Community MetaSteam | December 2025 - Cosmic Routine: Ninja Story from the Remastered Temple

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MARVEL Cosmic Invasion

After an unprecedented attack is launched across the galaxy, all life hangs in the balance. Nova, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Phyla-Vell, Captain America and many more heroes, both earth-born and cosmic, will join forces in a star-spanning brawling adventure against the deadly Annihilation Wave. From New York City to the depths of the Negative Zone, the future of the Universe will be fought for across the stars.​



SLEEP AWAKE

SLEEP AWAKE is an immersive first-person psychedelic horror narrative experience that explores the realm between sleep and death. From Blumhouse Games and led by Cory Davis (Spec Ops: The Line) and Robin Finck (Nine Inch Nails), SLEEP AWAKE blurs the boundaries between reality and imagination.

In a desperate attempt to remain awake, the denizens of the last known city on Earth are reaching a panic crisis of reckless experiments in their effort to avoid The HUSH, the inexplicable disappearance of those who sleep.

Playing as Katja, you must survive the devotees of various depraved death cults and try to stay awake. Solve the puzzles of this mysterious world to shatter the horrors of the past.

In a unique setting, where an unfathomable phenomenon means that humans are disappearing when they fall asleep. The result is a warring world where dogmatic factions insist they have the one true solution for staying awake.​



Effulgence RPG

Effulgence RPG is a party-based, turn-based RPG where enemies are more than obstacles – they're raw material. Defeat creatures to break them into particles, then feed those particles into a matter printer to create weapons, gadgets and mechanisms. All of this plays out in a world built from shimmering text symbols arranged in 3D space.

Explore a stylized ASCII 3D globe of locations. Fight as a small squad in turn-based, party-focused combat. Break enemies into particles and print gear mid-run. Watch the world shift as text symbols reconfigure into new shapes and animations.

It's easy to transmit a video signal when you're just the distance of a satellite away. Go beyond the solar system and it may take hours to send a regular image to Earth. But when the signal comes from a galaxy a million light-years away, only fragmented symbols make it to us. Sometimes, they can be decoded and assembled into an animation made from text characters. Effulgence RPG imagines what happens when that signal is interactive – when you can walk inside the shimmering sea of symbols, and the creatures made of text don't intend to stay static.

This Early Access build is a vertical slice that will grow over time. The overall target is a 3-5 hour campaign with room for experimentation and replay.​



OCTOPATH TRAVELER 0

Experience a story of restoration and retribution over the divine rings-an epic saga that unfolds across the realm of Orsterra. You are the protagonist of the story. Choose your appearance, voice, motions, and favorite dish with the new character creation feature! Restore your hometown through town building. Invite companions and allies to live in a town of your creation!​



FEROCIOUS

Stranded on a deadly island, survival is all that matters.
Every step challenges you with savage predators, treacherous terrain, and limited resources.
Explore carefully to uncover hidden paths, secrets, and essential gear. Turn the wild to your advantage: control dinosaurs to attack enemies, open paths, or infiltrate guarded areas.
Every encounter is an opportunity - or a threat.​



ROUTINE

ROUTINE is a First Person Sci-Fi Horror title set on an abandoned lunar base designed around an 80s vision of the future. Curious exploration turns into a need for survival when a lunar base goes completely quiet. Searching for answers puts you face to face with an enemy who is certain the main threat is you. Discoveries lead to deeper unknowns and the only way to go is forward.​



American Truck Simulator - Louisiana

Discover the subtropical climate of the state which has provided the magnificent brooding scenery of the coastal bayous, and the lush, dank vegetation. Truckers can look forward to the beautiful and iconic landscape of this southern state, historical cities like New Orleans and Baton Rouge, miles and miles of long stretching roads, and also the Mississippi River delta that has helped shape how the area looks today.​



Skate Story

You are a demon in the Underworld, made out of glass and pain. The Devil has given you a skateboard with a simple deal: Skate to the Moon and swallow it - and you shall be freed. Ollie, kickflip, and grind your way through the ash and smoke of The Emptylands as you take on a seemingly impossible quest. Learn to master your weight and motion to conquer the weeping concrete. Savour the ritualistic beauty as you set your feet to pop a perfect kickflip.

