Steam is by far my number one launcher when it comes to video games. The only games I own on GOG are old games that are not available on Steam. One thing that gets me really pissed about Steam is that Valve gives every publisher the freedom to shove their garbage launchers down on gamers throats. EA, Ubosoft, and Rockstars launchers are something I accepted because they have been around since well over a decade.

On the flip side, all of a sudden other publishers like Bethesda, 2K, and even Square Enix decided to force their trash launchers on Steam players, because why not. 2K even forced it down on older games a couple of years ago, but now they removed it. The latest publisher is Square Enix who started to do this BS. They know how much gamers hate it when you buy a game on Steam and you see that another launcher is required within that launcher. This is also Valves fault for letting publishers do this and not caring. If this keeps going, and GOG gets more and more exclusive deals with games, than I think GOG will be a dangerous competitor. At least I hope they will.

What do you people think?

I've been tired of Steam for years now, and I never even used it.

I hink everyone agrees that more launchers are not needed especially when they bring nothing of value. Some like Larians have usage for cloud saves and also I think the mods for BG3(not sure about it since I don;t own it) which could be very useful but it would be nice if they can be disabled easly if u don't need them at the moment - instead we have to use commands to skip them.

For Steam I have to disagree though. I often see GOG being blamed for similar stuff which is strange to me. These are stores. THey just sell you stuff that is not theirs. They cannot tell the devs how to manage their products. Using their power as the only big store to force them will just bring them trouble - that would be illegal and will probably get sued for very good reasons. It is the consumers who need to tell the devs and force them to change that! You can see how Vanguard had no launchers. Ubi suddenly started to become more friendly towards Steam - who know they even jump back here. I think the 2k launcher was removed recenelty too from Bioshock games. So things can be done!!! But not from the store...

It's not Valves fault. If companies are doing the client thing en masse it's because it works, you want to blame someone blame "gamers", shinny things are great :)

Regarding GOG being a dangerous competitor, yeah, keep dreaming...
Being selfish here, I'm not even sure if would like to GOG being a dangerous competitor to Steam.

Is it illegal for you to tell someone that they can't smoke in your house? Nope. So why is this different? All these third party launchers do is damage Steam's reputation. Plus what the hell is the point to make a new store/launcher these days, especially if they release the games on Steam regardless? Will will still cut the revenue, and the pulblishers just turn the costumers against them. Boycotting a game you would love to play is not the answer through. Also, competition is good for the gamers.

Publisher-level compulsory launchers to launch just one game are Valve's fault precisely because Valve were the ones who invented then normalised it starting with Half Life 2. Everyone else just "followed the leader"...

No need to boycott anything, don't like don't play simple as that. It's not that there's any videogame shortage anyway, plenty of very fun titles that require no launcher or even steam for that matter.

Would like to hear your opinion on Epic's store competition with Steam, has the competition being good for the "gamers"?
A few years back grumpy people on the internet would yell a very loud no.

This.

Well, this can't be said any more succinctly.

In a way what OP is complaining about is exactly Valve's fault. The only difference is that Valve sold the game with Steam in retail? Here Mudstar is selling the game with their launcher on Steam. Basically the same kind of situation except digitally.

Then simply do not support them... best way of showing "discomfort". As long as you buy it there is not much reason they should care. Guess at some point we got up to 20 accounts linked and the DRM load is so heavy... even the slightest mistaken can lead to the lack of access of the games affected.. and the numbers sadly are increasing.

I only buy Steam games that either are DRM free (means they run without the client) or at least may have a easy "workaround" in order to get ride of the launcher-enforcement.

GOG got my highest support, Sony... as long as they provide a BD is second on my support-list... all the others got almost no support, not even Steam. If i buy a Steam game, which is rare... i usually use a cheap key and so far every single key was working for me.

You are missing the point. The issue is that instead of putting out games on established launchers/stores, publishers all of a suddent make new ones and they force you to use it even within Steam.

Yes and the issue will not stop as long as people are accepting it...

Fact is... those games basically use a huge load of a main account linked with many other accounts... i would say in DRM terms "you are doomed". It is the whole property of Steam... the gamers may even have to beg for being able to play it at some point.

Just do not buy it... else the issue will not only remain... it will even become bloated.

Here's the problem. They are doing it with even some of the older games. For example, the original Final Fantasy 7. It was released on Steam in 2013, and now it requires Square Enix account to play it. If they want to ruin their newer games with this, whatever, but it's unacceptable to shove it down on older titles that never required them in the first place. 2K did the same with the Bioshick games, but luckily they removed them a few months ago. This doesn't gaurantee that Square Enix will do the same.