Well the first thing is to fix their broken system. Anytime you have to reset Windows or more recently update to Windows 11. We all know that you will have to either re-download or make a new folder on a different drive and start the download before you can move the data to get to play your game. That was not too bad 2 years ago but 2+ years of Free Games every Friday now means literally about 1.5 TB of data (BTW that does not include updates). Steam, Orign, Uplay and GOG do not have this problem or issue. A special mention for GOG. Doom Eternal was a Bethesda platform Game when I bought it and needed that when I updated to Windows 11. If GOG were saying this I would be all for it. Other than the free Games and what they have done for devs Epic actually sucks as a Gaming platform.
And its their loss. Ive honestly not bought more than two games there. The store / launchers are just too clunky, the framerate of the whole thing is 30 fps, the download manager is absolute shite. It downloads in sequence and you have no control. I really dont need much if anything from a storefront/launcher, but the basics have to work proper.
Because I want to have a custom menu on my taskbar with all the games installed, click on one and start playing it immediatly, without it opening a software first saying "logging in", "check our weekend offer!!!" "Are you sure you want to play that game instead or checking out our New cool free to play battle Royal?"
Because I don't want Steam or Origin using 10% of my cpu and making my game performance worse. Yes it happens even on 16t cpus, that has been tested. Quake Champions, for example, has a 15% performance Hit by running with steam compared with self launcher you get from bethesda
Because I dont want to be prompted with daily updates for the software that runs games
Because I want full control over launch options for my .exe without the software trying to impose theirs
Because I want my own overlays if needed
Because I want to configure my controller the way i want and not how steam wants it to behave
Because When I close a game, now I need to close the software that also was opened when I started the game shortcut
Because I want to own my games, move them from disk to disk and computer to computer without software telling me I used too many hardware IDs to play that game
Because I want or have to be completly offline and still access all my games without restrictions
And a lot of other reasons
Launchers are a plague. Consoles have a clear advantage on that front. GOG is way ahead any other company too.
Reason I still use PC for games is the fact I found great and reliable FTPs with all pirated games
Your story falls flat when you say consoles do not suffer these problems.
They do and its way worse. You are now not just tied to a launcher... you are locked to an ecosystem with controlled (read non competitive!!) pricing structure and content on offer while on PC you can choose freely - want one launcher or ten, its your choice depending on what you want to play. You pay to use online. You need the right firmware to play content. You are always handshaking with authentication servers. The same games will demand always online. All games will force updates on you just as they do on PC.
You are tied even to the hardware - console fails and your stuff is straight up inaccessible, while Steam/etc. Accounts work irrespective of the hardware, now or ten years ago or ten years in the future. You cant play legacy on consoles either. I could go on...
The gist is, if you are advanced user enough, the PC wins on every single front. And if you think it doesnt, youre either lazy or not in the know. Console is fast food, PC is the real restaurant where the bread isnt plastic. All it takes is a bit more effort, for a much bigger and healthier menu. Even if you have to keep track of twenty pages of it
Oh man... time and time again I realize how misleading can nostalgia really be....
I think these days are the most convenient for gaming, and honestly - f$%^ all this crying about "not owning things". I despise all the times where I had to buy a new game when my CDs got a few scratches cause you need to put it in every time you wanted to launch a game, I start sweating blood every time I think of Starforce and other early DRMs, and I sure don't miss having to call somewhere to "activate" my product. Also, pirating in 2021 is stupid. The only argument I understand is lack of demos which may or may not affect your purchasing decision, but pirating for the sake of pirating is without exaggeration - absolutely objectively stupid. You wanna risk becoming a part of a worldwide botnet for the sake of not paying for "not real ownership"? You want to lose your personal data and financial info to chinese or russian hackers cause you are too lazy to get some free games on Epic, or too cheap to splurge a few bucks on Steam's seasonal sale? Or you feel really generous and want to give some of your compute resources to random crypto-malware?
Hell, the concept of renting games or having game subscriptions is about as old as mainstream gaming. I remember back in elementary school you didn't even have to own a console - you can go to a place at a local mall or a shady booth at the local bazar, rent a Dendi or Sega Megadrive for a weekend along with couple of games(though you had to leave some sort of collateral in most cases), have some fun, and return it on monday before school. Americans even had more convenient options, like Gamestop or short-lived Gamefly (e.g. Netflix for games).
Even my 72y.o. stepdad isn't that stubborn, and plays his favorite RTS games on Steam, Origin and GOG, just like everyone else.
My Steam account has been alive for nearly 15 years, and I do accept the risk that if someday it closes - I lose all games. Just like I accept the risk of losing my physical media after tornado or break-in.
Yep... the market is vibrant, games are more diverse than ever, there is more content than ever, and all your old stuff still works on todays hardware, while I'm even still playing todays stuff on a GPU from 5 years ago. Its gaming heaven and still we whine and whine on and on.
About how many launchers we have to keep up with, even if we did choose each and every one ourselves when we bought products.
About not owning games, even if there is an extensive library on GOG.com - and on top of that, we have ALWAYS just owned the
licenses to use software, and as long as you buy your games that still applies.
About customizing stuff, even if we could and have always customized our desktops since 1990. What used to be a screen full of shortcuts is now a screen with five launchers.
Troubleshooting games is often taking you longer than it takes for a dev to push out a hotfix. And if he doesn't most if anything just works by clicking 'Install'. You're not even pointing at a folder because everything is done for you.
Hard life I know. And then you even have to download all that free stuff you get because the competition is better than it ever was because of the internet.
Spoiled brats.
Man love love this site.
