I guess they’re giving up on convincing people to download their launcher.
Not gonna play them if they include their launcher after game is started from Steam lol.
EDIT: I am very happy to hear that everyone hates them. EA as well as Rockstar has shown that their launchers are shit. On Steam Deck EA games often fail to start at all due to EA launcher updates, and Rockstar launcher takes around 3-5 minutes to start a fucking game (which should start instantly).
I don’t understand what the point of a blizzard launcher is - steam is already a launcher.
Ads. Ads and data harvesting.
yeah, plus steam takes 30%
The games are coming to Steam. Even if the launcher is there, Steam still gets the 30%
IDK what your comment is about, but its not a coincidence the first blizz game coming to steam is free to play,
The Battle.net launcher pre-dates Steam though, doesn’t it?
Edit: guess not. Steam came out in 2003. I hadn’t heard of it until well after the Battle.net launcher came out in 2013. 🤷🏻♂️
Battle.net actually launched in 1996, though the client as it existed back then would hardly be recognizable as a launcher/storefront today. The modern client launched in 2009.
Yeah I just mean the launcher application. I dunno, I had it way before Steam was even on my radar though.
Battle.net is dead and gone. The launcher has nothing to do with battle.net and everything to do with attempting to harvest as much data as possible, bonus if you run it in the background without playing any of their games.
I was wondering why it sucked so much ass. This explains it
This should be unacceptable. Launchers are bloatware.
On Steam Deck EA games often fail to start at all due to EA launcher updates, and Rockstar launcher takes around 3-5 minutes to start a fucking game (which should start instantly).
I mean, this sounds suspiciously like something a company that makes the device that also owns and runs the biggest digital game store might do intentionally.
Except its not. Valve has gone out of their way to make sure other peoples’ games and launchers work, even if they’re not selling directly through Steam. Look at the Proton patch notes if you’re not just being a conspiratorial asshole and actually care about the facts.
Do we know if it’ll work this way ? It sounds so stupid but I wouldn’t put it past them
Pretty sure it either allows to login within game, or launches their own (micro?) launcher first, where you have to login with Blizzard account and then starts the game.
Pretty much all “steam games” that are primarily available elsewhere run this way using mini launchers…
My immediate reaction was:
Pffffffffffff…get fucked!
Battle.net launcher can literally be closed after the game is running. It even has a setting to automatically do so. Why would they pull this sort of bullshit, I have no idea
Each time battle net launcher opens,it displays a popup banner for cosmetics, warcraft stuff, overwatch stuff etc. They get free ads in your eyeballs.
No way they will let it go. It will be steam -> battle.net -> game
They’ve stated it will launch OW2 directly.
I expect the worst, and I am usually right. You are probably correct lol.
Why would they pull this sort of bullshit, I have no idea
They aren’t, they said that the Steam versions of Blizzard games will not require the Battle.net launcher at all.
Mike Ybarra confirmed on the bird site that these games will launch directly through Steam, no bundled launcher nonsense.
confirmed
I’ve heard OW2 has dropped PVE while it was confirmed that PVE will exist lol.
It was not just “confirmed” - that was whole point of OW2.
Lmao yeah
That’s awesome!
I’m not a hardcore gamer but I’m a fan of cloud gaming, first Google Stadia (rip) and later Gforce Now. And Gforce Now supports Steam games so the more games available in the Steam-catalogue, the better.
Well, not all Steam games. Funny thing is, launcher isn’t even totally the barrier to getting a game in GFN; UPlay and Epic have games available in GFN as well. Whenever I’m away from home and decide to use cloud, I mostly end up playing Ubisoft games through them.
Removed by mod
It’ll be nice to at least track playtimes and have that data in 1 location.
Nah
Only OW2 for now, hopefully HS soon though.
It’s been [UMPTEEN YEARS] since I registered a Steam account, and when I registered my CD key for original Half-Life, I got the Blue Shift and Opposing Force for free. (As is the case with of most Steam library items, I’ve yet to complete them!) Now. Please let me transfer my shit from Battlenet to Steam. I can’t wait to get my Starcraft installed! I could finally be a proper PC gamer! /very mild sarcasm
Great news for Linux users! Bnet was one of the better launchers, but having a launcher for 5 games is a bit silly.
There’s nothing stopping them from pulling of a Rockstar move and still requiring you to use a launcher when you start the game in Steam.
So far that is not the plan - they could change it of course I’m sure, but it won’t be this way at launch.
Yeah, but it’s a bit easier to install the game directly from Steam instead of installing Bnet as a non Steam game and then downloading the game on Bnet.
Being able to play the original Warcraft again would be awesome and nostalgic.
You can score a copy of it on GoG. Then download Wargus and enjoy it with more modern controls ;)
This is great info! I wanted to try it, but the very dated controls stopped me in my tracks
If you mean Warcraft 2, then yes. If you mean 3, that’s not possible they killed that one for the “remake”.
I meant the first one. Orcs and Humans.
Ah, so that’s what you meant when you said “original” …
Haven’t you always dreamed of having a launcher to launch your launcher which launches the actual game? Seriously who approves these choices
This’ll be nice. I refused to play blizz games based on their conduct with women and I didn’t want their launcher on my pc.
Ditto.
A tip for others in the same position - I recently discovered that, for me, Risk of Rain 2 is the game that made me stop missing Overwatch 2.
That and their response to “Free HK” really pissed me off.
I don’t think I remember that. What was their response?
They banned a player from tournament play in Hearthstone for saying “Liberate Hong Kong” in a post-match interview.
Also took away his winnings
That’s lame.
The only good game that Blizzard has released is Diablo 3, in my opinion.
Also, they are a shitty company that I do not plan to support on Steam.
Warcraft 1, 2 and 3, Star Craft, Diablo, Diablo 2…
Personally, I had never been into Warcraft or Starcraft. For me Diablo 3 is the peak, I like how well it is optimised for the consoles. It is my preference.
I mean, people seem to have liked the Diablo 2 remaster, along with both StarCraft games. So I’m excited to check those out.
I’m sure their games will still use their bnet DRM, d4 especially. Seems like a cheap cash grab, but what else to expect from actiblizz
YES! Very legal very cool
I still think they’re gonna just launch Blizzard.net anyways, similar to Ubisoft games and EA games. Let’s not get too ahead now.
