You may have noticed that while Steam is the preferred game service on PC, for various reasons, there have been others to “pop up” over the years. Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and even Rockstar Games have gone into the business of making their own “launchers” so that they can avoid certain payments to Valve for using Steam. If that sounds a little petty, it is, and gamers have made it clear over the years that they’re not happy with all the hoops they have to jump through just to play the games they’ve paid for. However, for the Rockstar Launcher, things are looking to change for the better.
As noted by Rockstar Intel, the Rockstar Launcher has gotten a big update of the quality-of-life variety. The biggest part of this update is the fact that players will have the ability to choose what launcher they use to start up the game from now on. So, if you have one of Rockstar’s titles on Steam, you can just use Steam to play it instead of having to jump through two launchers just to get things running.
Furthermore, for Discord users, there will be titles from the library that Rockstar Games has built over the years that will show up on the service while you play, so that people know what you’re doing as you game. Apparently, there are a few titles this won’t work with, but it’s a small list.
Naturally, the question is why the big quality-of-life update? The easiest answer is that Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming out next year, barring any last-minute delays, and Rockstar wants the game to not only be the biggest thing ever, but they want it to work flawlessly across all platforms. After all, the last thing they need is to have a hyped up launch and then stumble at the start line. So, by having things like allowing Steam to launch the game instead of the team’s personal launcher, they’re appealing to more people. Plus, a better Discord service means that there could be more interaction with gamers as the game launches, which could lead to better word-of-mouth and thus, better sales.
For Rockstar Games, if they stick with their current launch date, they have several months to “smooth things out” over all the platforms and services they use so that when the game arrives, it’s in as good a state as possible, and gamers will have the easiest of times getting in and playing.
