My favorite is that I bought a game on Epic and it has to use the Ubisoft Launcher.
Ubisoft accounts dont connect to Epic directly. Neither party - Ubisoft or Epic - would help me get it working so I cant play it.
Cool.
this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2026
763 points (98.5% liked)
Gaming
7918 readers
1029 users here now
!gaming is a community for gaming noobs through gaming aficionados. Unlike !games, we don’t take ourselves quite as serious. Shitposts and memes are welcome.
Our Rules:
1. Keep it civil.
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only.
2. No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other flavor of bigotry.
I should not need to explain this one.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Try not to repost anything posted within the past month.
Beyond that, go for it. Not everyone is on every site all the time.
Logo uses joystick by liftarn
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Haven't bought a Ubisoft game for more than a decade because all of their new stuff requires Uplay.
I just bought Far Cry 3 on steam, because it was on sale, but launching it requires me to sign into the uplay launcher. I now had multiple occurrences of the game not starting, because uplay couldn’t verify that I own the game. I then decided to open Far Cry from the uplay launcher directly which still opened steam. I guess jokes on me for not pirating the game.
I particularly appreciate the fact that it's EAs launcher in the meme, undoubtedly one of if not the worst offender for this shit.
That's actually good, you wasted no time from your 2 hour refund period and can pirate it then.
The last time I tolerated a 3rd party launcher was when I was playing through the mass effect trilogy, as the 3rd game needed EA's launcher, I think.
It was so much of a pain, I just swore them off completely. Now if a game needs a 3rd party launcher, I either just don't play it, or... Yarr, if it's good enough to warrant it.
Exactly the same for me. I played ME 1&2 years ago when they launched through steam, then when I finally got 3 it made me go through the EA launcher. I endured it just long enough to do the game once and then uninstalled it, and now I'm more vigilant about checking the reqs to see if games need 3rd party software.
ME 2 was better anyway
I bought ME:LE and I still refuse to play it uncracked. The EA app bullshit has caused me more than enough grief, actively preventing me from playing the game I paid for unless it's cracked.
I just check the steam description. If it requires an account, uses a 3rd party launcher or/and has DRM, I pirate the game.
Same, except I don't pirate it, or play it. there's nearly limitless entertainment options and none is so special.
- Diablo II: had a -skiptobnet command line option.
- Diablo II Resurrected: Load Battle.Net first, click through ads for other stuff, click again to start the game, press buttons to skip the animations, and press another key to really log in, for real this time.
So I just made a button that launches a script that does all those clicks for me while I retrieve a beverage. The only reason I didn't just pirate was so I could play online with an old friend.
I feel this on a molecular level
I hate it so much when I am playing with a controller in Big Picture mode. Fuck off with extra bullshit. There's no reason a sign in thing needs to be a special window or extra program. I should be able to do anything like that in the game itself.
It messes so much up when I'm streaming from one PC to another too. I usually have to go back and forth to the other room to use the launcher, and sometimes again to make sure it focuses on the right application window.
My setup has been pretty good at handling those, though thankfully I often don’t need to.
On Moonlight, I can hold the start button to briefly enable mouse mode, then click whatever I need to. Don’t think Steam remote play has something similar.
IDK about remote play, but Steam has special button combos to help with this. Holding the "home/menu" button activates mouse mode with the right stick. But holding that button is also generally how you turn the controller off so you gotta use it in short bursts or you turn the damn thing off. :/
My gaming PC is connected to the TV screen and I use it like a console - which means I mostly use a gamepad. Until one of these fuckers show up, and I need to get off my lazy ass and go grab the keyboard...
Hold the "home" button (Xbox button, PS button; whatever the center one that opens the console menu is for your controller) and then use the right stick to move the cursor and R1 for left click.
Also good to know: Home and the left face button (X for xbox, Square for PS, Y for Nintendo) to open the on screen keyboard if it doesn't open automatically when selecting an input field (like naming your dude or something).
The only thing that sucks about Steam's special button combos is they all use the Home button; which also turns off most controllers when held long enough. 😬
It takes two. Fucking incredible game. Hasn't give me headaches during startup while playing on Linux. But God dang, why does it have to be paired with origin in windows and why do I have to login to it just run the game? Fucking eh...
I pirated the game and it doesn't do this
I mean, cool that you've pirated it. Not my case tho.
I have heard tons of good reviews for this game and I bought it once it got goty. Truly a masterpiece so I wanted to support good devs (unfortunately distributed through a crap add distributor). I'd pirate it too but price was right and devs are saints in my eyes. Already have gotten myself Split fiction.
I have it on PS5 and it doesn't do this.
Nah, make a stop at the steam refund button on your way there
The only game I preordered in years was the new Bond game and that was before they disclosed they infested it with Denuvo. I refunded that shit before preloaded was even done.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
Refund time
Leased*
I just stopped buying games from studios that do this.
Yep, same. If I buy a game and that's the first thing I'm hit with, it's an immediate refund. They can all go fuck off with their bs launchers.
I've made it a point to avoid games that require the used of a 3rd party launcher.
Wonder if there is one worse then Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
Launch game on steam
It opens EA Origin
It then opens the Mass Effect LE launcher
Now you get to pick which Mass Effect game you want to play.
load more comments
(6 replies)
Frankly, I despise all launchers, Steam included. The only reason it gets a pass is because it's one of the two somewhat reasonable ones, and the only one that makes gaming on Linux simple and convenient.
It's still slow, ugly as hell, and entirely unnecessary. Makes me want to pirate more, but then I'd have to set the games up from scratch.
The only use case for launchers is console gaming. It makes perfect sense on a Deck, Switch or a PS5. But absolutely no sense whatsoever on a desktop PC.
Again - Steam has features that make it tolerable (achievements, screenshot sharing, workshop, etc.), but I'd still prefer to just play my games without anything in the middle.
load more comments
(10 replies)
I tried to play GTA 4 through Steam
The launcher kept failing. Old Rockstar accounts, New ones, didn't matter. Refunded. I May pirate it at some point, I'll enjoy the nostalgia of it probably.
Know what works flawlessly? My Xbox 360 DISC.
Modern games are a joke.
Negative review. Every time. No matter how good the game.
I also don't buy them any more but I have a load in my library.
I was glad to see with Cyberpunk that I could skip login with their launcher. Later when I decided to try RDR2 it didn't let me skip login, so I refunded that shit with 0 minutes played.
load more comments
(1 replies)
The only launchers i can bear are Steam (because it is useful after all, it has proton, the workshop, etc etc) and launchers for Minecraft
The EA launcher is bundled with Steam purchases of Mass Effect, for instance
Never played mass effect, but even if i did, fuck EA for adding a launcher no one needs
load more comments
(1 replies)
I wanted to try this "GTAV" game all the kids were talking about. It was on sale, so I spent four days downloading it over my miserable rural DSL connection only to find out that it wouldn't work without rockstar demanding my information.
So I refunded it. Im sure there was a work around but I didn't need to play it that bad.
Fucking Rockstar.
It took me fucking AGES to get Red Dead 2 running on CachyOS because of that bastard launcher.
the steam page warns you of third party launches before you buy the game doesn't it?
so at least if it does happen it shouldn't be a surprise
load more comments
(4 replies)
view more: next ›