Last night I needed to download the Bethesda Launcher to player “something” (sorry I can’t say what), and at the same time my EA Origin said it needed to update. Then it got me wondering, “How many stupid ‘launchers’ do I have?” Let’s list them shall we: Steam, GOG, The Windows Store, EA Origin, UPlay, Epic, Twitch, and now Bethesda. Those are just the ones that I have, and I am sure more companies are coming up with their own.
Look Game Companies, I get it. It makes sense. You can make your own launcher and store and then skip the middlemen to sell directly to your customers. More profit for you. Plus you get to push the patches out directly without having to get approval from Microsoft, Valve or CD Projekt Red (am I the only one that thinks they need to drop the ‘CD’ off their name?), but man every time I need to play a game on one of those platforms it needs to patch before I patch the game. It is supper annoying! I just want to play the game!
Crap like this is why people love consoles. Sure you have Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft acting like gatekeepers, and not all consoles get all games, but when you do get a game it just works! Yes, you may need to make an account with those other companies to make some features of those games work, but for the most part that is optional unless it is an MMO. I play video games to have fun, not to play patch-a-palooza, or which-launcher-has-that-game bingo.
If this is where the PC market is headed, we are in for a headache. I understand why it is happening, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. In my day we went to the store and bought games off of a shelf like man!. Hold on. I need to get a stick. I think there are some kids on my lawn! “Hey you! Get your game launchers and your Free 2 Play FPSs out of here!!! … Unless they are really fun!”