Remember back when launching games was as easy as launching a batch file or shell script?

And honestly, I get it. Having to open something just to open something is kinda silly. It's silly when I open Space Empires, but I'd at least excuse those kinds of launchers for also being useful configuration utilities.

I don't want GOG Galaxy for Linux for the social aspect or several other nebulous aspects. I want it for multiplayer frameworks and...yeah that's about it. Maybe downloading though something akin to a PTP connection.

Honestly, just thinking back to when I used my Vita and having EA nag me to sign in to play Need for Speed was well over the line.

And that's not even getting into the potential security issue or (just how terribly designed) many launchers could be. Sims 3 launcher was a glorified Internet Explorer page, and one of the worst examples of form over function I'd suffered in a launcher; seeing as it was the main way to manage custom content though what could only be described as an agonizing process.

I wonder if someone has told the writer that most games can be launched bypassing the launcher by using the game exe directly?

Maybe the writer is trying to hammer some point through, but this statement makes me seriously wonder how much does the writer actually know about PCs:

"It's all the more irritating to me because, my friends, there's a better world. I've seen it. Forgive my blasphemy, but it's called the Nintendo Switch, a hand-size block of glass and plastic with all the power of a tea candle."

Would you like some launcher with your launcher, sir?

Sadly, this type of thing doesn't surprise me from PCGamer. The journalistic standards at that publication have cratered in recent years.

In its early years, they had some genuinely good writers who understood the industry and the market. Now, it's just full of buzzfeed and sub-reddit style garbage.

On the subject of launchers, I really don't like them at all. I can't see anything positive that they add - the only ones that I've ever had time for are the ones that let you change configuration settings before you launch the game (and those only have a benefit in the limited context of a configuration not allowing you to start the game)

This has always been an issue for games that are constantly updated, new bugs get introduced, saves may stop working, OS compatibility may be broken, hardware compatibility may be broken, features removed, etc. Having a previous version feature for ALL versions across all stores sure would be nice. With dedupe this wouldn't take up much space at all. Main issue here that those those games don't have a Linux equivalent, second issue is that the game company isn't testing their games (why test when their paying customers can test for you), third is of course requiring yet another Launcher, fourth is expecting game companies to care about Wine compatibility with their Windows only games, why doesn't the article complain that wine/proton didn't work with the launcher? It all goes back Steam being basically a Monopoly that all gamers seem to want and the battle with these companies trying to put their own launchers in front of eyeballs. It's pretty sad how much of a stranglehold Steam has over gaming on Linux (and Windows). It's yet another launcher that should not be required but optional. Yes you could state that it is on the game publishers and developers to do so but you can also state that Valve could do a hell of a lot more as well but why would they? Cry me a river. The switch is not a PC. Go play on your switch. That's because GOG and EPIC are small potatoes and they tend to care slightly more about such issues. We complained about it years ago, people keep buying so here we are. This crap will keep happening due to gamer apathy. Thanks gamers.

As always spend your money on games from pubs and devs that don't do this shady crap, for games you own that do this make sure you can bypass it so you don't have to deal with it.

What we really need is for an online store to be "By Gamers. For Gamers" and by gamers you know who I mean.

There is a genuine problem with launcher bloat.

I installed the Steam launcher on Windows and suddenly I had 5 GB less of storage. For a stupid launcher.

If the stores want to push their launchers they could at least try to conserve the host computer's space. My SSD's space is limited and I want to use it for actual games instead of a bazillion useless launchers.

While it is true that one can simply launch the game directly, considering the technical proficiency I've seen on display on this store alone, some people need all the help they can get, because they'd sooner accidentally launch than find the actual game executable.

This also doesn't account for the non-zero possibility of shortcuts being set back to a launcher in updates or other strange annoyances such as needing the launcher to run DLC.

No comment required

I really hate the term "Launcher"
It make it sound benign and optional, that its only purpose is to give a nice GUI to start your games from.

Most "Launchers" are Front end clients for complex multifaceted platforms, even Galaxy.

That Article complete glosses over why these "Launchers" exist, control. Being able to Lock you, your games and certain aspects of gaming to their Services. Most? Sure if you listed off every game prior to 2008, plus all those tiny indie and hobby games on itch and treated them all equally, sure.

But if you weight it by popular and active games, most of what people play will not launch without the service its been bound to.

The Paradox launcher always seems to have trouble with one or maybe the same update. Usually i'm faster with clicking 'start' but not always..... Or the Rockstar one, seriously, i already have trouble with their games but to see a launcher, with separate install directory and who knows what else, build in fraud control maybe.... Kicked Max Payne 3 right off my system after noticing that sorry excuse..... CA had an idea that would make their launcher store independent. So you can buy games and dlc on epic and steam and still have it work like you bought the set in the same store. The idea of this being to grant their user base as much freedom as they can while pursuing the sales of the world. Nice idea, right? Sadly, it has not grown out of the idea phase yet. But the future of the launcher will be great, I reckon.

Agreed.

And I don't get all the complaining about how tedious it is to first have to open a launcher and then a game (don't forget you have to go through all the hassle of switching on your computer in the first place!).

In order to get to the game file, you would first have to cd.. your way to it :) plus, if you lacked memory, you would have to restart, press f8, and then combat your way through Y or N in order to get those few bits of memory necessary to run the lost files of sherlock holmes on your 286 beast!

For me, launchers are great, especially types like GoG Galaxy or Launchbox which do miracles in terms of game organization. Different folks come up with the strangest reasons against launchers, but the quiet majority does not complain :)

Any yes, you can always set up shortcuts and put them on your desktop or start menu, and problem is solved.

If you don't like it, don't use it.

Speaking of unnecessary launchers, I've been reading that the one used for Firaxis's Midnight Suns causes very noticable performance problems that just outright vanish when bypassing it. Makes you wonder how crappily coded these things are. Why would they indeed? Most gamers don't seem to care either, unfortunately. They have at least one good writer left: Cristopher Livingston. His articles are always an entertaining read. Other than that I don't check PC Gamer but for some gaming news. *shrug*

I do think the article is correct to call out the 2k launcher being added to Bioshock, especially here on GOG, as being particularly egregious.

Who doesn't want to click "play game" 3 times before you actually can play the game? Oh that's just delicious. I go out of my way to make sure every source of overlays I can find is disabled. They're a very big anti-feature.