We just defeated a PC gaming villain. 2K has removed its useless, game-breaking launcher.

Remember the 2K launcher, that useless piece of bloatware stuffed into games like BioShock, Mafia and XCOM 2? It was the one that broke certain games for users and slowed down performance in others. It's dead. Gone. Donezo. Never, God willing, to return.

2K announced yesterday that its "complete sunset" was complete, even though it had already started a few days earlier. The announcement stated that "by November 18, 2024 the 2K Launcher will be removed from all games on Epic and Steam." On November 25, a Steam update was sent to ensure the 2K Launcher had been completely removed. 2K has also removed the "2K Launcher Beta," a newer and improved version of this garbage, from Civ 5

The evil has been defeated. It's not evil. But I, along with many others, have been thoroughly annoyed by launcher bloat in the past few years. I have never been happy to see or another piece of software appear when I launch a Steam game, whether it is Uplay or Origin. Sorry, I meant Ubisoft Connect and the EA App.

I'd love to see a world where every launcher launches only games and not other launchers. But getting rid of 2K is a good start. It's important to note that there are some issues with certain 2K games that no longer have launchers. XCOM 2 is one of the few games that had some functionality attached to the 2K launcher - it handled mod support - so launching the game from Steam now gives you the option to launch either "original" or the "new" mod launchers - though you can launch the game directly if your mods aren't installed.

The difference between the two mod launchers can be found here. To summarize, the original mod launcher warns you about incompatible modifications but still allows you to play them. The new mod launcher does not. XCOM: Chimera Squad does the same thing, but only has one mod launcher. All these mod launchers also work on Steam Deck, according to 2K.

Hey, kudos to 2K who realised that everyone hated their launcher and did the right thing. It would have been better to not launch it at all. But life is a process of learning. I laughed at the announcement that began with "All things must end... and this includes our 2K launcher." I'm pretty sure that saying usually means 'all things are good,' but 2K couldn't bring itself to say it.