Does this game come with Larian's dumb launcher?

If so, I'll pass on it.

yes it comes with the launcher and thats fine... not everyone is a BG3 person

Thanks for the heads up...PASS.....

But its not needed to play the game! You are not forced to use that launcher!

There is probably a large intersection between the set of people outraged by having to use a launcher and the set of people too ignorant to find a game's exe.

What is it with people going out of their way to make sure EVERYBODY knows they aren't going to buy a game because of some obscure pet peeve, as if anyone on the internet cares where some rando is spending (or not) $60.

Like... someone asks a question. Someone else comes in and answers it. Then out of nowhere, a full month later or longer, RandomDude1997 walks in, declares "I'm horribly offended by this development, and I shall spend my precious currency elsewhere in protest!" like their post is going to somehow change anything, then stomps out.

In this case, it's a legitimate annoyance... but posting about it on a random retail outlet's forum seems pretty performative, and quite annoying. Like someone yelling about their "boycott" in front of Home Depot because Milwaukee doesn't make a purple circular saw, and they simply just *can't stand* red... What parts need it?

the launcher stores your Larian account details so in EA thats things like inviting pals to multiplayer but later on there will be badges and bonus content and sure there are setting for you driver checks and bug reports too

Ooh, interesting. So basically all the things GOG Galaxy usually does.

I guess that's one way to make achievements consistent despite different purchasing platforms.

Galaxy takes screenshots and tracks time spend playing [as long as you open BG3 from Galaxy]... it can track pals for invites but in this game Larian does that with their own launcher

as of right now "achievements" are not tracked but there is code place markers so i assume larian will add them at launch