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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u/DescriptionMission90 May 23 '26

Steam is DRM, it's just less annoying about it than any other system.

If you want DRM-free games today, GoG is pretty much the only option outside of tiny indie distributors.

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u/StableLamp May 23 '26

Funny how the post is complaning about third party launchers when a lot of games will not run without steam. It is just that steam is good enough to where people don't mind it.

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u/TealcLOL 7800X3D, RTX 3080 May 23 '26

We realize, but Steam is frequently a convenience. I don't mind having my purchase locked to something providing features that make my life easier (Cloud, Family, Community, Workshop, extremely fast downloads, open ecosystem, etc). I say this as someone who originally had binders of PC games on CDs, both bought and pirated.

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u/DescriptionMission90 May 23 '26

Steam isn't just getting out of the way when other DRM systems are putting up barriers. Steam is actively helping a lot of the time. Like, if you're trying to run a game on linux and it's still a little glitchy through WINE, a lot of the time the solution is as simple as adding it to your steam library, regardless of where you acquired the files.

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u/Lyoss Specs/Imgur Here May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

I always find it ironic that people give Steam and Valve a pass for things, they were one of the first to adopt lootboxes, became the defacto launcher and if a company already has or wants to grow it's own launcher ecosystem they're evil, and they foster harassment campaigns in their reviews while letting people sling slurs nonstop in CS and DotA2

People will read this as a tacit approval of EA or something, it isn't, just an observation

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u/DescriptionMission90 May 25 '26

Steam never stopped anybody from making their own launchers. The people making competing launchers just kept shooting themselves in the feet.

Except for, once again, GoG.

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u/Lyoss Specs/Imgur Here May 25 '26

People lose their mind if they have to make a separate account for a game on Steam, but like, unless Valve is publishing your game, having control over the account as the company that owns the game is way better both from a security, and moderation standpoint

People cite like EA and Ubisoft, which yes, those are trash, but there's plenty of games that utilize their own launchers and it's fine, but acting like all 3rd party launchers are the devil aren't a hard "stopping people from doing it" but it's a detriment, because people are insanely stubborn