All digital stores that force you to be logged in to play can suck a big fat cock. If anything brings down steam then i hope it will be gog. As long as im forced to use any of these bullshit platforms id like to use a single one for all games

Steam used to be this 'single one for all games' platform for a long time. But now companies are making their own platforms which sucks big fat cock cause you need to have like 6 of them on your pc installed to play various games. EA productions? - Origin. Blizzard has their own, Bethesda, Ubisoft has theirs too. Now epic games aswell. Still, many of them add their games on steam but thats slowly changing. Now with Epic Store it might change even more. Sure its good for them but for us its yet another platform to install.

and GOG even tho i love them so much for their work on bringing back old games, i dont think they will be as big as other platforms. Sure they have exclusives (project warlock, upcoming iron harvest) but its not as big as they would like to. Making that Witcher Thronebreaker as a exclusive for GOG showed that its not worth it.

GOG is superior for not adding additional DRM's and they not require a platform to run games, but unfortunately its too small. Small budget i mean. It could have change if CD Projekt pumped more money into it, however form a buisness perspective - is it actually worth it? Since you dont need a platform to run it, and there is no DRM, then it means pirates have a easy way to get games from their site. Just check pirate websites for games, many of them has [GOG] in the name. Their work is great for community, but not great for them in a matter of making monies. And in the end, monies is all that matter in a buisness.

Since most of us should be running super computers compared to what we had when these launchers didn't exist, is it really that big a deal needing a few of them running?

In the old days, it was "click on start menu, click on game". Now, it is "click on launcher, click on game". I guess I don't have anywhere near enough games to start forgetting which launcher has which game, and it should be possible to create shortcuts outside of the launcher anyway.

It's like with TV: now you've got Netflix, Foxtel, Stan, Hulu, etc.

These launchers really suck, no doubt---but I think it's better to share the power around a bit than give it all to one fat corp where it is destined to be abused. Having alternatives will help to keep them in line.

Not to mention if Steam were the only launcher, Valve basically gets to print money.

sure you can get used to it but its still annoying sometimes. You feel like playing some assasins creed? sure i will just open my ubisoft app - oh? 2 hours update? yeah i guess since i wasnt running this app since half a year. Guess im gonna play something else then. I dont even remember what was that app called since i used it only once to play one game but i still have it installed on my pc...

But yeah i guess you're right, if there would be only one platform for them all, they would have monopoly which means they could do anything they want. Now, as epic store showed, there's a competition for the best platform to host games and we - players might get positive outcome out of this (free games avaible only on certain platforms for example).

Oh yeah, it isn't ideal, but dealing with updates at the time of running the game is how it used to be anyway. You'd have to navigate to some website and download the updater or whatever when the server said you had the wrong version to connect.

There would be a competition if both platforms provide the same games!

i dont like the feeling of losing control over my pc - many little programs are running in the background and i dont even notice it... i've set up a new pc 3 month ago and after installing win i had over 10 tiny programms running i didnt asked for. it is nice to have such a "super Computer" but you have to be carefull and spend time whith things i dont want too.

as long as every plattform has a couple of triple a games, the majority will eat whatever will be served. the best for us would be, if most of the games would be on as many plattforms as possible,

i like some features of steam, but i would prefer if i could just pay a game and download it - nothing more.

Well, it's like with TV, as I said. If there is a show I want to watch that is exclusive to Netflix, then I have to get Netflix if I want to watch it. The game developer decides which platforms it wants to release its game on, and I'm sure there are a whole bunch of reasons why they might choose this one over that, or their own.

I'd like just to pay for a game and download it too, but so long as the powers that be have other plans, it is better for us to have many options rather than just one.

Sure, with only one platform, every game would be on it, but that would also mean that those running it have little motivation not to just screw us any way they see fit.

The competition is worth a little lack of neatness on the PC, and if those programs are doing things you don't want them to do, it's only exposing that and having alternatives that would make them stop.

on steam you dont need to be logged in, you can start the downloaded games without internet access, I like these platforms or lets say steam :-) ... I have been an early adaptor for this and bought my last physical pc game back in 2010 or something ... from a consumer perspective these platforms are a big benefit ... also the prices tend to be cheaper, except for used games on amazon marketplace maybe ... only thing that is not so great is you cant exchange the games with other guys or sell your games and give it to another person ... but yeah valve has pretty much a monopoly with steam and they try to keep it ... 30 % is definitely too much, but apple/google are no better with their appstores ... I think they should take 10 % at max, storage/bandwith etc. is becoming cheaper

"you can start the downloaded games without internet access"

You can go further than that, you can install you games on other computers without internet.

if you follow the guide to set offline mode https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.p...-agcb-2555

Then take a backup while its in offline mode and copy onto another computer. Keep a backup of steam executable folder in offline mode you kind of do own your games again.

interesting fact

I wouldn't read too much into it. I would bet Epic made some deal with Ubisoft. Probably not charging anything or paying some lump sum upfront to Ubisoft to put their game on their new platform.

Epic is probably doing everything they can to attract large devs to their platform. Even with the lower rates (which is definitely great for smaller devs), they're just not that competitive with Steam until they have the same user base and they won't have the user base until they've got a lot of games released on their platform.

Steam is shit enough.
Can't wait for more even shittier shit.

Yea me too, shitty shit is my favorite kind of shit.

I'm taking a shit while reading this shit

I just read your shit about taking a shit while reading this shit and now I feel the need to take a shit.

You guys need to stop talking shit

Shit conversation.

Bring back DOS.

Those were the times, it went all downhill from there...

back in my days...

