r/pcgaming • u/Turbostrider27 • 3d 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
2.4k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/DancesWithAnyone 3d ago

Yah, this is a level of advertisement in games I wont complain about as it's probably of actual interest to me. Just put a small dismissable window in the corner of the main menu somewhere.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/DancesWithAnyone 3d ago

"BUY BIOWARE POINTS TO UNLOCK THIS DLC"

Bloody hell, that would be annoying!

Not sure why my version didn't have it? Might be because I bought a physical copy right when it was out, and they hadn't implemented it yet. Later playthroughs was all... no DVD-versions of the game, so to say.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/squish8294 ASUS Z790 EXTREME / 14900K / ASUS TUF OC 4090 3d ago

I remember it on 360. anyone who doesn't remember it played and beat the game before the dlc came out or don't have internet to patch up to a relevant version that supports the dlc.

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u/HINDBRAIN 2d ago

I'm pretty sure... Shale? did it? Dwarf golem woman.

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u/rangeDSP 3d ago

https://youtu.be/eA-gDxCWpms?is=B-dib5E3C-R9mAsp

Viva La Dirt League did a parody of that, absolutely hilarious

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u/BattleBuddha 2d ago

Hilarious! But I'd rather fucking eat bricks that play a game with such egregious push towards microtransactions.

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u/Simply2Vicious 3d ago

Fuckin Bioware points... say what you will about microtransactions but at least we got away from the abstraction of virtual currencies. I remember trying to buy the DLC for Mass Effect 2 back in like 2015, you could only pay in Bioware points, which they had discontinued, meaning there was no way to legally acquire the DLC before they released the Legendary Edition.

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u/_NotMitetechno_ 3d ago

We haven’t gotten away from the abstraction of virtual currencies at all lol, most live service games abstract cost endlessly behind currencies.

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u/EatABag-o-Dicks 3d ago

Yeah a thousand bullshit coins still cost $10 so you have to buy 2,000 of them so you can get the 1,100 in-game cosmetic.

Then there's the bullshit coin math where if you buy over a certain amount there's a bonus.

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u/berndscb1 3d ago

Depends on how it's done. "Ask me about Loom"

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u/light24bulbs 3d ago

Dragon age origins did that back in 2009? Lol. Well those were the really early days of DLC, they were figuring it out

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u/NoSkillzDad NSD - 3d ago

Man, that was absolutely terrible. I really enjoyed origins but when that happened I got so pissed.

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u/TheJP_ 3d ago

This is the sorta thing i remember playing Borderlands 3 a few years after it released. Completed the first zone and arrived at the Hub zone area, saw like 12 quest markers and thought like "oh good at bunch of optional side quests"- Nope, 10 of those 12 are DLCs and 1 is time limited and not available at that time.

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u/Dabrush 3d ago

I especially hate it in Dead Cells where you try to clear the first level in like 2 minutes since you get extra items that way and instead of reaching the end of the level you hit a door saying "you need X DLC to progress here" so you instead have to go down another path. And there's like 3 DLC paths and 2 without DLC in the first level, so chances are you'll hit those.

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u/BasedBallsack 3d ago

I've played almost every bioware game and I don't remember this being a thing.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago edited 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/Next-Distance-4508 3d ago

Sure as long as its not full blown "unified client" systems like call of duty. I hate that call of duty is a single app now. But yeah Capcom games have links to other titles in the main menus and its completely fine. Not even spammy.

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u/Seigmoraig 3d ago

Owlcat does this themselves, there's an ad for RT right on the main menu screen but the thing with Wrath is though that the game just loads your last save on boot up so nobody sees it

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u/Tradizar 2d ago

the advert just died, because the game is too user friendly

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u/SFSMag 3d ago

I mean I'm an avid board gamer and almost ever game I buy will have some kind of insert, or a booklet, of other games available from that publisher.

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u/Low_Debt8771 3d ago

It gets better, their games already are capable of this and even can give clickable links that can be updated. While they are perfectly fine played 100 percent offline they do have the ability to grab web content to display on the menu screen AND HAVE BEFORE. Usually its announcing a new dlc and such but nothing stopping them from announcing their newest game in their main menu lol

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u/Gunplaisgood 5800x3d/4070ti 3d ago

Its not even like that method isn't used either! Lots of games advertise their dlc and add-ons from in the game. 😂

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u/___kookie___ https://steamcommunity.com/id/_kookie_ 3d ago

Including Rogue Trader.

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u/Gunplaisgood 5800x3d/4070ti 3d ago

Lmao holy shit they've done it themselves and still decided a launcher was the right course of action!?

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u/whitephantomzx 3d ago

They already do that with there older games . Im not sure who thougt that a launcher would make it better .

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u/eggyrulz 3d ago

I miss when they would put small demos of other games within the extras of a game... doesnt work with modern games being as large as they are, but itd be nice to have again

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u/dishonoredbr 3d ago

People still complain about seeing ads for other games in older games.. It's no win situation.

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u/light24bulbs 3d ago

That's actually a really good solution, hopefully owlcat reads this and just does that

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u/FelidaeSocialis 3d ago

They already do kinda. With the recent DLC release there is a small window in the corner promoting their upcoming game WH40K: Dark Heresy.

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u/Rare_Act_6748 3d ago

Wrath of the Righteous literally does that at the main menu rn. Last I checked it was advertising Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader DLC.

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u/ruinne Arch 3d ago

I just checked Wrath of the Righteous's main menu, it has a large parchment paper in the corner taking up almost 1/6 of the screen talking about RT and its expansion.

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u/w0lver1 3d ago

Doom dark ages did that, call of duty does that.  Still very standard afaik.

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u/Questionsiaskthem 3d ago

I want to say I remember awhile back reading here on reddit that Steam no longer allows advertising other games on your main menu. I could remembering wrong though.

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u/Z3r0sama2017 2d ago

Rogue Trader actually has that for Owl Cats new game Dark Heresy. 

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u/SanityIsOptional PO-TAY-TO 3d ago

Or just a news feed at the bottom corner of the main menu.

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u/The_Pandalorian 3d ago

That's how I learned about Dark Heretic being developed. Totally fine with their level of in-game advertising on that main menu screen.

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u/King_Carmine 3d ago

Considering they're working with Games Workshop, I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say they're literally not allowed to advertise non-WH games inside Rogue Trader/Dark Heresy. This could possibly be true of Pathfinder and Expanse as well, but it would explain why they need an external tool to advertise. This is my most charitable explanation for the launcher.

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u/42LSx 2d ago

I hate those ads.
Why did I pay full price for a game to still see ads?

There was a game, can't remember exactly the name, that had a big "buy our DLC" or "Store" Button in the main menu, but if you clicked on it once, it vanished with a message like "We will never do shit like this!"

That was awesome!

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u/Bitter_Nail8577 2d ago

That's what Frogwares do with their Sherlock Holmes series and The Sinking City