Why are gamers forced to juggle multiple software launchers?
I’ve spotted a few separate instances of folks complaining, rightfully so, over the last few days about certain games requiring an independent launcher — beyond the usual Steam client for example.
One was berating how Ubisoft’s Assassin's Creed Mirage needs to do a handshake outside of Steam in order to verify ownership.
Another moaned about EA’s app having syncing issues — an issue that likely wouldn’t be present if you could just launch your games directly.
The other was for the high-profile Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which arrived earlier this week. I’ve lost count how many CoD games we’ve got now, but were 20-something games deep into the franchise, and clearly with so many titles, you need one home for all your identikit bro shooters… apparently. So, in order to play the game you have to launch the Call of Duty launcher, which in typical CoD user interface style, is an overly complicated exercise in something that should be as easy as pressing ‘Play’.
You need to launch the Call of Duty launcher, then Activision’s Battle.net needs to authenticate, and even then you may face issues. This video from dunkey perfectly illustrates the jumping-through-hoops frustration of it all.
I'll sound old here, but it made me appreciate the simplicity of physical media, and just slapping my copy of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom into my Switch and it just…. working.
I get why these mega-corps want to control every bit of the experience, and why these additional software layers end up existing, but they seem designed primarily to serve their own interests, and not those who actually bought their software and want to jump into playing — as quickly and as easily as possible. Steam could interfere here and dictate that things should launch directly from their client, but they’re typically pretty hands off with such things.
I guess I’m just lamenting, what with the ongoing death of physical software, that the digital side of things, and the cruft that comes with it now, is something the consumer has to just go along with. Jump through the hoops, or else.
You wanna play? Play by our rules.
