I'm in the closed beta. It's pretty good. It tracks downloads, but I don't like how it seems to be a web browser on the backend, similar to how the RUclips app worked on the 3DS.
I've started using Discord as my launcher. I've always got the program open and the indexing is great, so searches are near instant and launches sometimes faster than the game's original launcher. It's only stumbling block is if you're not signed into the service that provides the game, in which that respective launcher prompts a login. This is rather expected though. As a backup though, I just make shortcuts of the game's executable and have those piled into a folder in my documents that I then have pinned to my start menu or on my desktop. Works just almost just as quick. I remember the day before launchers though, where my games were only as organized as I could make them and usually a CD was required to get it started. I couldn't honestly say if it was faster or not in a world of digital launchers these days, but at least there are multiple pretty decent solutions to unify them under one program of personal preference.
Bit of an oversight to the idea for discord to hire Playnite's devs is that if that happens they will be under contract, making the code they develop after they get hired Discord's property. Unless Discord keeps Open Sourcing that code (which they didn't with the main discord client) you will lose a lot of pro's you listed for the program.
That is a good point, though Discord is a surprisingly open-ended program, allowing users to invite people to games that are effectively taken off the market. Best case scenario is a Playnite/Discord merger would retain that flexibility, but you're right, open-source would be out the window.
I use the steam controller and a lot of other controllers, so steam is my go to launcher because of the controller support. I even added launchbox to steam so I can easily use and customize all my controllers as well as use my steam link
That's a interesting idea. I thought of doing that, but I was using Launchbox for ALL of my games and I figured it would be redundent to have a launcher open another launcher lol. I'm guessing you're using Launchbox as your program for emulators and big picture for your modern games?
John Who yup. Launchbox is just for my retro games, and being able to easily connect my PS3 , Switch Pro, and 8bitdo genesis controllers to steam makes things much easier to use whatever controller I need for the console I’m emulating. There’s also the benefit of being able to use the steam link the stream my games to my living room
I just booted up my Epic Games Store Steam Launcher, and activated my UPlay code to get my 7-day free trial of Xbox EA Game Pass Premium subscription, in order to watch this video. Worth it!
The most important part of an "all-in-one" launcher is that it scans all digital libraries, regardless wether games are installed or not. I've got so many uninstalled games scattered across multiple launcher that I sometimes accidentally buy games twice.
There should an official communication protocol for digital distribution developed. An official RFC where the client similar to P2P Clients is just that. A client. The technology then allows to distribute content by having severs that are similar to DNS Servers that tell you where what content is available to buy. Through that there can be millions of suppliers for all kinds of stuff and a real market can develop. IT Scientists of the internet please create an RFC for that.
Okay, I need a Raycevick video on Hotline Miami. Come on, you can't have iamthekidyouknowwhatimean - Run on the background and not have the video be at least slightly connected to Hotline Miami.
@@Raycevick Hotline 2 is about learning the stages and being perfect at them. Memorizing each route and perfecting the run to carry the combo to the next stage. Hardmode is amazing because of all the subtle but smart level design changes that make you have to think and carefully plan. And the ammo halfing was a required nerf for better players who use those 30 round guns too easily, and bring in ammo conservation and throw conversation into the mix that requires even more though in a split second. It adds to the even higher skill ceiling the game's got. I really love the game, and would love to see you bring more attention to the modding scene. With 2k+ hours in game and the editor I believe I could help you pr provide gameplay that shows higher levels of play.
Serious question: my desktop gaming PC is a Windows 7, but I run Linux Mint on my work laptop and I love it. Is it convenient to have a Linux gaming PC and use it for playing Windows games? If it is, how should I do it?
@@franciscoastorga8299 I'd say yes. Start with using Steam and Lutris. Steam now has Proton, which makes playing a LOT of Windows games with it very easy.
Playing games... The only reason I haven't ditched windows. If what you're saying is true is probably about time, and even more knowing that the end of windows 7 draws near.
I feel like I'm doing something stupid, but I've been using Steam for this purpose. I just like to see all the games I have, with all the cover art (this was the main motivation for me) in once place. I started doing it back when I mostly only had steam games, but now I have more games, I feel like a frog in a warm pot. I like Steam library's interface; I like how there is the steamgriddb website that archives games' steam cover art, and let people submit their own (even for most non-steam games and old consoles games); Steam's "add non-steam game", "add custom art" (even support moving pictures), and categorization features are easy to use; there is even steam room manager that let you add emulated consoles game as entries on Steam. However, having to manually add each .exe and getting art for them is starting to get a bit tedious. Doing it for one game at a time isn't bad, but it adds up. But moving to a different launcher also means I need to re-do everything I've set up again. Ugh.
Thank you for this. I and probably many of us, all have this same launcher problem and you explained it so well. I honestly think you've predicted gaming's next big step.
God, don't advocate for Discord buying Playnite. That's a great way to kill its ideals, potential, and hand it over to a company that considers anti-consumer strategy perfectly acceptable.
I'm in the closed beta. It's pretty good. It tracks downloads, but I don't like how it seems to be a web browser on the backend, similar to how the RUclips app worked on the 3DS.
