11
votes
Recommendations for Universal Game Launcher for Windows PC
I know we already have more than enough launchers for the PC platform, but are there any recommendations for the one that can rule them all, with the controller functionality and presentation of Steam's Big Picture Mode, but also with the modularity and ease of setup of GOG Galaxy? Or is it pretty much one of the above as far as easy options go?
Edit: Took a look at Playnite, really impressed. Deeper impressions in the thread.
https://playnite.link/
Open source, windowed or big picture, integrations for all major launchers. Very happy user for several years now - and I’m amazed how little I hear it mentioned, because I was looking for a good while for the exact same thing before I found it: lean-back/controller support with integration for all major libraries.
[Edit] Beaten to it by 15 seconds by @DrStone!
I like Playnite over GOG Galaxy. Open source, a bunch of plugins (Start Page and DuplicateHider are particularly useful), all of the major store platforms plus emulator support. There’s a lot of bits and bobs to tweak or override metadata if you’re very particular about that sort of thing.
Steam supports adding third-party games and applications to your library, with full support for Big Picture and Steam Input.
Adding all of my other games to Steam locally has always worked well for me. You can even add custom background art, wordmarks, and everything. I am on Linux - but it probably functions the same on Windows?
I realize you said "Windows PC", but in case anyone else was curious:
For Linux, Lutris + Steam has worked well enough for me. It helps that Valve has been dumping a ton of effort in for the deployment of their hardware.
Yeesh, GitHub really needs to add a “🥺” reaction. I get all the thumbs-down on the devs’ responses, but it must come off as super toxic and entitled from a maintainer’s standpoint.
Thanks all, did take a look at Playnite and I'm extremely impressed. Took an afternoon to arrange all of my libraries into a lean back collage experience I can peruse through, and I don't really have any complaints with the experience. Now when I look over my irresponsibility large dragon horde of games, it at least looks a little prettier.
If you haven't, take a gander at some of the add-ons, I found the deduper and Search Collection useful, but there are a bunch to look through: https://playnite.link/addons.html
Yeah, the DuplicateHider is essential. Between multiple storefront with separate ownership (got a lot of dupes from the free Epic games) and slightly different versions (e.g. normal, GOTY, enhanced edition, etc.), the deduper really cleans up your library. It'll automatically find most duplicates and can configure it to prioritize one launcher over another (e.g. default to Steam), and it's easy to manually set duplicate associations for things it might not have picked up.
Start Page Gives a nice "home" screen with recently added and recently played games. It integrates with other plugins well too, such as...
SuccessStory which integrates achievements from some of the platforms, including Steam.
GOG, but it's only mouse/keyboard, but it's as close to cross-store integration can be from what I've used.
You'll need to run the other launchers for their DRM stuff and whatnot, but GOG seems to provide the best support as a cross-store launcher, in that it provides any functionality at all. It's launcher situation is pretty intuitive to me, as I don't even use it often and can do exactly what I need. It also integrates with Steam and EGS if you need that.
Launchbox may be a good option as well, but I've never used it, but it seems to be more emulator/arcade oriented.