this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2026
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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.

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[–] gibmiser@lemmy.world 119 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Please more of this. External launchers can suck my nutts

[–] Pika@sh.itjust.works 47 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Fully agree. I think that Steam should make it a platform requirement that external launchers cannot be used on the platform.

It makes zero sense for me to hit play just to have a third party launcher open, and I have to hit play in that third party launcher as well. and I have to hit play in that third party launcher as well. At that point, I'm better off just buying it through the third party launcher.

The whole third-party launcher update process is also obnoxious.. Every gatcha game does it. what's the point of using steam at that point

[–] Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip 51 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

At that point, I'm better off just buying it through the third party launcher.

Which is exactly why companies like Ubisoft are so dead set on forcing 3rd party launchers down everybody's throats. They want to drag you out of the Steam ecosystem so they can pocket a bigger piece of the pie and infect your computer with god knows what.

[–] Pika@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, which is why I think it doesn't make sense that Steam allows it in the first place. Like, it's actively letting a direct competitor use your platform. You get none of the benefits and all of the upkeep.

[–] BigPotato@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They get a 30% cut of every sale and also get to say "we're not a monopoly." In the business world, that's a win win.

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[–] marighost@piefed.social 13 points 2 weeks ago

Especially now, where "TV PCs" are a thing (Steam Machine et al.) It's annoying as FUCK to launch a fresh game on my Deck connected to my TV, only to have to get up 3 minutes later to fiddle with the shitass launcher.

[–] whizzlezoop@feddit.org 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's amazing to hear what external launchers are able to do these days

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[–] Anchorxiety@reddthat.com 68 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Using a launcher to launch a launcher to launch a game is dumb as hell.

[–] djdarren@piefed.social 23 points 2 weeks ago

"Yo dawg..."

[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago

I come from the time where you just run the game and it, you know, ran. While I think even Steam itself is stupid as hell, at least someone is stopping the idiocy a little bit. Though ubisoft is dead to me, so it's a participation award, not a real 'woo, go awful company' cheer.

[–] bacon_saber@fedia.io 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Yo dawg,

(just saw the other one lol)

But that is what we heard

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[–] BladeFederation@piefed.social 27 points 2 weeks ago (30 children)

I might actually buy some Ubisoft games again, pirating is 1000x better for their shit. Some stuff is literally unplayable the way they want you to do it, like Far Cry 3.

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[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I remember a time when games were just installed on my computer. No external launcher

[–] InGodWeThrust@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That's why I buy from Gog. No need to deal with launchers, always online requirements or any other bs

[–] PromKingJosh@tarte.nuage-libre.fr 3 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

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?

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[–] Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Great news! Now remove denuvo and undisable family sharing, and I’ll remove Ubisoft from my no-buy list

[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I might consider it. On the other hand Ubisoft has been pretty shitty to their developers and customers, so IDK...

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago

I also ignored Ubisoft games. Not all games they publish had all this crap BTW, but you could count the interesting ones on one hand.

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Hoping to see this update come to Watch Dogs and Assassin’s Creed. Currently can’t get it to work in Linux and can’t be bothered to troubleshoot when I have other games to play.

[–] yukichigai@kbin.earth 3 points 2 weeks ago

Doesn't sound like they're going to backport this unfortunately. Damn shame: I absolutely love The Division but having it on Steam means I have to run two launchers to play it. It usually works... usually.

[–] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

Good this was a issue when I wanted to play Watch Dogs 1 on Steam Deck.

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 8 points 2 weeks ago
[–] _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 weeks ago

Never should've been there in the first place!

[–] mohab@piefed.social 4 points 2 weeks ago

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.

This is like the only good game they put out in forever. Great combat, I had fun coming up with combos in it, but I dropped it eventually because it dragged on for too long, and the further I progressed, the fewer enemies I could juggle, so I was having less and less fun.

That clone fight was peak though. Reminded me of an almost identical fight in F.I.S.T: Forged in Shadow Torch—yet another metroidvania with awesome combat and combo system.

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago

I wouldn't mind additional launchers and accounts, if it was optional without hiding core game elements behind it. A game must launch and the base game be playable on Steam without additional online DRM, software launchers and account requirement. For single player games that are fine to play offline.

[–] TeaAndHotDogs@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago

Ditching the launcher is great, but I'm guessing they will still require you to create a Ubisoft account and link it in so you can hop over to their store when it "improves". Better, but a day late and a dollar short

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