Imagine having to install QC through Floppys

Never understood the hate against steam - did they even use the other launchers? They are clunky, aggressive and sluggish. I always liked steam for it's user simplicity and NEVER have problems with it. If it would be my choice then every single game would be through steam.

(I actually add most non-steam games into steam as well via custom link - just to keep one inventory)

Browsing Steam can be slow as FUCK.
Recently Steam update window poped up, but only as a windows98 looking title bar.
There's ALWAYS something that makes me think WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING IN CURRENT YEAR?

I don't do business with Ubi and EA.

I got rid of Epic's launcher (which I kept for the latest never-came-out-of-alpha UT) had decided to update itself AND put an auto launch entry.

I loved the new Doom but what's coming doesn't get me too excited.

there was never a need for a launcher.
There's no need for an app running other than the game.
A market place website would have been better.

They want to make games dependent on Steam features (microtransactions, matchmaking, achievements, VAC, etc) so that unauthenticated copies won't work properly, and of course, it's nice for devs who don't have to create those features themselves.

Fuck valve I hope they die.

wait till microsoft restricts win32 use and everyone will have ms store as their sole source for apps on all platforms, that is their plan. if you want win32 support, pay up 100 dollars, that is if that support would even be offered at all, they could charge twice as much for those broken ms store apps instead that work 3 times slower than win32 apps. there will be no more steam or any other kind of other store in that case. and this is all i am pretty sure is happening in the near future since they already cut support for win32 dev tools.

It wont play out like that for a number of reasons.

* Microsoft cant restrict win32 use because you can just take win7, 8 or 10 iso and a $100 second hand computer and run win32 stuff all day forever, just turn off updates or unplug the internet and they cant stop it.

*Win32 is already dead because Intel and AMD have not release a 32bit cpu since like 10 years ago at least. Its x64 now.

*Microsoft already tried to segment a market with Windows 10 S a few years ago that could not run x86 code and it failed misserably because nobody is interested in a windows that cant run x86 code.

*Steam wont fall to Windows quietly. People would be outraged if they could not run new steam games on Windows - and if it ever happend there is Steam on linux, Steam under WINE and steam Proton, and again win 7, 8 and 10 isos are in the wild already so nobody can take it away from you.

*Nobody needs microsoft anymore except hardcore PC gamers who are like -1% of the population. Ordinary people get along fine with Apple junk or android smartphones for their internet browsing etc. Microsoft already almost became irrelevant hence their new tactic to become a Advertising and Data mining company with Win10.

*In the future you will see the real death of Win32 and Win64 because microsoft is going to strip the Windows Kernel out of Winows and replace it with the Linux Kernal. They will then likely try to dominate the market with a flashed up simple GUI running on linux that has Win32/64 emulation - but again we have other options than microsoft that only grow stronger year by year.

We dont have to fear microsoft, they have already fucked themselves.

i am not even sure what you are arguing here because it will happen whether you think microsoft is doomed or not, there are plenty of garbage corporations that are still there making money from the populace just because the majority will eat whatever you throw at it. 10 years from now i am pretty sure that 90 percent of computers wont support win32 apps out the box without emulation and that would make 90 percent of highly demanding win32 titles like quake champions unplayable. microsoft didn't care when they killed off netscape to support their own browser even though it lead to stagnation in the web development for years, why would they care now, they could simply stop releasing updates to windows 10 and force everyone to buy into their new os that won't have native win32 support, which is the most likely scenario, and that would lead to people get infected as soon as they go on the internet with that win10 machine so i don't see any solution to this other than pay for their ms store trash titles that will work a tad faster than same emulated win32 apps. microsoft is not there based on competition, they are simply used as a safety layer by the government to control the desktop environment of the users, they could care less how well designed it is, it's not there to make things better for the end user. we still have ford and other crap american cars just because government needs its own car manufacturer to support their own industry, it's not there based on competition, which is why i am sceptical that microsoft will ever go away due to competition from other company unless government will decide to switch to linux, which might be unfeasable to trust the entire desktop infrasctructure to open source as it lacks the closed sourced nature needed to maintain all the backdoors for spying on all the desktop users.

" i don't see any solution to this other than pay for their ms store trash titles"

Thats the exact mentality that creates the Windows lockin you seem to be describing or wanting to avoid.

All your software already works on Windows 7 or Current build of Win10. You dont automatically get a virus just because its not updated. Firewall it. Its on a private network. It will only get a virus if you give it one. You will always be able to run all existing software its not even an argument just like you can still run commodore 64 on your pc.

There is no reason to buy anything from Windows store unless you want it, Halo exclusive maybe?

Quake Champions is like the worst example. That will go offline for sure but not because of microsoft.

Nobody is locked into windows updates. You have Linux, Apple, Chromebook, Android tablets where you can do all web browsing, email, word processing etc etc

You have Win7, 8, 10 current builds if you dont like how windows changes in future.

The only people who will get shoved around by Microsoft are the ones who Keep Win10 on their computers and let microsoft update it however they want. Its pretty easy to avoid.

Posted from my Dual booting Win 8.1/Linux box.

Yeah you could run win98 just to play some older games, but who would do that given how flaky it is, than there is a legal issue of owning an actual copy that can run on your system, I am not defending ms if i see they clearly just f* up the industry for no apparent reason, they will do whatever they want since they own 90 percent of desktop market, and that will probably never change since they get government contracts and support by corporate world. Linux is nice, but it will never succeed without global support on the desktop market simply because it gives more power to the user to decide what he allows to run on his system. I like linux, i just wish there was more mainstream support for it on the desktop, we see steam picking up linux ports and builtin wine support that is a good start. I wish i could use windows, but i would feel bad even buying a cheap 10 dollar key when i know they just do whatever they want with the system including spying etc.

Thanks for the information.