Fonzie!

I’ve had Black Desert letting me play a bit with an outdated version (I didn’t know there were updates, I hadn’t used the launcher for a while) but it gave my account a time out of 10 days after my play session.

I was also surprised it didn’t just go “Nope, update first!” immediately, I kind of expected that would be the case if I didn’t use the launcher.

Man I had to scroll far down for this. I know her appearance and character is a bit hard to take seriously but she makes great points in this video.

This works by replacing assets, config files or even by injecting binaries into pre-compiled games, as well.

Minecraft is in a pre-compiled language (Java), but so is Skyrim (C, C++) which is famously modded (although most mods are written in Papyrus which is an interpreted scripting language, the game itself wasn’t).

Most mods for Tekken (C++) also work this way; they simply replace assets and config files.

This also works with any Unity game which prefers to launch through a launcher.

If it’s an online game, like an MMO, they might put your account on timeout if you keep playing some outdated version of the game, though.

upsell other products

I don’t think I’ve seen games do that, not even to advertise other games from the same publisher/developer. But then, the only five games I’ve played with a launcher are three MMOs, Genshin, and Honkai Star Rail.

Sometimes updates require a game to be restarted. With a launcher it never needs to REstart, it will be started fresh afterwards anyway.
I’ve noticed Genshin Impact on Android (which doesn’t have a launcher) regularly needs to restart after updates, while the Windows version (which does have a launcher) never requires in-game updates nor restarts.

It’s also in general a good place to centralise account management (esp. if parts of the game would need to be reloaded if another account is logged in!)

Lastly, although this is more of a side-effect, but it gives a good place to shows recent news/posts of the company about their game to players, such as when there’ll be downtime, in a way that’s practically impossible for the players to miss.

They can and do that without a launcher LMAO

Not sure how that’s relevant to them knowing about Linux gaming and caring to ensure it’ll work properly despite proper anti-cheat.

Can we at least cheer that on?

With their huge, clunky UI and my 1080p screen, yeah it is.

*glances at PR*

Man why does your code look so… *Different? *

That’s just binary with extra steps.

That’s interesting, indeed! I’ll keep an eye out!

Oh definitely, most people aren’t going to use Linux because it’s not from a big corporation so they think it’ll be bad.

Who are you? The poop police?

Not if the managerial position paid 50k and changing oil pays 150k

Awesome, thanks!

She knows what makes men happy

Over 30 anime piracy websites shut down

Holy crap! Are any private trackers hit?

streaming sites like Aniwave

Oh so nothing changes for me, gotchu. They could’ve been clearer in the title.

I am Dutch, I approve this message.

and at least with a pc you can control it

True.

most people don’t

Also true, and why I was skeptical.
Heck, you have people saying they control their computer but Chrome is going around scanning their entire system without them realising it!