Pyrian on 29/6/2019 at 10:44
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
It could be FOSS, like Playnite.
It really can't. Software can be free, but servers cost.
demagogue on 29/6/2019 at 11:30
Or like the old adage goes, if you're getting something online for free, you're not the customer; you're the product.
Gryzemuis on 29/6/2019 at 13:13
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
It could be FOSS.
You don't want another launcher.
Even if is is Open Source or free or independent.
What we need is an initiative from the gaming industry, to develop open APIs and open protocols for installing and managing games. So people can write launchers that can deal with other company's games. Or game-studio's can develop games that can launch and be maintained via other company's software. A consumer then could use launcher X from company A, buy games from companies B, C and D, let their games be maintained/patched/updated by company E, and use the stores of companies F, G and H.
Unlikely to happen, because when some companies think their current market-share gives them an advantage, they will do anything to block such an initiative. Too bad.
Nameless Voice on 29/6/2019 at 16:47
I don't disagree with anything you just said, and it fact you're basically saying the same thing that I was saying.
I suggested that the combined launcher would be FOSS, but that comes later - for any combined launcher to work, it needs to have some at least partially open APIs that it can use. That's the baseline before anything will work.
My thinking was that it's in the best interests of all the smaller, non-Steam stores to open their APIs to such a launcher, because it makes people more likely to buy on stores that work with the launcher.
Suppose someone has games on Steam and GOG. They rail against also buying on Epic because then they need a third launcher, and then if they buy from Origin, MS, etc., they need four, five, six launchers.
If each of those extra shops had one common launcher, then no one would care where they bought the games. The dislike of buying games on a new store and splitting their library even further would be gone, because the games bought in that new store would be in the same launcher as the old store.
If all of the extra launchers work together to come up with some kind of open standards, it helps all of them - and might even, eventually, force Steam to follow suit because everyone else supports it.
voodoo47 on 29/6/2019 at 17:29
I actually would be interested in seeing the market shares, googled a bit but didn't find anything useful. just looking at things, steam seems to be the leader, with the rest just fighting over leftovers.
Nameless Voice on 12/7/2019 at 22:36
I got into the beta yesterday.
I think it's still a bit early to give it a fair review, quite a few things seem to be unfinished.
It still has that same huge GOG Galaxy problem where clicking on its tray icon only lets you open the launcher (clicking on the Steam icon is my most-commonly-used method for launching games), but they've said they plan to address that.
The main UI looks fancy, but is a bit unwieldy. The left panel has filter lists / bookmarks (e.g. games sorted by platform), while the main panel shows the games list. Clicking on a game will open the description of that game in the main panel, which I find really annoying. You can't view the list of games and the info on a game at the same time, because they both occupy the same space. You have to go back to your list after looking at each game.
It's also annoyingly hard to actually start the games. You have to select the game in the list to open its game page, then click the "play" button which is kind of hidden at the very top of the screen.
At least letting you start games by double-clicking on them would help a lot here.
The integrations don't seem to work particularly well yet.
The Epic Games integration doesn't work at all for me, apparently a bug that happens if you installed their launcher back when it was still the Unreal Engine launcher, and so isn't in the expected location. They're looking into that one as well, but it means I can't test the Epic integration.
The Steam integration does work, but of course it just launches the games through Steam. You get the Steam overlay instead of the GOG one. For a proper multi-launcher, I'd expect to see the GOG overlay take over all games launched through it, though it really needs to be improved a lot first, since an overlay without a built-in web browser is useless in my book.
It's supposed to have some kind of friends list integration, but that doesn't work at all. I only see my one GOG friend. None of my Steam friends appear.
It does have common pages for achievements, which list Steam achievements for Steam games.
The UPlay integration also doesn't work, it thinks I have no games. That might be because I never actually installed UPlay, I just made an account to collect some free games at some point.
icemann on 13/7/2019 at 11:17
Early days. I'm sure with time more will work as expected.
icemann on 18/7/2019 at 10:40
I will say that the overall idea behind this is sound. As soon as it's available to all (or I get in for the beta), then I'm jumping ship. If you think about it, having everything in one place is just great (in theory). So when one place offers it cheaper than all the others, grab it there and then play it via the GOG Galaxy client. It does depend too on how good it all looks, and how easy it is to use. Steam for all the complaints aimed at it is very feature rich.
Renzatic on 18/7/2019 at 18:36
I'm still waiting for the damn invite. :mad:
Renzatic on 27/7/2019 at 20:15
Finally got my invite!
It's cool! Like GOG Galaxy, but a lot neater, and you can add games from other stores! That's so rad!