Skate fast to destroy vicious demons, help a forgetful frog, and save other tortured souls on your journey from fragile beginner to hardened skater. Push through hell and discover The Devil's greatest weakness: humility, perseverance, and a disgustingly sweet backside tailslide.

Skate through nine layers of The Underworld. Cruise through streets and surreal landscapes full of waxed ledges, unholy gaps, and tortured demons.​



Yakuza 0 Director's Cut

Fight like hell through Tokyo and Osaka entertainment districts as yakuza Kazuma Kiryu and cabaret club manager Goro Majima in an epic crime drama of intertwined fates that created legends.

Kiryu and Majima each have three unique fighting styles to dynamically switch between to creatively crack skulls with your fists, makeshift weapons and more.

Fighting isn't the only way to kill time in 1988 Japan: from discos and darts to classic SEGA arcades and cabaret clubs, there's endless distractions to pursue in the immersive, neon-lit city.

Director's Cut content gives deeper insight into key incidents and character backstories with never-before-seen cutscenes.​



UNBEATABLE

UNBEATABLE is an anime-juiced rhythm adventure where you (figuratively) destroy on stage while you (literally) destroy on stage. During rhythm gameplay, you only need two buttons: a button for up and a button for down. The pink-haired girl is Beat, and she is you, and you have a lot of things to worry about. The cops are everywhere, and they are mad at you for what feels like no good reason. Though it doesn't help your case that you keep making friends with people that the cops are mad at for slightly better reasons. Talk to people, help them out (or don't, I'm not your mom!), play huge concerts, and punch cops. And then run away from the cops you punched. Also there are monsters or something. The music got you here. It'll get you through it. All of this culminates in massive setpieces where everything is at stake.​



The Temple of Elemental Evil

An evil demoness founded a cult dedicated to exploring evil in its most elemental forms. This cult was based in a temple just outside the village of Hommlet in a vile shire known as Nulb. Soon, this cult ruled the region with tyranny; times of chaos and violence ensued. Hard-fought battles were waged and the war was eventually won by the good armies of nearby lands. The temple was razed, the villains were imprisoned, and order was restored. The temple itself faded into distant memory...until now.

Recently, bandits have begun patrolling the roads outside Hommlett and wicked forces are rumored to be afoot, converging on the ruined temple at Nulb. Their purposes for such meetings are as yet unknown. The identity of these people are equally a mystery. Some claim they are bent on slaying monsters and maintaining order within the region, but no one can be sure.

It is an adventure that will lead to the source of a deep and abiding mystery, to the very core of evil itself.​



The Last Ninja Collection + Bonus Games

The Last Ninja Collection brings together seven iconic titles for the first time, celebrating the golden era of retro gaming and the preservation of pioneering games from the '80s & '90s. The Last Ninja series is known for its innovative gameplay, memorable graphics, atmospheric music, and groundbreaking reviews that captivated gamers worldwide, setting a new standard for action-adventure games.

This collection includes The Last Ninja, Last Ninja 2, Last Ninja 3, Ninja Remix, International Karate, IK+ and Bangkok Knights. These games were milestones in the gaming industry, pushing the boundaries of technology and making them available to play on Windows PC. The Last Ninja was developed and published by System 3 in 1987, navigating through beautifully hand-crafted environments, solving puzzles, and engaging in combat. It was a global commercial and critical success, earning numerous awards, including 'Game of the Year,' 'Best 8-Bit Graphics,' and 'Best Music Soundtrack.' Last Ninja 2, developed and published by System 3, follows Armakuni's quest for vengeance in modern-day New York against the evil Shogun Kunitoki, featuring atmospheric, isometric environments and challenging gameplay. Last Ninja 3 received a perfect 100% review score, marking an unprecedented achievement. Ninja Remix enhances the original experience with new soundtracks, updated graphics, and gameplay tweaks.