I've been glued to your videos since Christmas of this past year where I binged watched a ton of them. Now here I am watching your latest video and you open it talking about the Game Launcher Launcher video I wrote and directed for CORSAIR. lmao
Racing Video Games oh God, that's where it's from! I guessed Midtown Madness 2, but I had a niggling feeling it was from Porsche Unleashed. Thanks for pointing out out. 😀
That is a very valid pro steam has that no other alternative has, people really underestimate just how amazing it is, because a simple shortcut can have custom binds in steam.
@@DemitriX. not only custom binds, but ever since the release of Steam Controller support, any controller can also be macro'd now. Multifunctions, combos, you name it. Steam overlay essentially makes any controller a cheating device in a controller-friendly game lmao. That's how good it is.
Game launchers are going the way of internet streaming services, just like how tv providers went. Starts with a low number who offer relatively good service, then balloon out into a myriad of similar ones who don't offer anything substantially better or different but drive up the cost and make things more complicated.
Yeah, nitro is egregious enough with how many features are locked without it and how much it asks for. Like, no, I don't care about your server's bandwidth. You're a massive company now, and 8 megabytes is America Online file size limits. They're asking ten bucks at least to provide a feature most other chat clients offer at a greater capacity for free.
As I'm slowly transitioning to PC gaming the issue of game launchers is quite irritating. I do like being able to see what my friends are doing on xbox and join parties, now that I'm adding people I PC, I feel it's necessary for me to bring up discord with someone if I just want to chat or else see what they're doing by launching a whole different app. It's also frustrating to own these launchers because of all of the different exclusives on each one that I could miss out in just because I don't have the epic launcher and others
+Raycevick Great Video man. I wasn't even aware about this organising launchers. So thanks a lot for introducing us to them and hopefully in the future we might get an all in one launcher who might accomplished everything that you said in the video. Thanks 👍
Im exciting about the gog launcher - I already like that launcher and prefer to buy games there when offered. Anything they do I support and I hope their program takes off so it gets even more exposure!
You cheeky git, teasing Singularity like that. I'm still waiting on that video!Anyway, I think the major struggle is implementing features which require user data from multiple launchers. That'd require logins from said launchers, which becomes a huge security issue once several accounts are running through one company. To be fair, I didn't realise this level of integration could be achieved short of log-ins before watching this video, so I learned a lot!
First time I've heard a freaky track like Run from the HM2 OST used on a RUclips video and actually have it fit considering how insanely frustrating this whole launcher situation still is.
Launchbox is fantastic, when I built my arcade machine this summer, I bought launchbox to help me have an easy way to select different arcade games. I would highly recommend it.
So long as it doesn't chokeslam my favorite games with exclusivity then I'm willing to have 2-3 separate launchers, no more. Mainly Steam, Uplay, and GOG. These launchers however seems quite damn impressive so I may change that rule. Love your content!
@@Shellova this is the sad truth. i remember playing fear on the highest difficulty, what a bother! a replay of a section was never the same. That AI allways found a way to surprise and kill me :))))
@@theninjaassassin4468 I've definitely seen it. I was ecstatic when it showed up on my subscription box when it was posted. While that video mostly covers Burnout Revenge, Burnout 2 is my favorite video game of all time, so I love seeing it mentioned anywhere (especially by RUclipsrs I like such as Raycevick)
I was just checking out Razer cortex the other day and it blew my mind how much they updated it since I last saw. It's really starting to turn itself around
If Epic games launcher had feature parity with steam I wouldnt be so against it. Its frustrating that theyre forcing their way in by throwing money at the publishers rather than providing a better experience for the consumers
There's this very handy-dandy thing called a task manager, it can turn off programs to start when you boot up your PC. So your 25 launchers won't start up in the background and download your 500GB patch for COD
Indeed; this idea of "Someone else being the organizer..." is absolutely apt. I'd known of PlayNite for about 2 years and the moment I saw Epic snapping up exclusives earlier this year, installing the PlayNite program was a no brainer. Of course the lack of proper game time sync is mildly irritating, but if the respective launchers are running *along* with PlayNite as you play your games, you can always do your installs and updates on the relevant launcher. Otherwise, excellent video as usual. Pleased to see both PlatNite and Launchbox in particular getting some love.
Competition is good, it drives prices down and forces companies to improve, I support the publishers at each other’s throats because while it is inconvenient it keeps prices down, sales high and updates frequent
>Console owners "I have 7 different consoles, usually have to swap HDMI cables, gaming is awesome >PC owners "I have to click 5 extra times this hobby is going to be ruined"
Found out about launch box searching for a way to unite my touhou games with my steam library. after about a week with the free version I LOVE IT. not only do I have a visually comfortable AND information friendly, plus little features like adding a music file to play when you select a game in the launcher just makes me nostalgic for the when I still had my WII.
The idea of needing a launcher for all your launchers is absolutely ridiculous and just shows how annoying gaming can be. I deleted most of my launchers already because updating 5+ different ones is waste of time and space. At least organizing my physical collection is easy to do because digital stores don't seem to want to help with organization or anything.
It takes a few minutes at best to update a launcher. I don't think that's annoying at all but I do agree that needing a launcher for all your launcher is ridiculous.
SmashingSnow a few hours in my case. There are stretches of time that I have download speeds of less than 10 kilobytes a second. (This is rural USA too)
SmashingSnow many parts of the world (developed and undeveloped) have speeds around or lower than that. According to research the worldwide population has a 56% rate of access to the internet. The average global speed is around 5 mbps but for those that fall far underneath that are screwed.
