And another one bites the dust. 2K Games has just announced the removal of its launcher from all of its PC games on Steam and Epic Games Store.
This means that all of your favourite 2K Games on PC will no longer launch its launcher. As such, you’ll be able to launch and play them directly from Steam or Epic Games Store.
So, Bioshock Remastered, Bioshock 2 Remastered, Bioshock Infinite, The Quarry, and Marvel’s Midnight Suns will now launch directly from their stores. The same goes for Mafia Trilogy Definitive Edition and the Civilization games.
On the other hand, XCOM 2 appears to be a special case. For those unaware, XCOM 2 relied heavily on its mods. So now, If you launch XCOM 2 from a Desktop Shortcut, it will default to the “Play XCOM 2” selection. To select another launcher type, you will need to launch the game directly from the Steam Client.
It’s also worth noting that 2K Games has removed the “2K Launcher Beta”, a completely separate launcher, from Sid Meier’s Civilization V.
And that is that. 2K Games has done the right thing here. Right now, 2K Games is the only publisher that has completely removed its launcher from all of its PC games. EA and Ubisoft have also released a couple of games in which their launcher is not used. To be honest, though, I don’t expect these two companies to do what 2K Games did.
Anyway, this is great news for all those that have been playing 2K Games’ titles on PC!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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2K had its own launcher!??
Now, let's get rid of YouBeSoft's and EA's STEAM-linked launchers.
STEAM is more than enough to confirm I have bought the game.
Rockstar should fix their classics manhunt 2, bully, rdr instead of forcing the launcher. That will earn them reputation after that idiotic trilogy.
Ubis… Screw them!
The trilogy is in a "minimally acceptable state" now. They're not happy with grove street and rightfully so, hopefully they'll close down soon enough.
Overall that is quite good news as it shows rockstar does actually care about their legacy gta games, and hoepfully they won't touch/won't let grove street touch and ruin GTA4, aka the best gta game.
I hated that stupid 2K launcher. Granted it's worth noting it wasn't the same thing as the EA App and Ubisoft Connect (it was installed per-game and could be bypassed), but it was still annoying.
Only Way – we hate such bloody crap!
once again, we showed these f*krS,!
Now, it's about time Deadnuvo Dies. Let it Burn!!!
2K had its own launcher!??
Now, let's get rid of YouBeSoft's and EA's STEAM-linked launchers.
STEAM is more than enough to confirm I have bought the game.
Rockstar and Ubisoft connect next.
EA App2K launcher
Bethesda.net
true if rockstar launcher goes away i will be able to play gta 5 and red dead 2 that i bought years ago…
Pirate their worthless trash like any normal human being would.
MUSTARD! having my own issues with 2k and their own launchers just this year make me exceedingly happy to see them gone. I might go back and finish up Midnight Suns sooner now.
A AAA publisher making a sensible decision?
What madness is this?
omg ! thank GOD! everyone hated the launcher on steam , such cancerous software ! celebration day!
Good steam or gog only!
Yay! I hope more companies do this over time. These separate launchers have always been a pain in the ar*e
Good move, hope the rest will follow. Launcher upon launcher (that have zero purpose unlike the few and far between that loads mods or allow settings before launching the game) should just be forbidden by the online-stores.
Kinda meh as I have never felt the need to play any of thier games, how ever if Ubisoft so the same thing, as in no more ubiconnect, that i might be interested.
It felt extremely stupid Launching Borderlands 3 into a Launcher… lol
CDPR does the same thing with Witcher 3…
I can only imagine the amount of people who will never notice this