International Karate (rebranded as World Championship Karate in the USA) was the first European game to top the Billboard charts on the C64, setting the standard for martial arts games. IK+ is a multi-award-winning sequel with improved graphics and gameplay, featuring a three-player mode. Bangkok Knights was the first fighting game to feature large, distinct characters, inspiring Street Fighter's development. These games represent a pioneering time for video games and for System 3, a games company founded in 1982 by Mark Cale. Preserving these games is crucial, not only for nostalgic reasons but also for understanding the roots of modern gaming and the legacy of System 3's contributions, including The Last Ninja series, which sold over 23 million copies across the trilogy and influenced action-adventure games for decades.​



BioMenace Remastered

Explore the original 3 episodes (36+ levels) plus a brand new 4th episode (15+ levels), spanning a range of diverse environments including cities, forests, underground caves, and secret high-tech labs. Rescue hostages and encounter a variety of dangerous enemies and hazards, putting your fighting and platforming skills to the test. Snake Logan is a top-secret operative for the CIA ordered to complete missions that others would regard as suicidal. One day, Snake is called into headquarters and briefed on a situation that has arisen in Metro City. It seems that thousands of monster-like creatures are on a rampage of destruction through the city. Many thousands have already died, and Metro has declared martial law just before losing all communications. Right before the city was overrun, authorities received a message from a man calling himself Dr. Mangle. He stated that Metro is to be an example of what will happen to the rest of the world unless all factions of government comply with his wishes. Snake is ordered to take a plane, fly recon over the city and then return. While circling over the area, he is suddenly attacked by some kind of laser weapon, and the plane loses engine power! He's forced to make an emergency landing and explore the ravaged city on foot. It's now up to Snake - and you! - to save any survivors, find the source of this destruction, and stop Dr. Mangle.​


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Once people get used to AI summaries, the real reviews become nearly irrelevant.

That leaves one entity (or at most a few entities) with de-facto immense control of the public perception of the product, and every incentive to enshitify according to financial incentives, governmental directives, and whatever ideology or fad is dominant at any given time. Visualize the scenario with whichever you disapprove of the most.

Enshitification does not require AI summaries becoming the norm to happen, mind you, but it's yet another thing that accelerates it.
I'd argue though that while this is a risk, there is already an issue that some reviews get lots of upvotes, deserved or not, and those too can be manipulated, and how many people are going to scroll through many pages of unsorted reviews.

TBH I think my favorite thing about the steam reviews is the newest reviews, which I always look at for an assortment of 'unfiltered' reviews, but an unbiased AI summary can do the same task with greater accuracy. It can effectively get rid of some of the tampering that can already be done to reviews in an effort to bias results by uprating some and downvoting others (an issue highly present in Reddit, but also other social media, for example). I work at a place where we would have every incentive to slant reviews to favor our in-house products over 3rd parties but we haven't done that yet. I think that is a major ethical divide to cross, honestly. Yeah, some will cross it, some already do.

To that extent, it'd probably be better if Valve implemented the functionality themselves, as they don't make games anymore.
 
Honestly Left 4 Dead 2 being in the top 12 most players of the year is wild. Left 4 Dead 3 would be massive, but Valve has to get their priorities in order and work on HL3 instead. takes another hit of the hopium pipe


Its baffling they still haven't made a L4D3.

Everyone at Valve knows how popular co-op games are these days. And zombie shit is always popular too.

They would be able to monetize a game like that even more than something like Deadlock. Mods, replay value, expansions etc etc. It would make for a killer GaaS. It would sell a ton and have very long legs.

I know its a joke at this point but when it comes to L4D3 I would legit say Valve is being lazy. No reasonable excuses like with Half-Life 3. They have the engine for it n everything too.
 
Its baffling they still haven't made a L4D3.

Everyone at Valve knows how popular co-op games are these days. And zombie shit is always popular too.

They would be able to monetize a game like that even more than something like Deadlock. Mods, replay value, expansions etc etc. It would make for a killer GaaS. It would sell a ton and have very long legs.

