I’m glad it’s highlighted on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in particular, because that was the first game I’d bought from Ubisoft in years, and the extra launcher deterred me from considering buying any of their other games for a long while still. EA still has launchers on older games like It Takes Two and A Way Out and Dragon Age II and Inquisition that create obstacles for LInux compatibility and offline play, but newer titles like Split Fiction and The Veilguard no longer have the extra launcher problem. It’s good to see Ubisoft following this trend, and hopefully they can stop standing in the way of their own success.
I remember a time when games were just installed on my computer. No external launcher
That’s why I buy from Gog. No need to deal with launchers, always online requirements or any other bs
I was surprised Cyberpunk 2077 (same owner as GOG) launches through RED Launcher even if bought on GOG. It’s probably possible to disable through a launch parameter though.
There was also a time when you also didn’t need Steam. You would buy a game, install it, and play it without having to connect to the internet at all. Growing up, a lot of friends had gaming PCs in their bedrooms with no internet connection at all.
And if you did do stuff online, it was secondary and the publisher didn’t want a cut. StarCraft actually let you play online without owning the game - it specifically included an installer (The Spawn) that was for installing the multiplayer for free on friends’ systems. You only needed the disc to play singleplayer.
That was kinda my point :)
I still don’t understand the point of making every game have a shitty launcher. I mean, I can understand MMO’s for updating the actual game and shit, but why the fuck do single player games have them?
Because then they can advertise their other games to you along with other things, at least going by the blizzard/Activision launcher.
Can also do environment checks or setup and some troubleshooting/debug/repair from them.