Great video. Like when Steam first hit, these various launchers are going to be here to stay (U Play, Epic's store, etc). Having something that manages all of those will be supremely convenient.
Thing is, does any of these launchers allow me to use the social features of each of those launchers, or is it just a windows folder with extra steps? exactly.
I'd bet that the lack of download progress/which client is using bandwidth stems from all the other launchers not providing a local API to query for download progress. All the game meta data, what you own, friends list, etc can be pulled with each companies web api, but the download progress is only visible to the client doing the downloading. Unless you can hook into the launcher there's no way to get the info about download progress. They could however do some os specific calls to find out what programs are using the most network bandwidth and make an educated guess about who's downloading something. Pretty sure that would require the program to launch as admin, which makes it a kinda nasty solution. The only path forward that would be good for the launcher launcher is if every other launcher provided an api for message passing. That's never gonna happen though. Half the point of making a launcher in the first place was to lock you into an ecosystem.
Copy pasting here cause no one reads my comment: To find which client is hogging your bandwidth, press Control+Alt+Delete, open Task Manager, on Performance tab click on "Resource Monitor", move to Network tab, then sort by "Total (B/sec)". I know it seems like a lot of work and a hassle but once you do it a few times it just becomes muscle memory. I do this quite often when I want to know if a program is still in the process of downloading something or if it's just hanged.
The only path forward is to stop using third-party launchers. Software updates are best handled by the OS. One of the main reasons Steam even existed is because Microsoft screwed up by not having a package manager in Windows - something that the *nixes started incorporating since 1994 !
@@dhruvchawla5476 "philosophy" ? What would prevent them from working ? Chocolatey has issues, but they seem to come from it being third-party, rather than from the OS maker...
I miss the time when I was able to buy a game, type in the CD-KEY, install the game and play it without ANY registration or 3rd party service, game launcher or a meta launcher (really... WTF?!). Bring back Videogames!
"And to view which one's occupying all the bandwidth, you've got to go through all of them" i realize this is a mildly tech-savvy solution, which isn't what one would want from a product aimed at a mass market, but you can go to Resource Monitor on your computer and check the Network tab to see which applications are using how much bandwidth.
I think there should just an agreed upon standard of an API implementation that retailers would implement so external parties could handle the front end. This would alleviate some degree of pressure for creating a competitive front-end from companies like Valve, Epic, CDPR, Ubisoft, and EA, and allow the user to have more choice, and even circumvent the very possible future of having just way too damn many required front ends to keep track of.
Boy howdy, this came about at exactly the right moment. I've had my previous rig sitting in a closet for a few months now and have been debating on what to do with it. The idea of throwing it in a smaller case and dedicating it to my T.v. as a sort of emulator/modern custom console has been floating around in my head for a minute now and this just perfectly crushed the biggest hurdle of what to do in terms of a All in one launcher. Play nite certainly hits all the marks for me over something like RetroArch or even Launch Box which I've used on my Pi, but feels like it's best suited to Emulation and retro stuff.
@@Raycevick It might become convoluted or admittedly be above my head but, I'm wondering if Play Nite could be used as a front end loader so I can just skip having to launch it when I turn on the "Console" running Windows. That way I get that sweet Dx11 support for Dolphin and "Modern" Pc titles. Regardless, this video got gears turning. So kudos for that to say the least.
Exactly this, I consider any PC game that isn't on steam or isn't an individual project (like a doom sourceport or Eldewrito) not worth my time. That and Epic Games is chinese spyware that steals your critical information, I get enough of that from the NSA, let alone OTHER national governments without morals.
Really interesting video Ray. I know I personally don't mind going through a half dozen launchers to play my games, but I do have friends who have been remiss to play some really great titles like Titanfall or Rainbow Six just because they don't want to go through the trouble. With Twitch and Epic suddenly jumping in the launcher game I think a piece of software like this is gonna be something people really need in the coming years.
There is a crazy feature called a games folder. When u install games download them to your desktop . Put them in a games folder and BAM look at that. 😂👌
@@HoutarouOrekiOsu Because when said degenerates and communists are removing servers with no justification given because they disagreed with the opinions of those running discord, it does matter. There was a massive fiasco only a month or two ago about Discord being perfectly okay with 'cub' furry porn and banning those who had the gall to call them out on it. Between this and nuking servers following Christchurch with no reason given even if they weren't remotely connected to that got me fucking mad. An origami and history discords I was in got deleted because someone linked the CC manifesto once, even though it was swiftly deleted.
Physical media has its advantages, its a shame current gen consoles are just shittier dumbed down computers that take just as long to update games. I miss popping a disc into my console and getting straight into a game.
@@totallynuts7595 right? That's what sucks of the whole situation. I'll still get into PC as much as I can even with my laptop, which won't be much, but its still a sticky situation.
my pipedream is a meta-launcher that i sign into my other services through, and then I only have to run that one meta-launcher application instead of all the clients and a metalauncher
Well, if a _launcher_ such as EGS wouldn't allow someone without a Credit Card or a PayPal account to pay, it kinda is hard lol--as 87.5% of Asian players found out recently: www.pcgamesn.com/steam-active-users
I'm at the point where all of my launchers are pinned on my start menu, and I close all the other launchers except the one I need to preserve performance.
It took me years to finally give Launchbox a shot, and it is absolutely incredible if you use emulators along with PC games. It also feels really cool when I'm streaming to just launch games on different platforms with a single launcher/frontend, especially with boxart and ratings and things getting pulled it. At the same time, I know its not for everything and that's made it hard for me to recommend to everyone. If you have the time and patience, its well worth it IMO.