I know its a joke at this point but when it comes to L4D3 I would legit say Valve is being lazy. No reasonable excuses like with Half-Life 3. They have the engine for it n everything too.
I think a lot of it is kind of like how in grade school or whatever you have a big group of people with seemingly no one actually in charge and a bunch of people say "lets play pretend!" then another group says "Lets play with blocks!" and another group says "Lets colour!" then someone else says "Lets run around outside and find bugs!" then the last group says "Lets make left 4 dead 3"

Yeah pretty much that
 
It's 30th, so I started thinking about my 2026 gaming aims.

The big one is that I aim to play a WRPG / CRPG. I mentioned this aim 2~3 years ago but I still haven't played one yet. :face-with-stuck-out-tongue: My last western RPG is... I don't know, Fallout? In my library, I have Kingdom Come, Pathfinder Kingmaker, Witcher, Divinity Original Sins, Risen and Gothic and numerous others. All of them seem to be great choice so it's hard to choose, but I'm leaning on Kingdom Come at the moment because I've played too many turn-based games lately, and I also want to play something more grounded / realistic.

Other smaller aims are: finish what I started in 2025 (a big one actually); finish 1 Assassin's Creed game (started Unity yesterday) because I'm too far behind; play more indies.

What are yours?
 
What are yours?
This year I got into discovering more (less known in the western sphere) asian games developers, mostly rpgs but I'm expanding to other genres. it taught me an important lesson: sometime a game you really enjoy could hide below your nose
Next year? I think I want to play more games developed in italy. I talk often about how important is for devs to make things inspired by their history and culture yet I almost always play games from other countries
Time to change that (but I'll still play other games because I simply like videogames)
 
It's 30th, so I started thinking about my 2026 gaming aims.

The big one is that I aim to play a WRPG / CRPG. I mentioned this aim 2~3 years ago but I still haven't played one yet. :face-with-stuck-out-tongue: My last western RPG is... I don't know, Fallout? In my library, I have Kingdom Come, Pathfinder Kingmaker, Witcher, Divinity Original Sins, Risen and Gothic and numerous others. All of them seem to be great choice so it's hard to choose, but I'm leaning on Kingdom Come at the moment because I've played too many turn-based games lately, and I also want to play something more grounded / realistic.

Other smaller aims are: finish what I started in 2025 (a big one actually); finish 1 Assassin's Creed game (started Unity yesterday) because I'm too far behind; play more indies.

What are yours?


With the Control sequel announced I wanna play the first game. Had that in my backlog for forever now.

Was kinda hoping EGS would give away Alan Wake 2 for free as I wanna play that too. But looks like it ain't happening. Maybe it gets a Steam release?

Also wanna get back to the Kingdom Hearts collection. I've played like half of the thing lol. Would help if Square would tease KH4 more as I definitely wanna play 3 right before 4.

I kinda miss ARPGs too so I'm gonna do my best to pick up POE2 or Diablo IV next year.

Other than that just continue utilizing the Steam deck as it is long in the tooth now but still a wonderful machine. (replay older titles, JRPGS, indies etc)
 
This year I got into discovering more (less known in the western sphere) asian games developers, mostly rpgs but I'm expanding to other genres. it taught me an important lesson: sometime a game you really enjoy could hide below your nose
Next year? I think I want to play more games developed in italy. I talk often about how important is for devs to make things inspired by their history and culture yet I almost always play games from other countries
Time to change that (but I'll still play other games because I simply like videogames)
I searched around and found the Games in Italy page on Steam. Only ever heard of Soulstice and Enotria among them. The former is sitting in my library so I might try it out soon. Lonsome Guild published by Dontnod seems pretty cool, too.
With the Control sequel announced I wanna play the first game. Had that in my backlog for forever now.
I also haven't played Control yet because of the raytracing feature (which seems essential to this game). Need to get a RTX card first. :D
 
Its baffling they still haven't made a L4D3.

Everyone at Valve knows how popular co-op games are these days. And zombie shit is always popular too.

