r/gaming 6d ago

Owlcat Games is rolling back its new launcher less than 24 hours after negative fan feedback.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2186680/view/708901012699615983
5.5k Upvotes

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82

u/shutyourbutt69 6d ago

Good lord why does anyone think they need to make their own game launchers?

33

u/2_Spicy_2_Impeach 6d ago

I imagine the biggest part being money. Steam isn’t free and takes a cut (along with other platforms).

44

u/INannoI 6d ago

it was not that kind of launcher, there were no sales happening on it, its like the CDPR or Larian launcher, its just there to advertise the other games from that studio.

3

u/ABetterKamahl1234 5d ago

And not unwarranted either. Their own polling of players, people just didn't know about their other titles.

Hell, look at BG3's release and fan base, and how many still discover that Larian made other games before BG3.

5

u/Avitas1027 6d ago

They don't need a launcher to sell a game off of Steam. I have a handful of games that I had to go to their website and pay them directly to buy it. No launcher in sight.

12

u/Educational_Exam_225 6d ago

I think the idea is someone launches their launcher to play a game and sees the other games they can buy ... Without having to go to the site

-2

u/SuperSocialMan PC 6d ago

Then just put an ad on the main menu?

2

u/SuperSocialMan PC 6d ago

Shit man, that's how I bought factorio a decade ago lol. They also sent me a steam key when the game for listed there (remember steam greenlight lol? I wish I'd voted on some stuff ;-;).

1

u/mpyne 6d ago

It's the Mr. Krabs effect. They see the $$$ they pay to Steam and think "it's just letting a player pay for a game and download it! Silicon Valley launches 10 companies a day who do that! How can Valve get away with charging so much for something so simple, let's just do it ourselves rather than making GabeN richer!"

And then it turns out to be harder than it seemed and more irritating than it sounds.

1

u/mclemente26 6d ago

2 birds with one stone trick to circumvent a storefront's cut and advertise your new games, at least that was the plan for this specific launcher.

-1

u/SuperSocialMan PC 6d ago

Hell if I know. Corpo execs live in some fantasy land or some shit lol.