Going against the grain here, but conceptually is that really such a good thing?
Yes, Steam is pretty decent and yes, Valve have consistently shown good business practice and a pro-consumer stance, and yes third party launchers are generally absolute donkey tonk… but isn’t converging onto one launcher like Steam very anti-consumer at its core?
Isn’t this about stopping games from being launched like this:
Launch Steam
Launch game, but instead…
It launches a launcher for the game.
That launcher launches the game
Going Launcher => Launcher => game.
That should be banned.
It sounds like what you’re interpreting it as is “Games that have their own or alternate launchers should be banned from sale on Steam” (e.g., games available on Epic, EA, etc. shouldn’t be available on Steam).
I’d agree that that’s anti-consumer. But if I buy the game on Steam, it shouldn’t feed me through an additional launcher. If I want to buy the game directly from elsewhere and that requires a different launcher, that’s perfectly fine.
Anti-consumer is forcing them to use a service they don’t want to in order to use the thing they paid for. Someone using steam clearly wants to use steam.
Now, is it a good idea to put all our eggs in the valve basket? Probably not, but that’s not “anti-consumer”, it’s just unwise.
Going against the grain here, but conceptually is that really such a good thing?
Yes, Steam is pretty decent and yes, Valve have consistently shown good business practice and a pro-consumer stance, and yes third party launchers are generally absolute donkey tonk… but isn’t converging onto one launcher like Steam very anti-consumer at its core?
Isn’t this about stopping games from being launched like this:
Going Launcher => Launcher => game.
That should be banned.
It sounds like what you’re interpreting it as is “Games that have their own or alternate launchers should be banned from sale on Steam” (e.g., games available on Epic, EA, etc. shouldn’t be available on Steam).
I’d agree that that’s anti-consumer. But if I buy the game on Steam, it shouldn’t feed me through an additional launcher. If I want to buy the game directly from elsewhere and that requires a different launcher, that’s perfectly fine.
No, the companies that need a login or are tracking you, will just need to move it into the game itself. Convenient, but fixes nothing
Launcher > Launcher > Game is grotesque. 2 different accounts and an internet connection required just to play a game you ““own””.
Fuck that shit
Girls’ Frontline 2 is basically a launcher you download on Steam, which then downloads the actual game
Anti-consumer is forcing them to use a service they don’t want to in order to use the thing they paid for. Someone using steam clearly wants to use steam.
Now, is it a good idea to put all our eggs in the valve basket? Probably not, but that’s not “anti-consumer”, it’s just unwise.
Nah that’s cool, thanks for your view. I’m on board with what you’re saying.
I fucking hate launchers with a passion, almost as much as I hated when Steam came out with one of the Half Life patches.
Admittedly though, if there was going to be one current launcher to rule them all, Steam is the best bet.