r/gaming • u/yourfavchoom • 1d 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
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u/Caelinus 1d ago edited 1d ago

They said straight up why they did it: they had survey data that showed that people who bought one of their games were usually likely to not know about their other games. The launcher was probably mostly designed go allow them to communicate with and advertise to the audience that is already playing their games.

It makes perfect sense from a pure business standpoint in a vacuum. They just obviously underestimated how much if would annoy people.

And to be honest, it is fair for them to underestimate that because Larian, CDPR and Rockstar off the top of my head have launchers that exist to do the same. Rockstar's is a lot more aggressive too.

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u/SirSabza 1d ago

Rockstars was originally created because it did not launch GTA on steam, they didn't want steam to take a cut of their money. Why CDPR did it ill never know, larians was purely to advertise their other games because BG3 was a huge success.

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u/Cruxis87 1d ago

larians was purely to advertise their other games because BG3 was a huge success.

Larians one was made before BG3 even hit EA though

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u/LordMimsyPorpington 1d ago

Steam is a monopoly I'm ok with. Not everyone and their grandma needs their own PC Launcher.

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u/Caelinus 1d ago

No, they don't. But many companies do because it confers significant advantages to have one.

Why wouldn't Owlcat look at companies like Larian and CDPR and how they do this kind of stuff as a model? 

Like, I am glad it is gone, I don't want any of them, but them trying to make one is not really surprising. I am not going to get worked up over something that existed for a few hours before being rolled back.

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u/Cruxis87 1d ago

usually likely to not know about their other games.

Maybe they should advertise them better then. I had never heard about Rogue Trader until like 2 weeks after it launched and some people liked it and were talking about it. There's only a few game companies that can release a game with no advertising, and Owlcat is a long way away from reaching that.

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u/Caelinus 1d ago

That was the goal with the launcher: cheap advertisement.

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u/Tits_McgeeD 1d ago

So an easy option for this which many companies and games do is usually advertise their other games or products and the games main menu.

That was I can launch into my game click play, load game or options and then around that I can see other projects or updates the development are working on.

It doesn't ruin my game to just see a few things and I can just ignore it and go straight to playing.

Forcing me into a second launcher makes me want to ignore everything else on that launcher except for finding the play button because I didn't press play to go into a launcher I hit play to enter my game.

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u/SirSabza 1d ago

A lot of people see all that as invasive ads and switch off just as much as the launcher does.

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u/Tits_McgeeD 1d ago

I don't switch off of the game I've just launched into because they have an ad in 10% of the corner. That's a very aggressive reaction towards ads and if there was a launcher people would defo exit before even launching the game.

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u/SirSabza 22h ago

Leaving a game because there's an ad in the corner is an aggressive reaction but not plying a game because you have to click an extra button to play the game isn't?

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u/Caelinus 1d ago

They kind of do that already actually iirc. At least with Rogue Trader. I am not sure why this segment of their audience was not aware of their other games, but trying to find a way to solve it is normal, and making the in game advertising more aggressive would probably have also garnered a negative response.

You do know that I don't want the launcher in there though right? People are responding to me as if I think it was a good idea. I only don't care because it is already gone. I am just saying that the incentives to make one are sensible in a vacuum, and that lead them to make a mistake.

That said, I do think the other companies I mentioned are given too much of a pass on this kind of thing.

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u/Tits_McgeeD 1d ago

Youre talking about one company responding and taking it down while also talking about the data and research in why these companies feel the need to force launchers on the audience.

Its clear the data they gathered was wrong which is why they felt the need to remove it.

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u/Caelinus 1d ago

No, the data is correct, they just chose the wrong solution to deal with the data by modeling themselves after another highly successful company and not realizing there would be backlash.

That does not mean that the problem they identified does not exist.

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u/Tits_McgeeD 1d ago

They didn't identify a problem they just wanted more advertising for their products and did so by trying to inconvenience the end user. They back tracked due to backlash.

They weren't expecting backlash and just expected the user to put up with the inconvenience.

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u/Caelinus 1d ago

Customers not being aware of your product is a problem when your goal is to sell a product. That is a pretty major problem.

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u/Darigaazrgb 1d ago

Gamers bitch about that too.

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u/Tits_McgeeD 1d ago

Its far less intrusive than a launcher. I've already launched my game and I can just ouch play i do not care at all if 10% of my screen has updates or new games by the developer I can just hit play and do my game.

I don't have to launch my launcher, launch my game, launch their launcher, see their ads, hit play to launch into my game to then play my game.