A separate login is useful for stuff like cross-platform support. But also, if your game is some sort of MMO or live game you may need some sort of account management if you want to sell it stand-alone.
These days some people just plug into the storefront’s login system, but I also don’t begrudge the ones that don’t, mildly inconvenient as it can be. Especially not the ones that own their own storefront and are only on Steam because you can’t not be on Steam.
In my experience the launcher hate is less about the MMOs that actually are doing something relevant like updating and more the ubisofts and 2ks that are putting in a second layer of drm that can break and usually exists to hoover more data than they could otherwise.
Hey, I’m not going to stand here and defend everybody’s implementation. But I will say that the hate is not related to the implementation because, again, a bunch of these are entirely unintrusive (I know Ubisoft’s is just a pop up now and I think EA will do the same, but don’t quote me on that) and people rage about it anyway.
I really hate it when I launch a game from Steam and another launcher pops up (looking at you, Funcom)
Yeah, people say this. And sometimes they say this even if the “other launcher” just pops up for a second, does a thing and automatically goes away, because that’s how Ubisoft’s one has worked for a while and people still complain about it A LOT.
I don’t get it.
The other launcher prevents me from playing games.
I bought Titanfall 2 on Origin shortly after release. A couple years later, it was very cheap on Steam with DLC included, so I bought it again.
I can’t start the Steam version, because the EA App tells me I didn’t buy the DLC.
I can’t be the first person with this issue, but EA doesn’t care. Their launcher prevents me from playing the games I bought because they don’t care.
Works for me in that exact same scenario.
But in any case, that’s a bug. I’ve encountered games that have gamebreaking bugs, second launcher or not, and with both EA and Steam. They both will give you a refund automatically, at the very least. That’s neither here nor there.
Yes, it’s a bug. You can find many reports on the internet, it’s existed for years and EA doesn’t care.
Oh, awesome, so I just have to accept that the second launcher prevents me from playing the game? I have to buy the DLC for a higher price in the EA store if I want to play them?
Awesome, who doesn’t want such a great second launcher! Please give me one in front of all my games, I’d hate being able to use Steam as my primary launcher!
Well, no, you found a bug in a poorly maintained game. You don’t have to accept anything, but if the customer support for both of the affected companies won’t help you fix it then the recourse is to get a refund.
But that is true regardless of whether the bug is on Steam, whatever EA is calling their authorization system these days or the game itself. It’s not a problem with the concept of a game featuring its own login flow, it’s a problem with the concept of not maintaining games properly. There are plenty of games in that same situation with no second launcher in them.
No, the bug is not in Titanfall 2, it’s in the EA app. Titanfall 2 doesn’t start, the EA app blocks it before that. It’s only the second launcher that’s problematic.
You’re just wrong here, because the problem is the second authentication flow which apparently isn’t implemented correctly.
Not that it would be any better if you’re correct, as it’s still EA selling a game that’s broken due to their second launcher, but that’s not the case here.
No, I understood that.
What I’m saying is a bug is a bug is a bug. It doesn’t matter which part is borked if it doesn’t let you play the game. The problem isn’t that the game has a launcher, the problem is the launcher is broken. If the broken part was the main menu you’d be just as boned.
And yes, they should fix it. And if they don’t you should get a refund.
None of which has any bearing on the conversation we’re actually having here. Because you’re not blocked by having a launcher, you’re blocked by having a broken one.
Yes, a bug is a bug is a bug. EA doesn’t care about this bug and hasn’t fixed it in years. I would not be encountering this bug if they didn’t insist on a second launcher.
Yet the main menu works fine, and it’s only the second launcher that’s boning me. It’s well known that the more code you have, the higher the chances of a bug.
Which would leave me the option to buy the DLC for a higher price from EA, or not play at all. Amazing, this second launcher is really helping me!
But I haven’t encountered such issues with Steam. It’s the opposite, Steam is actively helping me to make games more playable. Other launchers are making them less playable, because the companies don’t care.
My issue is the second launcher, not any random bug.
Because it shouldn’t be necessary.
“Shouldn’t”?
To do what?
I mean, I guess it depends on whether you assume the game “should” only exist within Steam. But, you know, at that point why not buy a PlayStation?
You can sell a game on multiple storefronts/launchers without forcing the steam version to first launch a different app
That depends on what you’re doing. A separate login is useful for stuff like cross-platform support. But also, if your game is some sort of MMO or live game you may need some sort of account management if you want to sell it stand-alone.
These days some people just plug into the storefront’s login system, but I also don’t begrudge the ones that don’t, mildly inconvenient as it can be. Especially not the ones that own their own storefront and are only on Steam because you can’t not be on Steam.
Which, again, I find to be a bad thing.
In my experience the launcher hate is less about the MMOs that actually are doing something relevant like updating and more the ubisofts and 2ks that are putting in a second layer of drm that can break and usually exists to hoover more data than they could otherwise.
Hey, I’m not going to stand here and defend everybody’s implementation. But I will say that the hate is not related to the implementation because, again, a bunch of these are entirely unintrusive (I know Ubisoft’s is just a pop up now and I think EA will do the same, but don’t quote me on that) and people rage about it anyway.
It’s become a console wars meme thing.
Funcom, Ubisoft, EA, SquEnix…