Hallelujah. I don't know why so many companies went down this route, particularly when it's not the likes of Ubisoft or whatnot with their own desire to half-ass the attempt at making their own Steam. My guess for its removal is to better support Steam Deck, perhaps?
- Keeps users in their wallet garden. Marketers love shoving shit in users faces whenever they launch the game. Inside the game it's bad for. To advertise whatever other garbage there is, on their launcher they try to grab your attention for their other crap
  
  But see, that's the thing. They're just as capable of putting those ads in game too. I definitely would have more visibility on the ads just at the title screen than I would on a launcher I'm clicking through as fast as humanly possible.
  
  Then they'd have to update the actual game, as opposed to just updating the launcher when a change needs to be made.
  Updating the launcher is quicker and cheaper.
  
  yeah, plus there's only one launcher, and possibly thousands of games.
  
  If they can convert purchase within their launcher, they don't pay Steam their cut. That's it.
  
  That's against Steam's TOS, and Valve doesn't take kindly to that.
  
  .......wallet garden? So....like a garden where they grow wallets for you to eat?
  I mean, if that's in your taste palate, bone apple tea, I guess....
  
  man my phone just isn't my friend today
  
  Now wait, it's an interesting typo, the double meaning fits so well.
  
  :D
  I knew what you meant. I was just really proud of tying it to "bone apple tea".
  I'm only here to amuse myself.
  
  We need a term for a Freudian slip caused by mobile autocorrect. Because "wallet garden" is extremely accurate, even if it's not the intended word choice.
  
  Fried Ian Slip
  
  Eggcorn? Rickyism? Though neither is specifically for autocorrect.
  
  That's actually how I took it at first, seemed highly apropos.
- Even CD Project Red added such shit. Instead of directly launching Witcher or Cyberpunk I now have to go through a(nother) launcher now. Pointless.
  Baldurs Gate 3 needed one from the beginning as well.
  I don't get it.
  
  use --launcher-skip start argument for CDPR games
  BG3 also has the slightly different --skip-launcher
  
  Ah, good to know. Thanks!
  
  Some games include launchers for practical reasons. Launchers allow you to change settings before having the game up, for example, which can be nice. They also sometimes can do mod management, though this is less common. Paradox does mod management through the launcher, for an example of that.
  Usually the launchers suck though and only slow things down, but you can also usually use an argument to skip them.
  
  Launchers allow you to change settings before having the game up, for example, which can be nice.
  Or you can change options after the game launches, like a normal game.
  
  Sometimes you have to reset the game to apply changes tho
  
  A lot of times I just want to make a quick change for later without actually having to fire up the game. Even if I'm not interested in playing it anytime soon.
  Weird, I know, but I have ADHD so if I don't do something the moment an idea pops into my head, within seconds I forget and the thought is lost forever. It's so bad that I'll often finish a sentence without having any idea how or why I started it.
- Data. Simple as.
  
  What data? Surely the game itself would be just as capable of transmitting that.
  
  Having a launcher open in the background is less conspicuous of having the game open in the background.
  
  The game can collect data, if that's what they're after.
  My theory is that it's all about advertising. It's another point of contact with the consumer, and another opportunity to make sure every new release is presented to every potential buyer.
  
  Indeed, it’s a pre-game forced ad. No other explanation required.
  
  Could be.
- At last we won't have a repeat of mass effect legendary.
  Launch steam to play. Which launches Origin, which launches the mass effect launcher which is where you decide which game to play.
  So damn annoying, I think I made shortcuts to the exes to bypass most of that shit.
- $$$$$

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