They would be able to monetize a game like that even more than something like Deadlock. Mods, replay value, expansions etc etc. It would make for a killer GaaS. It would sell a ton and have very long legs.

I know its a joke at this point but when it comes to L4D3 I would legit say Valve is being lazy. No reasonable excuses like with Half-Life 3. They have the engine for it n everything too.

Well we know they were working on L4D3 for years in the mid 2010s but cancelled it because Source 2 wasn’t far enough along so they clearly have love for L4D.

Obviously the big problem is the small size of Valve, you just can’t make games with as few people as you could in the 2000s and at 350 people I’m sure they’re stretched pretty thin with everything they’re working on.
At times I do wonder if expanding a bit, even by a pretty small amount like 100-150 people would really help not only get more projects out the door more quickly but help with some of the legacy GaaS games that probably don’t get the attention they should be.
 
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It's 30th, so I started thinking about my 2026 gaming aims.

The big one is that I aim to play a WRPG / CRPG. I mentioned this aim 2~3 years ago but I still haven't played one yet. :face-with-stuck-out-tongue: My last western RPG is... I don't know, Fallout? In my library, I have Kingdom Come, Pathfinder Kingmaker, Witcher, Divinity Original Sins, Risen and Gothic and numerous others. All of them seem to be great choice so it's hard to choose, but I'm leaning on Kingdom Come at the moment because I've played too many turn-based games lately, and I also want to play something more grounded / realistic.

Other smaller aims are: finish what I started in 2025 (a big one actually); finish 1 Assassin's Creed game (started Unity yesterday) because I'm too far behind; play more indies.

What are yours?

:blobxorcism: didnt realize its the 30th lol I gotta get to some of these articles soon

The big ones for me for 2026 are:
1. Continue to not give a shit about what is popular and just play what I want to / enjoy things.
2. Start and finish 2077 with DLC again properly. No skipping stuff or rushing.
3. Finish all 100 endings in 100 line.
4. Order a good espresso machine.
 
:blobxorcism: didnt realize its the 30th lol I gotta get to some of these articles soon

The big ones for me for 2026 are:
1. Continue to not give a shit about what is popular and just play what I want to / enjoy things.
2. Start and finish 2077 with DLC again properly. No skipping stuff or rushing.
3. Finish all 100 endings in 100 line.
4. Gift Spindoctor the Lego Gameboy set

Yea these are good goals but I'd change the order of priority.

This game is in the process of getting delisted so I'd suggest buying it super quickly if you wanted to get it.

 
I was getting annoyed at this until the end of the post where they said it’s optional.

I am using Steam. That is my launcher. I don’t want or need any other launcher, and those actively hinder my HTPC setup too.

I feel like anyone introducing a launcher, whether optional or mandatory, in 2026 is missing the woods from the trees about how users interact with their computers: in short, lots of different ways.

Just don’t do it. It’s dumb and they are making a headache for themselves down the line when the user tries to launch the game with a controller, or via some sort of streaming setup, or with a touchscreen, or any combination of these.
 
I was getting annoyed at this until the end of the post where they said it’s optional.

I am using Steam. That is my launcher. I don’t want or need any other launcher, and those actively hinder my HTPC setup too.

I feel like anyone introducing a launcher, whether optional or mandatory, in 2026 is missing the woods from the trees about how users interact with their computers: in short, lots of different ways.

Just don’t do it. It’s dumb and they are making a headache for themselves down the line when the user tries to launch the game with a controller, or via some sort of streaming setup, or with a touchscreen, or any combination of these.
hey dawg, i heard you like launchers ...
 


Oh hell yeah.

Steam says I put over 30 hrs. into My Summer Car and I don't think I spent any of that time building up the beater in my garage.

The map was just so much fun to tool around in. Those trips across the vast lake in pitch dark with my small outboard motorboat were so memorable.

Wonder if the new release uses the same one? No matter, with the 33% bundle discount I nabbed it anyway.
 
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Oh hell yeah.