I had to use a launcher to open this video
My grandfather died,his funeral was an epic store exclusive.
@@adr.k8676 a fate worse than death
@@davidtyierejian1033 this is epic
I just have a separate desktop setup in Stardock Fences dedicated to games, pmuch the same
bloody oath
The GOG Galaxy 2.0 version aims to do this as well.
@Afonso Carmo lol yes
What about GeForce Experience?
@@liambrewerpowerlifting no
Smelly why?
@@liambrewerpowerlifting GeForce Experience recognize only triple A titles
Even though this video is only 13 minutes long, I always feel the desire to grab some popcorn before a Raycevick video...
"ONLY"
@@DamnNake compared to his other videos, yeah!
I usually eat my dinner while watching these.
Literally eating popcorn rn 🍿
I could listen to this man talk about anything. Seriously, he could do a video based on the Wikipedia page for rope and I wouldn’t complain
You got it now. The Beta for GOG GALAXY 2.0 has been announced and it promises to organize all your games across all launchers.
what about tracking downloads
Announced yes but not released.
@@John190assman You can sign up for the beta already If I'm not mistaken.
Probably Windows only :/
I'm in the closed beta. It's pretty good. It tracks downloads, but I don't like how it seems to be a web browser on the backend, similar to how the RUclips app worked on the 3DS.
"For every inefficiency, there's someone making money off that inefficiency"
Manufactured discontent and capitalism, name a more iconic duo.
No
I've started using Discord as my launcher. I've always got the program open and the indexing is great, so searches are near instant and launches sometimes faster than the game's original launcher. It's only stumbling block is if you're not signed into the service that provides the game, in which that respective launcher prompts a login. This is rather expected though.
As a backup though, I just make shortcuts of the game's executable and have those piled into a folder in my documents that I then have pinned to my start menu or on my desktop. Works just almost just as quick.
I remember the day before launchers though, where my games were only as organized as I could make them and usually a CD was required to get it started. I couldn't honestly say if it was faster or not in a world of digital launchers these days, but at least there are multiple pretty decent solutions to unify them under one program of personal preference.
Bit of an oversight to the idea for discord to hire Playnite's devs is that if that happens they will be under contract, making the code they develop after they get hired Discord's property. Unless Discord keeps Open Sourcing that code (which they didn't with the main discord client) you will lose a lot of pro's you listed for the program.
That is a good point, though Discord is a surprisingly open-ended program, allowing users to invite people to games that are effectively taken off the market. Best case scenario is a Playnite/Discord merger would retain that flexibility, but you're right, open-source would be out the window.
My Steam library - 100 games.
Reycevic' steam library - 100 games starting with an 'A'.
This is secretly a SuperBunnyhop video. I love it.
'Run' from HLM2 was a real pleasant surprise to hear in this!
Haha yes someone else noticed it
"Nightpath" from Frozen Synapse was also just as nice to hear
I use the steam controller and a lot of other controllers, so steam is my go to launcher because of the controller support.
I even added launchbox to steam so I can easily use and customize all my controllers as well as use my steam link
Rei Senpai Same. I added launchbox to steam and use the steam controller and link too
That's a interesting idea. I thought of doing that, but I was using Launchbox for ALL of my games and I figured it would be redundent to have a launcher open another launcher lol. I'm guessing you're using Launchbox as your program for emulators and big picture for your modern games?
This feels so meta, I love it.
John Who yup. Launchbox is just for my retro games, and being able to easily connect my PS3 , Switch Pro, and 8bitdo genesis controllers to steam makes things much easier to use whatever controller I need for the console I’m emulating.
There’s also the benefit of being able to use the steam link the stream my games to my living room
I use DS4 with Steam so I can use PS4 Controllers. only complaint is Steam reads button Prompts as Xbox
I just booted up my Epic Games Store Steam Launcher, and activated my UPlay code to get my 7-day free trial of Xbox EA Game Pass Premium subscription, in order to watch this video. Worth it!
It seems Gog’s Galaxy2.0 will be added to a this list at some point in the future.
The most important part of an "all-in-one" launcher is that it scans all digital libraries, regardless wether games are installed or not. I've got so many uninstalled games scattered across multiple launcher that I sometimes accidentally buy games twice.
There should an official communication protocol for digital distribution developed. An official RFC where the client similar to P2P Clients is just that. A client. The technology then allows to distribute content by having severs that are similar to DNS Servers that tell you where what content is available to buy. Through that there can be millions of suppliers for all kinds of stuff and a real market can develop. IT Scientists of the internet please create an RFC for that.
It's called a package manager. *nixes had them for decades.
Okay, I need a Raycevick video on Hotline Miami. Come on, you can't have iamthekidyouknowwhatimean - Run on the background and not have the video be at least slightly connected to Hotline Miami.
But Hard Mode in HM2 is such a pppppaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnn!!!
@@Raycevick but we neeeeeeedd ittt
@@Raycevick We NEEEEEEEEDDDD IT
@@Raycevick Hotline 2 is about learning the stages and being perfect at them. Memorizing each route and perfecting the run to carry the combo to the next stage. Hardmode is amazing because of all the subtle but smart level design changes that make you have to think and carefully plan. And the ammo halfing was a required nerf for better players who use those 30 round guns too easily, and bring in ammo conservation and throw conversation into the mix that requires even more though in a split second. It adds to the even higher skill ceiling the game's got.
