Rockstar Releases Their Own PC Game Launcher - Because why not at this point?

[️ronic]

As of the time of this being posted, all of Rockstar's games are still available on Steam.

Rockstar Games Has Released Its Own PC Launcher With a Free Copy of GTA: San Andreas - IGN

Rockstar Games is the latest company to release its own PC games launcher.

uk.ign.com

Rockstar Games Has Released Its Own PC Launcher With a Free Copy of GTA: San Andreas
Rockstar Games launched a launcher.
Updated: 17 Sep 2019 1:28 pm
Posted: 17 Sep 2019 1:07 pm

Rockstar Games has released its own PC games launcher today. This marks the latest publisher to release their own PC games launcher and store, further fracturing the digital PC games market.

Rockstar Games joins companies Like Activision Blizzard and Bethesda in releasing a PC hub and store dedicated exclusively for their games. Currently, you can purchase several PC versions of Grand Theft Auto
Games, L.A. Noire, and Bully: Scholarship Edition. If you download the launcher now, you can also get a free copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Every IGN Rockstar Game Review Ever

Digital PC game stores like Steam and Epic Games Store require a cut of the profits from games sold through their stores. Steam requires a 30% take, while Epic Games Store asks for 12%. By selling games directly through a publisher’s launcher, companies like Rockstar and Bethesda can bypass these profit cuts altogether.

The release of the Rockstar Games Launcher has also restarted speculation over a possible PC version for Red Dead Redemption 2, which Rockstar Games has still yet to formally announce. Or even discuss for that matter. Rumors of a PC version began circulating when a reference to “RDR2_PC” was discovered in Rockstar’s Social Club, but the developers have yet to acknowledge a PC port is even in the works.

However, if a Red Dead Redemption 2 port for PC were to come out, releasing it on the Rockstar Games Launcher would be a good way for the developers to keep 100% of the profits from the sales.

Hey, at least you can get a free copy of San Andreas if you're one of the five people who don't own it yet.

 

[Marissa Moira]

What's going to die first, Streaming Services or PC Launchers/Storefronts?

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Is Steam and GOG not enough for PC already!?

 

[The Last Stand]

Does that mean Steam sales of GTA will be taken out the storefront? I don't get having the need to download multiple launchers to launch different games. It's fracturing itself.

 

[Arkangel]

Is this how they plan to bring the Red Dead Redemption games to PC?

 

[Cryogonal]

Will we get GTA London?

 

[OB 946]

Does that mean Steam sales of GTA will be taken out the storefront? I don't get having the need to download multiple launchers to launch different games. It's fracturing itself.

Same thing with streaming services. Piracy is going to go up. Metro Exodus was the 4th most pirated game in history.

 

[Nguyen Van Phuoc]

Yahoo. Can't wait for this one to end up like the Discord game store.

 

[break these cuffs]

Will we get GTA London?

That's called CoD: Modern Warfare

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

Will we get GTA London?

I can't wait for some drive-by arguments

 

[WhoBusTank69]

Well it's no fucking wonder piracy is making a massive comeback, what with having to make all these accounts for every shitty store that each wants to keep your credit card and personal info that they super duper promise wont be leaked!
Console gaming is becoming much more enticing than PC at this rate(The Modern Warfare remake is allowing for native KB + M support on consoles, even!) and they're killing the PC audience they think they're catering to.

 

[Watcher]

Yes Rockstar, please open up your own launcher. Please do this

just so you can port some of your backlog to PC exclusive to this launcher, and when it fails you'll put them up on Steam eventually regardless.

 

[Ineedahero]

The only good thing I can say about this is that it raises the possibility of rdr2 pc significantly. Also maybe I can get the things to do in SA mod working with this version.

 

[JoshPlz]

Great, ANOTHER one.

 

[Snow Fox]

This is an awful idea.

Here's the thing about stores, and product producers; let's assume people want your product, you want to make that product as accessible to your customers as possible. Not doing so is just stupid. So, before internet stores were so easy to make, companies would buy shelf space in physical locations to sell their products across the world. Wide accessibility is key to making a profit, especially with things like games with huge production costs. The more places you can sell it, the better.
Just like having an item release specifically to a single store chain (Say Walmart) and not selling it anywhere else restricts consumer choice in regards to retailer, so does selling in an exclusive store (Epic) or only allowing access through your site (Bethesda, Rockstar)
The key difference is you can't pirate ☠ a razor. You can't pirate a mop, or shovel, or a even a game console. You can however pirate a game because it's nothing but code. Files, fucking data. You, as a producer, are completely incapable of stopping people from stealing your product with little to no reprisal.
If you give people a reason to steal your shit, they will. People are lazy by instinct, and I'm not going to have five fucking programs shitting up my pc just to have a game library when I can do it myself for free.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Yes Rockstar, please open up your own launcher. Please do this

just so you can port some of your backlog to PC exclusive to this launcher, and when it fails you'll put them up on Steam eventually regardless.

I was going to say "Then I can pirate RDR." but then I realized that the launcher will probably have always online DRM. Not that it helped Epic much.

 

[MuuMuu Bunnylips]

Same thing with streaming services. Piracy is going to go up. Metro Exodus was the 4th most pirated game in history.

Ooh, thanks for reminding me. *starts downloading*

 

[GentlemanFaggot]

God damn, Rockstar is so insecure about PC releases. What the hell is their deal?

 

[BrunoMattei]

God damn, Rockstar is so insecure about PC releases. What the hell is their deal?

The weird thing is that, like Bungie*, they got their start working on PC games too. When they were known as DMA Design. A classic example of a company forgetting its roots.

*Okay, they developed for MAC but you know what I mean.

 

[Frank D'arbo]

The reason I started pirating shit again is because of the over saturation of shitty services and launchers

Thanks for giving me a reason to pirate!