Why no one likes game launchers

Nowadays, when ever you want to play most games, you don’t just launch the game directly. What do you think this is? The era of Windows 98! No sir, for a lot of games (these days) you have to go through what’s typically known as a game launcher. Popular game launcher names include: Origin, Uplay, Ankama launcher, Epic, and Itch.

On paper, they say that – a game launcher is a centralized platform. One that provides a user-friendly interface to access, organize, and play various games. But in today’s world, nothing ever works as advertised. And terms like “user-friendly” have now been rendered meaningless and subjective. So, in other words: a game launcher could be cynically defined as – a controlling-software that refuses you access to any games you bought, until it is connected/permitted to operate. It usually has the capability to harvest information about your gameplay, while you play the game. And, in today’s world – user data is gold. Game dev studios can use it for countless things… like seeing if a studio should shutdown the game servers or not. And, one of the main reasons given for these dreaded shutdowns is – low player count.

The war between Steam and other game launcher

When Steam began, you used to be able to just play pretty-much all Steam games within Steam. Without needing any other “game launcher” or account. But now, you can’t just do that. For several Steam games, you now need a Steam account, and another “studio-controlled account.” This is because both Steam, and the developer who made your favourite game, all want your data. Your email, you location, your play hours, all of it.

A quick example would be this – I recently installed MultiVersus, and I couldn’t play the game at all. Until I created a Warner Bros. account, confirmed my email, and then logged into it. Once in the portal, I also had to fumble my way through it all, until I found a place where I could connect my Steam account to WB. Was all of that necessary? Apparently.

Some game studios make this process so frustrating that you end up opting to use their launchers, without Steam. As the case with Ankama, the makers of Krosmaga.

I am a huge fan of Krosmaga, and I’ve played it for several years now! But, at some point and time it wouldn’t start via Steam. I tried everything! Until I eventually gave up, and reinstalled the game again, using their launcher. And suddenly, it now plays like butter.

The dangers of needing multiple game launchers

In conclusion, the idea of needing multiple accounts in order to play a video game is not as “user-friendly” as stated in the dictionary definition of “game launcher.” And, to make matters worse when you have a Steam game you love and enjoy, it could become unplayable. Suddenly! If, and when, the other game launcher get decommissioned, you won’t be able to play your Steam game anymore! Feel free to go and read about what happened to Virtua Tennis here. Happy gaming guys!