What does the launcher do with regard to the operation of the game that cannot be done within the actual game itself? Is it due to a technical limitation or simply there for the convenience of the players? Are there alternatives to such methods of starting the execution of games?

    • Björn Tantau
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      2815 days ago

      Doesn’t work with every game, though. Some have DRM that depends on the launcher and/or authentication.

      • @TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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        15 days ago

        Obviously not every game. Multiplay games won’t work with it. And yes anything that inherently depends on the launcher. The vast majority of games it does work though.

        It feels like a lot of people forget or don’t realize that pc games are just files in a folder. Epic and Steam basically present you with shortcut icons to those exe files.

        • @9bananas@lemmy.world
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          315 days ago

          Multiplay games won’t work with it

          that’s not actually a guarantee: BG3 has multiplayer and works just fine without the launcher. as do plenty of others.

          • swab148
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            315 days ago

            --skip-launcher in the launch options on Steam, for anyone who doesn’t know already

      • @mx_smith@lemmy.world
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        115 days ago

        Also when running and playing games on Linux I find that starting directly from the exe can cause compatability issues.