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

[Kuroka]

Besides if the servers lag or smt it blackes out totally too, which is rly helpfull >_>

[Barraind]

Blizzards launcher is basically just a better, sleaker, smaller Steam client, with features you should expect, but dont get, from every major publisher.

The 14 launcher suffers from the same problem a majority of other MMO launchers suffer from, with fewer usable workarounds.

It's somewhat astounding how absolutely awful most publishers are with handling this, given Sony Online had working out-of-game chat clients and officially supported launcher workarounds 18 years ago, and we are seemingly going nowhere but backwards in functionality.

[LeoLupinos]

I've always thought that FFXIV launcher had a ugly design and full of unwanted information. If I wanted to see News then I would click on the News button, there's no need to fill 1/4 of the launcher with this information when people just want to open the game. Or at lest place it in the corner instead of the game. It's like the news are more important than to log in the game.
I've always hated that FFXIV launcher does not have a repair function, my steam not always repair, and I have to do a full download with my bad connection while the majority of other MMO and games have this simple function. Why not have it in the first place?
It seems that I will keep thinking that, since the community helps new launcher ideas with sarcasm and useless behavior.

[Kurando]

Square Enix could consolidate a launcher for all of their games, tbh. If you already own a game on Steam, for instance, you just link it to the launcher like you can link the GOG launcher to your steam games and it activates the game on that as well then. But... I doubt we'll ever see that. SE is not known for their flexibility, lol.

Wouldn't work for console users, that's the problem. No other SE game on console requires a launcher (like what Blizzard does for all it's games), so there is no logical cost to create one just for XIV, especially when only PC users would actually get any benefit. Sony have no reason to allow a seperate app either, currently any app on console is usually temporarily suspended whilst playing a game, only the internet browser continues to work in the background (if it's open).

Maybe the next generation of console will be more launcher capable, but currently I don't see anything changing with it as things stand at the moment.

[kikix12]

I've always hated that FFXIV launcher does not have a repair function, my steam not always repair, and I have to do a full download with my bad connection while the majority of other MMO and games have this simple function. Why not have it in the first place?
It seems that I will keep thinking that, since the community helps new launcher ideas with sarcasm and useless behavior.

You are misunderstand something. People here are not responding to suggestion like that with sarcasm or the like. If this launcher have technical flaws and issues, by all means, they should be fixed or corrected.

What people have problems with is someone trying to turn a games launcher into a new social hub and suggesting that it's the norm. It's not, not for game launchers. It is for game platforms, which is an entirely different product. You can drink both a bottle of water and a bottle of soda, but you cannot complain about the water not having the taste and texture of soda asking for it to change. They are two different products altogether.

Adding a "repair" button, download pause, resume and "Try Again" for errors or life emergencies and other technical changes and suggestions will most certainly be universally welcome. But that's not what this thread is about sadly. It's more bloatware that is so common in current programs.

[Dustytome]

They would need to create a separate account based ID system like Blizzard has (skipping that stupid real id phase) and then weave that into the launcher and game servers. They could probably also make you choose characters, but if you play on multiple servers/characters at all that could get tedious fast and I can only imagine it's going to be a slow process changing characters to pull different friends lists from if they went that route.

[Transient_Shadow]

I mean I understand where op is coming from. However SE has a different buisness model in some sense. what works for Blizzard who have multiple online games that work well with this kind of synergy doesn't work with ffxiv. it's basically one of the few major online games that SE has produced and what you want can easily be solved by discord which was build for this express purpose

[TheVigilant]

I really appreciate everyone's participation in the thread and voicing their opinion about the launcher and I'm sure the FFXIV team is attentive to this, they want the game improved as much as most of us, if not more. All of your voices are appreciated and respected.

As for those who misunderstood me and thought I want it to be exactly the same as the Blizzard app, that's not what I wanted, I would just appreciate it if the launcher allowed me to see who is online on my friends list and chat with them while busy with things in my PC, or to see if I need to login for any of my friends, and would allow me to auto-login and so on. I don't remember mentioning them adding ads for other games to it nor connecting it with other games.

As for discord, it's a great app, but as I mentioned already I should not force my FFXIV friends to use it when they don't want to. Many of my WoW friends don't have it but I can connect with them easily in and out of the game through the app.

As for the Blizz app sucking more battery than FFXIV or WoW, the task manager never showed me so and I could never imagine such a thing to even be possible, a game is a game and a client launcher is what it is regardless of the features.

And I don't remember mentioning that an MMO having a good quality game launcher with useful functions and features should be the norm or not, nor do I care if it is the norm or not, I remember requesting for a better launcher with some of what I mentioned due to the company I respect behind the game and the competition the game has.

Once again, thank you all for your participation.