I really love the game, and would love to see you bring more attention to the modding scene. With 2k+ hours in game and the editor I believe I could help you pr provide gameplay that shows higher levels of play.
@@robracer97 my worlds are colliding
man that downloading ram joke was so sincere and quick I almost wonder how many people will think thats actually a thing.
I swear, today we have launchers of games battling it out but in the future launchers of launchers are gonna be the new battle.
Don't forget lutris. It's for linux, and it makes running windows games on linux really easy.
my thought as well.
Serious question: my desktop gaming PC is a Windows 7, but I run Linux Mint on my work laptop and I love it. Is it convenient to have a Linux gaming PC and use it for playing Windows games? If it is, how should I do it?
@@franciscoastorga8299 Depends on what you like to play....
@@franciscoastorga8299 I'd say yes. Start with using Steam and Lutris. Steam now has Proton, which makes playing a LOT of Windows games with it very easy.
Playing games... The only reason I haven't ditched windows. If what you're saying is true is probably about time, and even more knowing that the end of windows 7 draws near.
I have one. It's an Xbox. I love hearing the PC master race cry when a new game comes out on something other than steam. It genuinely makes my day.
I feel like I'm doing something stupid, but I've been using Steam for this purpose.
I just like to see all the games I have, with all the cover art (this was the main motivation for me) in once place. I started doing it back when I mostly only had steam games, but now I have more games, I feel like a frog in a warm pot.
I like Steam library's interface; I like how there is the steamgriddb website that archives games' steam cover art, and let people submit their own (even for most non-steam games and old consoles games); Steam's "add non-steam game", "add custom art" (even support moving pictures), and categorization features are easy to use; there is even steam room manager that let you add emulated consoles game as entries on Steam.
However, having to manually add each .exe and getting art for them is starting to get a bit tedious. Doing it for one game at a time isn't bad, but it adds up. But moving to a different launcher also means I need to re-do everything I've set up again. Ugh.
Thank you for this.
I and probably many of us, all have this same launcher problem and you explained it so well.
I honestly think you've predicted gaming's next big step.
This video is the video nobody asked for, but the video everyone needed.
God, don't advocate for Discord buying Playnite. That's a great way to kill its ideals, potential, and hand it over to a company that considers anti-consumer strategy perfectly acceptable.
stuntaneous What anti consumer strategy?
@@ChrisBa303 Discord has been buying exclusivity.
stuntaneous Corporate consolidation in general.
2022 update: Playnite is wonderful now.
I think I'll check Playnite out, thank you!
GOG Galaxy 2.0 is coming. It will replace all that clients.
Hope so
I'm in the closed beta. It's pretty good. It tracks downloads, but I don't like how it seems to be a web browser on the backend, similar to how the RUclips app worked on the 3DS.
I've been glued to your videos since Christmas of this past year where I binged watched a ton of them. Now here I am watching your latest video and you open it talking about the Game Launcher Launcher video I wrote and directed for CORSAIR. lmao
I can imagine how surreal that must've been.
Damn you for getting my hopes up that there was a Corsair alternative to these programs...
I really thought the end is just going to be some password manager service sponsorship
I don't trust any of those programs.
Remember Nord VPN and Audible?
Cypher - Aircon. NEED FOR SPEED PORSCHE MENU OST! Thank you.
Racing Video Games oh God, that's where it's from! I guessed Midtown Madness 2, but I had a niggling feeling it was from Porsche Unleashed. Thanks for pointing out out. 😀
@@UnnDunn One of my favorite racers of all time, I would recognize those tunes anywhere! Midtown Madness was great as well. 🙂
I just manually add my games to Steam because of the excellent controller support. Weird that you didn't talk about that option.
maybe because he's mostly on the mouse/keyboard side despite driving game love?
That is a very valid pro steam has that no other alternative has, people really underestimate just how amazing it is, because a simple shortcut can have custom binds in steam.
@@DemitriX. not only custom binds, but ever since the release of Steam Controller support, any controller can also be macro'd now. Multifunctions, combos, you name it.
Steam overlay essentially makes any controller a cheating device in a controller-friendly game lmao. That's how good it is.
Game launchers are going the way of internet streaming services, just like how tv providers went. Starts with a low number who offer relatively good service, then balloon out into a myriad of similar ones who don't offer anything substantially better or different but drive up the cost and make things more complicated.
That's the problem with the launcher model -- for it to be convenient it pretty much needs to be a monopoly. Same with streaming services.
Brightest minds on reddit sounds like an oximoron
Every website is reddit now and redditors are idiots.
Hive-ist minds more like
no just moron
Excuse me, but I have three billion upvotes, I think that makes me an authority.
Honestly I'd rank RUclips comments top of the cancer list followed closely by Reddit. Haven't ever used Facebook/Twitter so can't say much about that
GOG Galaxy is a good meta launcher as it has all platforms supportted and you can label PS2, Xbox PS1, PS3 and Xbox 360 games
GOG GALAXY GANG
I'd rather not let Discord take over development of anything...
amen
Monopolies are never okay
Yeah, nitro is egregious enough with how many features are locked without it and how much it asks for.