Steam says I put over 30 hrs. into My Summer Car and I don't think I spent any of that time building up the beater in my garage.

The map was just so much fun to tool around in. Those trips across the vast lake in pitch dark with my small outboard motorboat were so memorable.

Wonder if the new release uses the same one? No matter, with the 33% bundle discount I nabbed it anyway.
Finland - the Dark Souls of life simulation :P
 
Tempted to buy Fantasy Life but err, I can see it being a bad idea for my case.
For starters the God Emperor has my balls in a vice, so will I be able to squeeze play time. And while the idea of what they call slow rpg is cool, I dropped the first one when I saw that each activity was basically the same tutorial / intro / template. A little like how Octopath 1 was destroyed by this feeling of template.

But yeah, would like to chill on Deck.
 
Lies of P Overture DLC is way meatier than I expected and so far it has been excellent. Like Bloodborne Old Hunters DLC excellent.

The game itself is on par with FromSofts own games for me, definetly the best non-Fromsoft game I have played so far.
yep I'm playing it for the first time and definitely agree, only game worth to be called soulslike
 
I was getting annoyed at this until the end of the post where they said it’s optional.

I am using Steam. That is my launcher. I don’t want or need any other launcher, and those actively hinder my HTPC setup too.

I feel like anyone introducing a launcher, whether optional or mandatory, in 2026 is missing the woods from the trees about how users interact with their computers: in short, lots of different ways.

Just don’t do it. It’s dumb and they are making a headache for themselves down the line when the user tries to launch the game with a controller, or via some sort of streaming setup, or with a touchscreen, or any combination of these.

This. Plus all the reasons why they want a launcher are already solved by steam: developer pages, soundtracks etc. I guess this has to do with multi launcher releases becoming more common on pc, especially with Xbox going PC as well.
 
This. Plus all the reasons why they want a launcher are already solved by steam: developer pages, soundtracks etc. I guess this has to do with multi launcher releases becoming more common on pc, especially with Xbox going PC as well.
What it boils down to is they want to advertise their games to you when you launch your game.

The fact that there’s a list of Owlcat games down the side of the launcher tells me that.

What’s stupid about this is if I choose to play one game, why would I then pivot to a different one on the launcher?

It’s wildly stupid from a functionality perspective, which tells me it’s been done by marketing.
 
What it boils down to is they want to advertise their games to you when you launch your game.

What they really want is a direct connection to their customers. If you buy an Owlcat game on Steam right now, you are a customer of Valve and not of Owlcat. They want to be able to connect with you directly if something goes wrong with the current setup. That is the main reason all these extraneous accounts and launchers exist. They want your email address to be able to contact you directly, they want telemetry from you and, if they are a public company, they want you to count in their MAU statistics for financials. Some companies (like Paradox and Bohemia) set up their own modding platforms to be able to control the content being delivered and also to accommodate customers from multiple stores.

An example of this has been playing out recently for me... I was a Kickstarter backer of the Shadowrun games made by Harebrained Schemes over a decade ago now. That studio was acquired by Paradox many years ago and went on to make that XCOM type game that flopped badly. As a result, Paradox and Harebrained separated and the studio went indie again. They started working on a new game and for the last year or so they've been sending email updates to my inbox about what they're doing. The only reason they were able to do this is because they had direct access to their customers from back in the Kickstarter days.
 
Since being forced to update to W11, I finally tried HDR on PC and wow. Looks nice when a game supports it as long as you calibrate your windows color profile. I don't have an OLED, my monitor is a Samsung with mini-LED and ~1200 dimming zones across 32 inches. So not PERFECT blacks, but with that many dimming zones in that space it's pretty dang good still. I felt like this was a decent compromise to not have to worry about OLED burn in... Hopefully next time I'm in the market for a monitor MicroLED will be out/normalized?

Although some games... Like MH Wilds, the HDR kinda is messed up. But MH Wilds has tons of problems so... :dizzy-face:

Now if only they could get some sorta "standard" rolling, so every single game didn't need different settings. Like how VESA or HDMI is a "standard." I wonder why there is none for HDR....
 
