Blizzard games are coming to Steam

simple@lemm.ee to Games@lemmy.world – 823 points –
Blizzard games are coming to Steam
theverge.com

I guess they're giving up on convincing people to download their launcher.

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Not gonna play them if they include their launcher after game is started from Steam lol.

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,

In-app purchases, mtx, DLC, and premium currency are also subject to Valve tax for games that are on Steam. Free to play means "enough people pay $200+ that we can get away with not selling it for $50", putting it on Steam still means Valve gets a piece of the pie.

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.

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

Yeah I just mean the launcher application. I dunno, I had it way before Steam was even on my radar though.

Mike Ybarra confirmed on the bird site that these games will launch directly through Steam, no bundled launcher nonsense.

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

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.

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

My immediate reaction was:

Pffffffffffff.....get fucked!

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...

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.