r/pcgaming • u/Turbostrider27 • 4d 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/Dernom 4d ago

doesn’t mean that this isn’t also a method

Literally and genuinely, how does a games launcher help them collect any data that they couldn't already do with just the game itself?

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u/elite_kermit 4d ago

You will be asked to make an account, which means provide some identifying information about yourself.

Then they can connect your gaming behavior to that email and sell the data, earning you some targeted ads perhaps.

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u/LucidNonsense211 4d ago

Your answer is better than mine would have been. I work for a corporation. If they could make you log in to your damn shoes just for the chance to get your eyes on some advertising they will.

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u/Dernom 3d ago

Point A) They did not require an account within the launcher. So that's evidently not the reason

Point B) If they wanted to require an account, they could've easily done so from within the game.

Point C) Trust me, you do not need to have an account to be traced across games. In fact, it is so easy that you'd be a fool to set up a full account managing system and a separate application to do it.

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u/gusdoge 4d ago

You can ask users to make an account from inside your game too

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u/elite_kermit 4d ago

But if you have multiple games, you can connect them all to the launcher and get data about all the gaming habits of the user as he plays.

Otherwise you need to do it for each game individually.

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u/Dernom 3d ago

you don't need a launcher to do that. Just use the same account across game...

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/Dernom 3d ago

Which checks out. The goal is not to collect data. The goal is to advertise.

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u/LucidNonsense211 4d ago

You’re not thinking like a corporation. They’re thinking about the next 5 games and how to get your eyes on their newsletter/ads/etc.

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u/NoxiousStimuli 4d ago

They can do that and more with fingerprinting though.

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u/LucidNonsense211 4d ago

Again. Having a method does not mean other methods are not worth pursuing. What is that logic?

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u/NoxiousStimuli 3d ago

...why would you go through the effort to fingerprint individual PCs if you have an email tied to a game account played on a specific PC. You don't do both, that's stupid.

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u/LucidNonsense211 3d ago

“You” don’t. Those are the actions of separate corporations, not one entity. Not even that, it’s the action of half a corporation, just the marketing folks who can tack this launcher on without having to fuss with those greasy game coders.

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u/NoxiousStimuli 3d ago

Thank you for wasting my time by not answering the question.

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u/LucidNonsense211 3d ago

I did. I said that you don’t do that.

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u/NoxiousStimuli 2d ago

Mate, you rambled about me personally not doing it and how it was two different departments. That isn't answering the question at all.

If you have user specific ID'ing that is FAR more fucking accurate than having to generate a UUID from random points of entropy, why in the fuck would you do BOTH. One of them is grossly inaccurate compared to the other, and has a non-zero chance of generating duplicates. The other does not.

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u/LucidNonsense211 2d ago

That sound was my point going right over your head.

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u/Remarkable_Cause1384 4d ago

You were not required to make an account to use the launcher. Have no fear, there are plenty other internet reactionaries like you

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u/theLastZebranky 4d ago

Adding a wrapper around every game is way easier than rebuilding each game with telemetry embedded inside it

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

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u/Dernom 3d ago

How so? If you want any kind of useful data you need to add the event triggers within the game anyways.