Can we finally please have a proper game client launcher in 2019?

[Kurando]

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It doesn't have a launcher or browser the game just loads up directly like any other console title.

[TheVigilant]

It doesn't have a launcher or browser the game just loads up directly like any other console title.

Do you think it would be possible with FFXIV's console version too?
As in how Diablo 3 is launched through the Blizz app launcher on PC while it can be launched as I think I understood you saying that it does get launched without a launcher or browser.

[Kurando]

snip.

Possibly, if they can find another way of doing the login/one time code check then yeah, maybe through a stand alone app or the phone app perhaps.

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When you play diablo or Overwatch on console, the game boots up, you'll see a server connections check and after that it's straight to the main menu of the game. There is no redirection to any browser or anything. Also players don't need to have any account with Blizzard to play their games on console, so I imagine that's why there is lack of launcher requirements.

[TheVigilant]

...Also players don't need to have any account with Blizzard to play their games on console, so I imagine that's why there is lack of launcher requirements.

Interesting...
Could be why the FFXIV was held back the same from the beginning until now.

[Berethos]

It doesn't have a launcher or browser the game just loads up directly like any other console title.

Does the console version even connect to desktop or mobile app?

I've had a copy on console since RoS released, but it's been so long that I don't remember how integrated it actually is with Blizzard's other stuff, and google isn't pulling up much in the way of enlightenment on the subject.

[TheVigilant]

Does the console version even connect to desktop or mobile app?

I've had a copy on console since RoS released, but it's been so long that I don't remember how integrated it actually is with Blizzard's other stuff, and google isn't pulling up much in the way of enlightenment on the subject.

From googling I found that it's not as possible as that on console, there is a way but it's almost like a pause or a troublesome way for some players wherein the voice chat has become preferred, so there is no normal in-game chat.

That is because all Western, Japanese and Korean MMO's launchers work that way. The Launcher is simply a web browser with a hook to do download/patching, and a separate "launch with session id" .

A "real launcher" is just another bloated program for the developers to maintain, and if you want to ask for a real launcher, what you need to ask is for SE to put the launcher ON THE MOBILE APP. All that would exist on the PC is the patcher, which connects and downloads the patches, but doesn't login until you tell the App to "Login Character X on Server Y" from the app. So while you're 20 minutes away on transit you could tell your PC/PS4 at home to login your character and idle in your house/barracks/inn.

Basically what I'm saying is that the launcher is fine as it is, and works like all other launchers out there. Other companies tack on other functionality because they want you to play their other games, use their store, etc. This functionality is actually already in the App that the dev's have developed, and thus it makes more sense for that functionality to be in the app, and instead maybe strip out the Microsoft-centric webbrowser integration in favor of a more general webkit webview that would allow the same launcher to work seamlessly on MacOS X.

So you instead approve of the FFXIV companion app being improved and interconnected with the in-game's chat.
I would prefer that still over the current situation myself, it was what I was expecting of the companion app until I found out that the companion app's messaging is only between a companion app user to a companion app user.

[KisaiTenshi]

So you instead approve of the FFXIV companion app being improved and interconnected with the in-game's chat.
I would prefer that still over the current situation myself, it was what I was expecting of the companion app until I found out that the companion app's messaging is only between a companion app user to a companion app user.

I'd rather the "mobile app" already designed, not overlap with the game client functionality in a way that would cause the developers to have to maintain two or more things.

What Kurando is mentioning is that the "launcher" is part of the game for Diablo, which it's likely not. There is a simple reason for this that goes all the way back to pre-Windows time called "File Sharing" in the original context, which means that if one file is open for reading, another program can not write to it, no matter what. So in order to patch a game, two steps are required, one a launcher to do the patching, and another that is the actual game client.

What JP/KR/US/EU games do is they put the launcher and patcher into the same program, which wraps the web browser (everything inside the window is actually HTML) all the "program" part does connect to that address so that it does the user authentication. The backwards part that SE does is not downloading the patch BEFORE connecting. But they might just do that to prevent people from trying to download patches before the servers are online, because that's exactly what people do with new content. With games/expansions not yet purchased, you don't want people finding a way to exploit that either.

In V1.0, and still now, there is the FFXIV Boot program. This is actually the "launcher/patcher" for the Launcher itself. This program simply contacts SE and goes "What is the latest version" and if if the version mismatches, it downloads the current version of the launcher. It did it this way at V1.0 which the V1.0 launcher contained some level of P2P patch downloading in it. At least that's what I recall. The current patcher's use a CDN to download as far as I know. So largely there is no reason for "boot" anymore since the launcher could simply use the same mechanism existing programs use to self-update (eg download new version, launch installer in "unattended-wait" mode, exit old version, new version overwrites old version, re-opens. You might see this when you launch Steam.

Which leads me to the other point, the Launcher is necessary because of Steam or any other "service" needs an authentication program to actually launch, and a Steam version requires linkage to the Steam API. However if you've played any MMO on Steam, you'd also notice that every game with multiplayer functionality has this second-launching mechanic as well. A player may obtain the game from SE directly or from Steam, or for MacOSX, the launcher launches the same program no matter what way it was purchased. Otherwise Steam would need to integrate every publisher's authentication system, and that's just not reasonable at all. Even the oldest MMO game I've played that put a version into Steam, all Steam does is "patch" the base game. The launcher still does the authentication, it just doesn't need to do a second round of patching.

Blizzard-Activision doesn't play nice with Steam (You'll notice that zero Blizzard titles are on Steam, or anywhere else for that matter) their battle.net App is designed to launch only their games, so it really just copies functionality that Steam already had.

One very minor thing I want to point out, that isn't obvious unless you've been playing MMO's since before Windows Vista, the one thing the launcher serves as in Vista and later is to reduce the number of privilege escalation requests. When you run something like Steam or Filezilla, when it self-updates, you typically get a escalation request. Where as the launcher is already whitelisted, and thus has the write privileges it needs to patch the game and launch it without a multiple escalation requests popping up. Which can be bad if a patch is really really screwed up.

[Kurando]

What Kurando is mentioning is that the "launcher" is part of the game for Diablo, which it's likely not. .

To clarify, that wasn't exactly what I meant but more Diablo (and other Blizzard titles) on console don't require a launcher. Now whether it's built in or not I don't know at all, but definitely one isn't required to act as a medium like what you get with the Battle.net app on PC (or PlayOnline for FFXI). The console system itself does the update/patch checks etc on trying to start games but it's not like a specific app catered for a number of titles.