Game launchers track user activity within the game. It's how developers gather "user research" about how people play their game. It's also telemetry about how your system is being used and is frankly invasive as possible without being illegal. And legality gets squidgy for data so nothing is off limits.

2K wanted that user data to sell to keep generating revenue from Civilization after the game and DLC were purchased. Typically a company has little incentive to linger on a game, they will publish, babysit the game for a few years with bug fixes, and quietly start developing the next project. 2K was farming data but for some reason didn't like what they got so they stopped. I'm not sure if this is caused by consumer backlash but the end result is a benefit for us game players.

[–] JoYo@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago

Game launchers track user activity within the game.

lol wut? I don't need to install a game launcher to track your activity in game.

If you leave a launcher running in the background at all times then you're sending at the very least your current IP whenever the client does a poll.

I also don't need to install a game launcher to do that, either. It's just a lot easier to avoid having my process killed if that prevents the user from having "social features" like a friends list and chat, the standard shit.

[–] chillbo_baggins@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago

[–] frauddogg@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 3 months ago

🫱🐸🫲

The evil is defeated!

[–] TheHobbyist@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Anyone know why the launcher is removed? And does it have any implications with any DRM?

[–] wander1236@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago

The 2K Launcher in the Steam edition was entirely useless and not even technically required to get the game to run. It just added an extra step of waiting for an interstitial launcher to load so you could press Play a second time, and you could tell Steam to just run the game executable directly to bypass it entirely.

[–] Tramort@programming.dev 1 points 3 months ago

Thank God. It adds nothing and is user hostile

[–] djsaskdja@reddthat.com 1 points 3 months ago

Just fell to my knees at a Walmart

[–] JoYo@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago

I stopped playing the game when that whole launcher with un-skipable animations started popping up. Honestly, any game that does this too finds it's way into the returns.

[–] hexaflexagonbear@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago

party-blob

[–] vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

Sweet. Now do the BioShock "Remasters".

[–] RickyWars@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 months ago

Finally. Hopefully removed from Civ V as well.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 3 months ago

Should not have been there in the first place. Still, happy it has been removed. Let's hope other publishers follow suit.

[–] Daxtron2@startrek.website 1 points 3 months ago

You mean maybe civ6 will actually work again? The launcher has been crashing for me for years lol.