Like, no, I don't care about your server's bandwidth. You're a massive company now, and 8 megabytes is America Online file size limits. They're asking ten bucks at least to provide a feature most other chat clients offer at a greater capacity for free.
you really like using black lagoon ost dont you?
Revy is best girl.
They don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Too much pandering, with too little edge. And “they” say ‘it’s just a joke.’
I Saw A Bear I thought I was the only one
@@TheMilhouseExperience what r u talking about?
@@TheMilhouseExperience Not exactly lacking edge but yeah, there is far too much pandering. Nothing but garbage lately.
As I'm slowly transitioning to PC gaming the issue of game launchers is quite irritating. I do like being able to see what my friends are doing on xbox and join parties, now that I'm adding people I PC, I feel it's necessary for me to bring up discord with someone if I just want to chat or else see what they're doing by launching a whole different app. It's also frustrating to own these launchers because of all of the different exclusives on each one that I could miss out in just because I don't have the epic launcher and others
You may have to make choises.
+Raycevick Great Video man. I wasn't even aware about this organising launchers. So thanks a lot for introducing us to them and hopefully in the future we might get an all in one launcher who might accomplished everything that you said in the video. Thanks 👍
Im exciting about the gog launcher - I already like that launcher and prefer to buy games there when offered. Anything they do I support and I hope their program takes off so it gets even more exposure!
RAYCE! I'M DYING HERE! Where's the new stuff? You got some serious fans out here, Sir. Can't wait to see what you dissect next!!
I was hoping for comparison with Lutris.
Lutris seems to be exactly what he is looking for.
I've known about quite a few of these for a long time! Thanks for making this video! Will have to check them out again!
a universal launcher would be good to have
It would be dream come true
However, it's not gonna happen in our timeline, though.
Spirz how do you know gog won’t pull it off?
You know you've found a good channel when they can make the end of the video interesting as well.
You cheeky git, teasing Singularity like that. I'm still waiting on that video!Anyway, I think the major struggle is implementing features which require user data from multiple launchers. That'd require logins from said launchers, which becomes a huge security issue once several accounts are running through one company. To be fair, I didn't realise this level of integration could be achieved short of log-ins before watching this video, so I learned a lot!
First time I've heard a freaky track like Run from the HM2 OST used on a RUclips video and actually have it fit considering how insanely frustrating this whole launcher situation still is.
Came back to this video, just to give updates on GOG Galaxy 2.0 which hopefully would turned out to be great. 😃👍
Launchbox is fantastic, when I built my arcade machine this summer, I bought launchbox to help me have an easy way to select different arcade games. I would highly recommend it.
That one escape from tarkov scene, EFT review please .
Gee thanks. Now I know that this is something I want, and also that it doesn't exist yet.
You've raised my hopes and dashed them quite expertly, sir.
So long as it doesn't chokeslam my favorite games with exclusivity then I'm willing to have 2-3 separate launchers, no more.
Mainly Steam, Uplay, and GOG.
These launchers however seems quite damn impressive so I may change that rule.
Love your content!
a launcher to launch the launcher to launch the game
I love launchbox, but I use it just for emulation.
Other than that, steam is good enough, and I rarely use the rest.
I wanted to use it for Big Box to manage my emulation, but I can't do anything to make it run for me.
The sight of Alpjha Protocol makes me so happy. Thanks for the video !
Not having all your launchers start with Windows is the best solution.
HOLY SHIT RAYCEVICK, YOUR OUTRO IS FROM NEED FOR SPEED PORSCHE UNLEASHED AND IT'S ALL FLOWING BACK NOW
For the love of god, play, or replay F.E.A.R, God damn it! Game industry needs to learn from it!
Not even F.E.A.R learned from F.E.A.R. The third game was a disappointment.
@@Shellova that was a Dead Space-esque issue. Devs left after corporate pressure resulting in an inferior product
@@Shellova this is the sad truth. i remember playing fear on the highest difficulty, what a bother! a replay of a section was never the same. That AI allways found a way to surprise and kill me :))))
Whats so good about F.E.A.R? I played F.E.A.R 2 on my PS3 once and it was one of the worst experiences i ever had...
@@CarbonPanther Play the first one, it's better
THANK YOU! I've been thinking about this recently and im glad something like this exists!
You said Burnout 2. You get a like
He has a video on Burnout which you'll probably enjoy. You might wanna watch that in case you haven't.
@@theninjaassassin4468 I've definitely seen it. I was ecstatic when it showed up on my subscription box when it was posted. While that video mostly covers Burnout Revenge, Burnout 2 is my favorite video game of all time, so I love seeing it mentioned anywhere (especially by RUclipsrs I like such as Raycevick)
Burnout 3 for me, I miss that series.
We are the lazy generation
Ops wrong gane
I was just checking out Razer cortex the other day and it blew my mind how much they updated it since I last saw. It's really starting to turn itself around
If Epic games launcher had feature parity with steam I wouldnt be so against it. Its frustrating that theyre forcing their way in by throwing money at the publishers rather than providing a better experience for the consumers
i agree
They're working on updating it to add all those features. But I agree they should have delayed exclusives until after they finished them
"rather than" false dichotomy fallacy
from the get go they had something that valve doesnt even want to try , dedicated content curation
Also the Chinese government uses it to steal ur info so....
There's this very handy-dandy thing called a task manager, it can turn off programs to start when you boot up your PC.
