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Rockstar may have just enabled playing their games on PC in the living room.
As Rockstar Games Launcher Update 1.0.105.2705 comes with this update, as described in their patch notes:
Support has been added for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch Pro controllers
What Was This Update For?
The Rockstar Games Launcher is the official client for their games on PC, outside of playing these games on Steam. For the most part, it has been useful for Rockstar so that they can sell games on their own platform.
In the past, the launcher and their website offered more features, but today, it functions to add to their security measures and also enables telemetry.
But this launcher was built for mouse and keyboard, because up until recently, these launchers were only used on desktop PCs. Laptops have equivalent control schemes with keyboards and trackpads, but now there are even more choices.
We just reported on the added support for Windows-based gaming handhelds. This update is compatible with those handhelds, but it goes beyond that.
Rockstar Games Launcher For The Living Room?
Before this update, the Rockstar Games Launcher can already be navigated with using an Xbox controller, from the Xbox 360 moving forwards. This support is a bonus feature for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch gamers.
But this is about more than making console gamers of all stripes happy. Combining this controller support with the new support for gaming handhelds could enable playing with no mouse and keyboard completely.
And if that’s how this works, it could make it possible to use the Rockstar Games Launcher with a living room PC.
While that may sound odd to some fans, there are gamers who enjoy using their PC in front of their widescreen TVs. In those setups, it would be more convenient to be able to make your way around the console without having to get a mouse and keyboard.
Admittedly, this is a really small niche use case for the launcher. But these updates serve to get Rockstar Games Launcher up to date with modern gamers.
And that may be more relevant in a future where more gamers move to PC instead of getting a new console.
Windows gaming handhelds still have comparatively smaller user adoption compared to Nintendo’s hybrid heavyweight. But Rockstar can’t afford to wait until those user numbers and handheld buyers go up.
The Rockstar Games Launcher will never become as popular as Steam, but Rockstar can get it to a point where their players like using it. So they are definitely not done with all these updates.