>launcher so good that people actually prefer buying on it rather than owning their games, even when you can have full ownership of pirated games that you got for free
how do they do it?

>>714018242 (OP)
>launcher so good
>end up using third party launchers for 50% of games anyway
eh

For me it's the steam deck and general ease of use on linux
Proton just werks

convenience always wins in the end

>>714018242 (OP)
>>launcher so good

Its not that good, people are just lazy

>>714018539
Competition keeps shooting itself on the foot*

its not a launcher. its a whole software suite. its chrome browser, controller emulator, proton vulkan layer, etc.

>>714018242 (OP)
Convenience.

>>714018242 (OP)
For me, steam input is like a solid half of the reason
I don't need to fuck with whatever batshit insanity the developers thought of for a control scheme, have controller support for anything I want, and can remap shit on the fly.
Hell, well over half the time I get something not through steam, I run it through steam for controller support anyways.

>>714018815
>>714018881
These
Otherwise the only other big service worth anything is GOG

>>714018242 (OP)
people are lazy. gamers are some of the the laziest people. put 2 and 2 together, sprinkle in some csgo gambling, and boom, infinite money

>>714018242 (OP)
I buy on Steam and then crack it so that it runs without Steam. This way the people that are entitled to my money get it and i get safe ownership. This is literally the only white course of action.

games are often like 3 dollars so is just more convenient. get updated version, steam input, achievements and i don't know cards that you can sell i guess.
personally have tons of those cs go skins/crates from the cs lounge betting days, so can just sell those if needed and not even use real money. i don't really buy anything digital for over 5 dollars so i'm basically set for life when it comes to steam games

>>714019123
This, I always forget how shitty controller support used to be. Memories of the flashing "8" button prompt in RE4 QTEs are flooding back to me.

>>714018242 (OP)
It's gonna be a bloodbath when Gabe dies.

>>714019917
This.
>Gabe dies
>money stolen

contrarians on /v/ be like: uh yeah all those amazing features? Yeah theyre actually just le bloat
pic very related

>>714019917
>Gabe dies
>company goes to the guys who agreed with him on everything
>nothing really changes
This sounds like cope from brainwashed Xbot third worlders.

>>714018242 (OP)
Speak for yourself I deleted my steam account 6 years ago and filled up 7 tbs of hard disks with pirated games and roms for every single console you can imagine (except ps5 cause no games). I saved up thousands of dollars