What they really want is a direct connection to their customers. If you buy an Owlcat game on Steam right now, you are a customer of Valve and not of Owlcat. They want to be able to connect with you directly if something goes wrong with the current setup. That is the main reason all these extraneous accounts and launchers exist. They want your email address to be able to contact you directly, they want telemetry from you and, if they are a public company, they want you to count in their MAU statistics for financials. Some companies (like Paradox and Bohemia) set up their own modding platforms to be able to control the content being delivered and also to accommodate customers from multiple stores.

An example of this has been playing out recently for me... I was a Kickstarter backer of the Shadowrun games made by Harebrained Schemes over a decade ago now. That studio was acquired by Paradox many years ago and went on to make that XCOM type game that flopped badly. As a result, Paradox and Harebrained separated and the studio went indie again. They started working on a new game and for the last year or so they've been sending email updates to my inbox about what they're doing. The only reason they were able to do this is because they had direct access to their customers from back in the Kickstarter days.
It still all comes down to marketing their games, rather than being tangibly useful to the customer. Doesn’t matter what the reason for the launcher is, it still deviates from the core user need of “As a customer of Steam/GOG/Epic/Whatever, I press the Play button so I can play my game”. Marketing has inserted itself somewhere it’s not welcome, and that gets a lot of people’s backs up.

I’m quite the purist with these things. Marketing needs to stay in its lane.
 
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It still all comes down to marketing their games, rather than being tangibly useful to the customer. Doesn’t matter what the reason for the launcher is, it still deviates from the core user need of “As a customer of Steam/GOG/Epic/Whatever, I press the Play button so I can play my game”. Marketing has inserted itself somewhere it’s not welcome, and that gets a lot of people’s backs up.

I’m quite the purist with these things. Marketing needs to stay in its lane.

Most of these devs/pubs/games already advertise DLC and other stuff in-game so I'm not sure what this does barring just getting more data off you. If they said they were doing cross progression with this account system across consoles and PC, I'd be more forgiving. Now, it just is a waste of resources as far as I'm concerned.

I already got a pop up to wishlist Dark Heresy when I launched Rogue Trader on PC/PS5/XSX so....
 
Reason: Missed out one sentence
 
Most of these devs/pubs/games already advertise DLC and other stuff in-game so I'm not sure what this does barring just getting more data off you. If they said they were doing cross progression with this account system across consoles and PC, I'd be more forgiving. Now, it just is a waste of resources as far as I'm concerned.
They could also gather any data they wanted from the game itself, including requiring or asking users to sign in to an account. I don’t think data gathering really adds up with this launcher, unless they plan for it to be running 24/7 on your PC which I don’t think will happen on the Steam versions of a game.

The way I see this launcher is they want to cross-promote their titles and push their visibility to players after they choose to play a game, which tracks given how crowded the Steam store is these days. Everything else could be done invisibly and agreed to by the user after making them “read” a wall of text in the game itself, so there’s no real need for a launcher as a data gathering tool.

The other thing to consider is Owlcat is planning on selling their games using their own infrastructure, which tracks given they are doing presales on The Expanse game through their own site.
 
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If you buy an Owlcat game on Steam right now, you are a customer of Valve and not of Owlcat. They want to be able to connect with you directly [...] they want [...] they want [...] they want [...]
Absolutely not. You are a customer of both Owlcat and Steam.

Being a customer of X means you bought something from X, it does not mean you and X are now bestest buddies and must exchange phone numbers and keep in touch.

I recently bought pairs of socks, a rice cooker, and a pack of rechargable batteries (for quite unrelated purposes, I don't condone cooking batteries); I am a customer of the three entites that sold them. That does not mean that each of them, and each other entity involved in the supply chain, is now automatically my penpal. Imagine the utter absurdity of a world where that logic would be systematically applied.

Game companies are no more entitled to keep in touch with their customers than are socks manufacturers. They just have more opportunities to install crapware on their customer's machines.
 
 
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