So your 25 launchers won't start up in the background and download your 500GB patch for COD
whoo boy yeah another video
Indeed; this idea of "Someone else being the organizer..." is absolutely apt. I'd known of PlayNite for about 2 years and the moment I saw Epic snapping up exclusives earlier this year, installing the PlayNite program was a no brainer. Of course the lack of proper game time sync is mildly irritating, but if the respective launchers are running *along* with PlayNite as you play your games, you can always do your installs and updates on the relevant launcher. Otherwise, excellent video as usual. Pleased to see both PlatNite and Launchbox in particular getting some love.
Here a good solution: Lutris. You don't even need to swap launchers, just click the game.
Competition is good, it drives prices down and forces companies to improve, I support the publishers at each other’s throats because while it is inconvenient it keeps prices down, sales high and updates frequent
>Console owners
"I have 7 different consoles, usually have to swap HDMI cables, gaming is awesome
>PC owners
"I have to click 5 extra times this hobby is going to be ruined"
i don't think the average Joe has 7 different consoles just lying around.
i like to keep the bloatware at a minimum.
Breaking news PC gamers don't have to deal with the bullshit console gamers do. If I wanted console problems I'd buy a console.
@@poika22 and if you want to sit on your couch in your living room and play then you would buy a console.
@@reaux1560 It's not difficult to plug a PC into a TV.
This was the most helpful videos he has ever made and possibly the most helpful video I've ever seen
Need for Speed outro music!
Found out about launch box searching for a way to unite my touhou games with my steam library. after about a week with the free version I LOVE IT. not only do I have a visually comfortable AND information friendly, plus little features like adding a music file to play when you select a game in the launcher just makes me nostalgic for the when I still had my WII.
The idea of needing a launcher for all your launchers is absolutely ridiculous and just shows how annoying gaming can be. I deleted most of my launchers already because updating 5+ different ones is waste of time and space. At least organizing my physical collection is easy to do because digital stores don't seem to want to help with organization or anything.
It takes a few minutes at best to update a launcher. I don't think that's annoying at all but I do agree that needing a launcher for all your launcher is ridiculous.
SmashingSnow a few hours in my case. There are stretches of time that I have download speeds of less than 10 kilobytes a second. (This is rural USA too)
@@606hunter1 Holy crap that is awful. I can only imagine having download speeds that slow
SmashingSnow many parts of the world (developed and undeveloped) have speeds around or lower than that. According to research the worldwide population has a 56% rate of access to the internet. The average global speed is around 5 mbps but for those that fall far underneath that are screwed.
@@606hunter1 That is just awful I live on the East Coast and thankfully have decent internet speed
Great video. Like when Steam first hit, these various launchers are going to be here to stay (U Play, Epic's store, etc). Having something that manages all of those will be supremely convenient.
Thing is, does any of these launchers allow me to use the social features of each of those launchers, or is it just a windows folder with extra steps? exactly.
I think that's the point he's making.
The best thing about this video is that it introduced me to the dozens of hilarious troll "download ram" websites
It exposed me too.
@@Raycevick 🤣
@@Raycevick The video is great itself also, love your stuff
My boi steam is good. I don't need anything else.
I like that Steam has the regular launcher, and Big Picture mode, which just makes it more difficult to find the game you want to play
I'd bet that the lack of download progress/which client is using bandwidth stems from all the other launchers not providing a local API to query for download progress.
All the game meta data, what you own, friends list, etc can be pulled with each companies web api, but the download progress is only visible to the client doing the downloading. Unless you can hook into the launcher there's no way to get the info about download progress.
They could however do some os specific calls to find out what programs are using the most network bandwidth and make an educated guess about who's downloading something.
Pretty sure that would require the program to launch as admin, which makes it a kinda nasty solution.
The only path forward that would be good for the launcher launcher is if every other launcher provided an api for message passing. That's never gonna happen though. Half the point of making a launcher in the first place was to lock you into an ecosystem.
Copy pasting here cause no one reads my comment:
To find which client is hogging your bandwidth, press Control+Alt+Delete, open Task Manager, on Performance tab click on "Resource Monitor", move to Network tab, then sort by "Total (B/sec)".
I know it seems like a lot of work and a hassle but once you do it a few times it just becomes muscle memory. I do this quite often when I want to know if a program is still in the process of downloading something or if it's just hanged.
@@aghayejalebian7364 ctrl + shift + esc directly opens task manager
The only path forward is to stop using third-party launchers. Software updates are best handled by the OS. One of the main reasons Steam even existed is because Microsoft screwed up by not having a package manager in Windows - something that the *nixes started incorporating since 1994 !
@@BlueTemplar15 I don't think windows works on the philosophy of packages
@@dhruvchawla5476 "philosophy" ? What would prevent them from working ? Chocolatey has issues, but they seem to come from it being third-party, rather than from the OS maker...
I miss the time when I was able to buy a game, type in the CD-KEY, install the game and play it without ANY registration or 3rd party service, game launcher or a meta launcher (really... WTF?!).
Bring back Videogames!
Was even better when we didn't have to type in a CD-key.
"And to view which one's occupying all the bandwidth, you've got to go through all of them"
i realize this is a mildly tech-savvy solution, which isn't what one would want from a product aimed at a mass market, but you can go to Resource Monitor on your computer and check the Network tab to see which applications are using how much bandwidth.
Launcher for launchers? Isn't it Desktop?
