Quote Originally Posted by Kurando View Post
I imagine the FFXIV launcher will always go through an internet browser mostly because console doesn't have the option of having a stand-alone app like what Blizzard has on PC. Could they rearrange some things in the browser, yes definitely, but that could be all we ever get.
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.