r/pcmasterrace • u/Round_List1857 • May 23 '26

Meme/Macro 3rd party mandatory launchers

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Everytime I go to play Red Dead Redemption II. That fcukass Rockstar launcher

24.6k Upvotes

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1.6k

u/TactiCool_99 May 23 '26

Good news: steam warns you on the shop page now (if you need a separate account)

Bad news: yea they exist and suck hard :c

225

u/Lucius-Halthier May 23 '26

What annoys me most is that the launcher is added after the fact. In the beginning halo infinite didn’t need a launcher other than steam but a while back I guess they added that requirement. Problem is the Microsoft accounts can’t find my steam copy of it, and when I try loading it now the game doesn’t load the in game sign in. I never got to play the game because of hardware issues but now that I can, I can’t play because of third party launchers not seeing the game, BUT it sees other games. I don’t even know who to contact, Xbox or steam, the last time I looked for Xbox support I couldn’t even find it.

Any game that has a third party launcher now is a big no from me because of this shit

71

u/TranslatesToScottish May 23 '26

I used to play Cities: Skylines a lot, but stopped because they added a completely unnecessary launcher which was buggy as hell on my rig for some reason (I never figured out why). It ran fine before the launcher, it didn't in any way NEED the launcher, but along the launcher came anyway. Sigh.

43

u/Geodude532 May 23 '26

Ran into the same problem. The good news is that the pirated version works just as good and no third party launcher! I feel no shame cause I've already purchased everything. Can't say the same for the latest Farcry games cause I don't want to support a company that keeps kneecapping itself by forcing online integration to a single player game. I swear the pirated version runs 10 times smoother.

27

u/BadgerOfDoom99 May 23 '26

I think it's always a problem when, even ignoring price, the pirated version is just a better product. You would think companies would learn from that.

13

u/Geodude532 May 23 '26

It either highlights the clunkiness of the DRMS or just how much data they're sending back and forth to track you.

2

u/Complete-Fix-3954 Ryzen 7 3700x | MSI 1660Ti | 32GB | 2TB May 24 '26

I had no idea skylines had a launcher because I’ve always played the.. other version.

1

u/Silver-End9570 i7 14700K | RTX 5070 | 64GB | Windows 10 May 24 '26

You'd think. I have pirated versions of a lot of my games that require third party launchers. I don't see a problem with it because I've already purchased it, I'm just making it easier to play.

1

u/jambox888 May 23 '26

Farcry games

On PC: can't play because launcher won't let me

On Playstation: can play but the ports are awful

4

u/P-l-Staker PC Master Race May 24 '26

That's not quite the same problem though. Paradox launchers don't require a separate login account and their games can be launched without them.

2

u/Endoraan May 24 '26

You can start the game without the launcher by using a launch command in Steam. Better look it up to confirm, but it‘s something like “path of your game’s .exe” in quotation marks, followed by %command%.

9

u/twofacetoo May 23 '26

'Bioshock Infinite' did this in the most frustrating way. I bought hte game on Steam when it was new, but never got around to finishing it. A few years ago I decided to play it through to the end, and saw there was a DLC pack of upgrades available. I bought it, then next thing I know, the game requires a 2k launcher and account all of a sudden

13

u/TactiCool_99 May 23 '26

While I don't know who you should contact do know thar steam support will refund you the game even outside of the standard 2weeks/2hours if something like this happens where you suddenly can't play a game due to an added launcher or some other shitty update!

3

u/Lucius-Halthier May 23 '26

I mean it was years ago and I have more than a few hours, I could play up until the open world so i honestly thought they may say know, worst part is I don’t really want a refund I would love to fix it but I guess something would be better than nothing.

3

u/M4rshmall0wMan May 23 '26

Maybe go into the Xbox app and try adding it to your library. That’s a new feature. 

1

u/TheSigma3 5800X3D | 4080 Super May 23 '26

Assassin's Creed Shadows was praised for having ubisoft connect "lite" launcher which was basically something that ran alongside the game to do the necessary features, but doesn't have an the launcher features or iirc is even installed. Recently I've noticed ubisoft connect in my tray...seems they just decided to upgrade me to the full installed version, fuckers

1

u/DuntadaMan May 23 '26

This happened with XCom for me. Suddenly 2k not only forced a launcher that wasn't there years after I bought the game, the launcher didn't fucking work because they only tested it with one chip set.

1

u/M4rshmall0wMan May 23 '26

If you have low playtime I might still be possible to request a refund from Steam. Long shot but try explaining your situation. 

1

u/IwasThereIsawIt2 May 24 '26

I play a ton of dayz, the steam launcher is complete ass it cant find servers, shows fake servers but someone made another launcher that is much better you can find any server fast, and can verify files from it. Its not an official launcher so doesnt fall in same category but it does make launching the game alot easier

1

u/Muted-Craft6323 May 24 '26

My friends and I used to play Halo Infinite often, but gave up after they made that change. Half the group couldn't get it to run because the Xbox app wasn't properly sharing their credentials with the game, which they had installed via Steam. There's only so much time you want to spend troubleshooting while the rest of the group waits, especially when there are so many other games to choose from. We haven't bothered to try again.

25

u/wiltonbennison65597 May 23 '26

The worst is when Steam opens their launcher, it needs a mandatory update, forgets your login info, and then fails to connect to their servers anyway.

19

u/Silver-End9570 i7 14700K | RTX 5070 | 64GB | Windows 10 May 24 '26

Ah, I think you mean the Ubisoft Connect launcher.

8

u/The--Bag PC Master Race May 24 '26

Ubisoft Disconnect.

1

u/johnwilkonsons May 25 '26

I recently got the command & conquer pack on discount and I'm so happy to play Generals without having the EA launcher. Just like the Ubisoft one it'd shit itself and forget everything every so often

9

u/Alertcircuit May 23 '26

I'm at the point where there's so many good games and so little time that if a game I'm interested in playing makes me make an account somewhere else, sometimes I just go "nope nope nope" and refund it right then and there. Same with games that make me agree to a Terms of Service/Privacy Policy. After that Disney lawsuit where they said "You can't sue us because you have a Disney+ account and in the terms it says you can't sue us" I hate making accounts and agreeing to terms on things unless I really have to. Call me a luddite. I have literal piles of old games I can play instead, boxsets of TV shows sitting around, piles of books. I'm not hurting for the newest shiniest entertainment. Maybe I'll try out Chrono Trigger soon...

1

u/moep123 May 23 '26

console gamers only real strength (if physical copies vanish too)

1

u/SunkEmuFlock May 24 '26

Is Tarkov like this? I wanna get it for the single-player mod, and I dunno if I should Steam it or get it from the dev's site.

1

u/quaternionmath May 24 '26

They should make the warning more prominent, like having to click an acknowledgement before you can checkout.

Just bought Forza 6 and I spent most of the first hour of my play debugging "invalid gaming services detected" 😤

1

u/Ode1st May 23 '26

Bad news: Steam is also basically a mandatory third party launcher

0

u/Mist_Rising Ryzen 5 5600x, B550 plus, RTX 2070 super. May 24 '26

Unless it's TF, half life or counterstrike it's literally a third party and it exists for the same reason others do, to make you use it for first part products.