Or the add non-Steam game feature
This comment is underrared
Try sorting 130 games on the desktop
@@Ryan3d Thats why you sort them on steam
@@Ryan3d Steam has a favourites tab, add games there and select "Create Desktop Shortcut".
I think there should just an agreed upon standard of an API implementation that retailers would implement so external parties could handle the front end.
This would alleviate some degree of pressure for creating a competitive front-end from companies like Valve, Epic, CDPR, Ubisoft, and EA, and allow the user to have more choice, and even circumvent the very possible future of having just way too damn many required front ends to keep track of.
That Hotline Miami Soundtrack tho.
Boy howdy, this came about at exactly the right moment.
I've had my previous rig sitting in a closet for a few months now and have been debating on what to do with it. The idea of throwing it in a smaller case and dedicating it to my T.v. as a sort of emulator/modern custom console has been floating around in my head for a minute now and this just perfectly crushed the biggest hurdle of what to do in terms of a All in one launcher.
Play nite certainly hits all the marks for me over something like RetroArch or even Launch Box which I've used on my Pi, but feels like it's best suited to Emulation and retro stuff.
One of these days I hope to do the same with my old computer parts laying in the closet.
@@Raycevick It might become convoluted or admittedly be above my head but, I'm wondering if Play Nite could be used as a front end loader so I can just skip having to launch it when I turn on the "Console" running Windows. That way I get that sweet Dx11 support for Dolphin and "Modern" Pc titles.
Regardless, this video got gears turning. So kudos for that to say the least.
or just use steam and forget about everything else. remarkably few worthwhile games coming out lately.
Exactly this, I consider any PC game that isn't on steam or isn't an individual project (like a doom sourceport or Eldewrito) not worth my time.
That and Epic Games is chinese spyware that steals your critical information, I get enough of that from the NSA, let alone OTHER national governments without morals.
Really interesting video Ray. I know I personally don't mind going through a half dozen launchers to play my games, but I do have friends who have been remiss to play some really great titles like Titanfall or Rainbow Six just because they don't want to go through the trouble. With Twitch and Epic suddenly jumping in the launcher game I think a piece of software like this is gonna be something people really need in the coming years.
There is a crazy feature called a games folder. When u install games download them to your desktop . Put them in a games folder and BAM look at that. 😂👌
can't wait for gog galaxy 2.0
Meh. I'll just use steam and battlenet, and honestly.. if i didnt play 1 or 2 blizzard games, i would be happy with ONLY steam.
Porsche 2000 (or Porsche Unleashed depends on region where you live in) soundtrack in credits scene. Fellow man of culture I see.
No, don't give it to discord, you're just asking for trouble.
The communist furry horde, no thanks.
Discord is botnet trash filled with attention whores and run by degenerates.
Who gives a fuck, it works great. And that matters, not the developers' fetishes and sexuality.
@@HoutarouOrekiOsu Because when said degenerates and communists are removing servers with no justification given because they disagreed with the opinions of those running discord, it does matter.
There was a massive fiasco only a month or two ago about Discord being perfectly okay with 'cub' furry porn and banning those who had the gall to call them out on it. Between this and nuking servers following Christchurch with no reason given even if they weren't remotely connected to that got me fucking mad. An origami and history discords I was in got deleted because someone linked the CC manifesto once, even though it was swiftly deleted.
@@scrooglemcdoogle Well then you're right, haven't heard of that. Just about them being furries.
I didn't even know half of these launchers existed, this is a great find.
Wow. Suddenly my poor-man's death grip on console-only gaming isn't as sub-optimal as I thought.
Physical media has its advantages, its a shame current gen consoles are just shittier dumbed down computers that take just as long to update games.
I miss popping a disc into my console and getting straight into a game.
as long as you have fun games the fps etc. is al extra. i love my pc but a good ol console is great also
there was a time when steam was the only store/game launcher...
@@totallynuts7595 right? That's what sucks of the whole situation. I'll still get into PC as much as I can even with my laptop, which won't be much, but its still a sticky situation.
my pipedream is a meta-launcher that i sign into my other services through, and then I only have to run that one meta-launcher application instead of all the clients and a metalauncher
Oh dear I've never been this early, I should probably say something clever
Video games exist
218.473 launchers: *breathing heavily*
*Sensously touches your ram*
Wow, I had no idea the life of a gamer was *_so damn hard_*
What can I say, we are the most oppressed group in history.
All you need is a gaming chair my fellow gamer
Well, if a _launcher_ such as EGS wouldn't allow someone without a Credit Card or a PayPal account to pay, it kinda is hard lol--as 87.5% of Asian players found out recently:
www.pcgamesn.com/steam-active-users
tarek alsaidy on PC it is
Man I love Raycevick videos. Half way though this I was thinking "hmm Discord should buy playnite" and yup Raycevick already beat me there.
I've noticed as well that Origin, and Steam don't play well together. To the point I have to close one to comfortably use the other.
I'm at the point where all of my launchers are pinned on my start menu, and I close all the other launchers except the one I need to preserve performance.
It took me years to finally give Launchbox a shot, and it is absolutely incredible if you use emulators along with PC games. It also feels really cool when I'm streaming to just launch games on different platforms with a single launcher/frontend, especially with boxart and ratings and things getting pulled it. At the same time, I know its not for everything and that's made it hard for me to recommend to everyone. If you have the time and patience, its well worth it IMO.
This topic makes me want to drink bleach.
(I'm kidding. Don't call the cops.)