I wish getting a new console was as easy as downloading an .exe file!
The epic launcher is a free download. It's not comparable to having to buy a console for $3-400 to access a specific title.
Yes I'm responding to the title/thread premise.
It's not just a launcher or a .exe.
it is a walled garden storefront from a developer who already abandoned PC gaming once. Just this weekend razor gamestore closed. What happens when Fortnite tanks? what happens when there are not enough willing customers to make those exclusives profitable?
The whole discoverability is everything era hates (youtube and twitch referrals as a main type of discoverability from influencers out of devs pockets)
It is not an indie haven, only big players and proven indies are getting into it.
"just another launcher" falls flat on its face if you think about the implications of USING all those launchers.
Battlenet is just a launcher
Bethesda is just a launcher
Origin is just a Launcher
uplay is just a launcher
every single-game multiplayer launcher is just a launcher
all those launchers are for publishers own games, they don't need eyes on their storefront most of the time.
Steam, Gog, Discord, Twitch, EGS, itch.io are Storefronts that need customers eyes on their pages. But how many do you have constantly installed, How MANY do you actively open every day, how MANY do you look at every day?
Maybe it IS just a launcher for you, but certainly not for devs trying to sell their product. They NEED the eyes on that storefront. And the more storefronts (excluding key selling sites) there are, the more fractured your potential customer base becomes.
not even getting into fractured release versions on different storefronts, with different patches and different features.