They ought to patch out the need for Ubisoft's launcher. Same goes for EA's back catalog, for that matter. At least EA's newest releases don't come with the launcher.
this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
101 points (93.9% liked)
Games
38286 readers
1222 users here now
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Weekly Threads:
Rules:
-
Submissions have to be related to games
-
No bigotry or harassment, be civil
-
No excessive self-promotion
-
Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
-
Mark Spoilers and NSFW
-
No linking to piracy
More information about the community rules can be found here and here.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Wait what, I can play EA games without their shitty launcher now?
Only the newest ones. They haven't gone back to remove the requirement from their back catalog, but Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Split Fiction don't require it now. Meanwhile, Madden 26 still requires it, so I guess it isn't universal.
Oh, that sucks. I'm only interested in their back catalog.
I think that’s why they’re doing it only for the new ones lol. Nobody cares to play their new crap so nobody is noticing
Split Fiction is definitely a game people care about, and disappointing numbers for a Dragon Age title is still several million people.
EA's games that released on Steam after Origin was a thing still launch a mini EA launcher when you press Play on Steam, much like how Ubisoft's does on Steam. That's at least how it seems the last time I tried it with Fallen Order.
Right, but that extra launcher causes problems, so I tend to avoid games that still have it. It's why I still haven't played A Way Out but played Split Fiction.
Yea I get that, just wanted to say that EA has the same issue too.
Doesn't EA still require the steam launcher?? I'm not up to date anymore. What kind of DRM do they use now?
Even when you buy their games on Steam, there's an EA launcher there in addition to Steam. This is the case for It Takes Two, for instance, but not for Split Fiction. Split Fiction only uses Steam if you bought it on Steam.
You're right, they do - this Steam DRM-free games list shows Jedi Fallen Order is the most recent DRM-free EA published game on Steam afaict.
Same goes for DRM-free games on the EA app.
Jedi Fallen Order says right on the Steam page that it incorporates EA DRM.
I can't confirm for Steam, since I only have the game on EA app, but the game's wiki page on PCGW shows the same DRM-free info (with correct launch steps).
I believe it was added after launch. I distinctly remember trying to play this game on the Steam Deck on a train with no internet, and the EA app complained about it and wouldn't let me launch the game. It's quite possible that this can be sidestepped by specifically putting the Steam Deck in offline mode, rather than just severing the internet connection, but I didn't know to try that at the time, and it's definitely DRM.
So just that I understand this correctly: I need steam to buy it, but after that it launches without steam after I download the installer? Like on gog?
If yes, holy shit, I would have never expected this from EA!! Last time I checked this company was pure scum, but this is a surprisingly nice move!
Not exactly, you need Steam to install it, but then per PCGW's wiki:
DRM-free when launched directly via \SwGame\Binaries\Win64\SwGame-Win64-Shipping.exe while EA app is not installed.
Bummer... Thank you, I was seriously considering buying it this evening, thanks for the heads-up!
- And also patching in their spyware they just got fined for, which will likely mean they have to patch the game again soon to remove it or add a disclaimer for it
Can you link a source for this?
Wait wait what?
They should set themselves their own achievement to release another fucking SC game. Don't worry about us, we've already played the shit out of these games.
As long as they make as good as previous SC games. I have a feeling that a new SC game would be significantly worse than the older games. When was the last time Ubisoft created something good?
Yeah this is my only fear
I heard Assassin's Creed Shadows is decent if not good. But overall, it looks like AC Origins is the last properly good Ubisoft game.
I can imagine Shadows being decent and on the limit to good. Now I have not played any AC since Origins, but I can't imagine it has changed much. Except that they have different seasons in Shadows, which is a nice feature. And it is fine if a game sticks to a concept, for example CoD have not changed much and they still sell plenty of games every year. However, if Ubisoft delivers good games, around 80 on metacritic, with their cash cows and they perform worse with other games then that does not bode well for a new Splinter Cell.
With that being said, of course I hope that a new SC is released and that it is really good.
Patch for poorly implemented gamepad in SC Blacklist, SC Conviction, Far Cry 4 and 5 still not available, but who would want that - getting achievements with effed up controls is even more satisfying. Good job Ubisoft.