You'd have to be idiotic to want to include a launcher in a game that didnt have one before. Fuck I love Stellaris and fuck the launcher I wish it was gone.
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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I don't understand, didn't all games have launchers back in the 80s-early 2000's? Particularly ones that were unnecessary because you could just make an shortcut to the .exe and it would run fine?
Why don't people like them anymore?
They did, but things were different. Obvious main difference being that we didn't have centralised store apps with launchers that already do the functions you need: download, setup, updates, news, etc. (well Steam does, with workshop integration for mods and everything)
Nowadays people see launchers as an extra unnecessary step, usually requiring another account for no good reason, and, importantly, a data harvesting tool. That last one is the reason I usually see people hating a launcher. The other issue is I've seen a lot of complaints about is launchers simply breaking stuff for some people and not letting them play their game (especially on Linux).
(Generic summary, not specific to Owlcat here)
Oh, you're right. The fucking account signups now. I forgot I've seen that with Larian and CDPR, let alone the shit goblins at EA who have a mandatory launcher
That's really good to hear that there are developers still listening to consumers.