In a surprise way, Rockstar has announced and launched their very own game launcher on the PC. This marks the continuation of a rather weird industry trend in the PC gaming scene, where big publishers no longer want to share profits with store holders like Steam and instead create their own stores where they get 100% of the revenue and possibly even allow third party games to be sold.
The later is absolutely not the case with the Rockstar Games Launcher however, as only Rockstar developed titles are currently offered on the launcher/store. Yes, the RGL is both a launcher and digital store in one. It has not even been a day since the surprise launch of the store, so the selection of games is rather slim. It doesn’t even cover all Rockstar games as of now. Obviously, the juggernaut that is GTAV is here, alongside Shark Cards. Other titles include Max Payne 3, L.A. Noire, Bully, GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas. To incentivize users to download and use the new launcher, Rockstar is currently giving away San Andreas for free. So, make sure to download the Rockstar Games Launcher if you have missed out on the legendary GTA title.
It’s not like the usage of this new launcher is optional either, as GTAV requires the software to launch on PC, effective today. Even if you are fed up with the proliferation of launchers of late, if you want to play Rockstar’s games, you better get comfortable with it.
With zero third-party games on the new store, it could very well be that Rockstar will only use their new launcher exclusively for their own developed games. When you consider that GTAV is up there as one of the most profitable pieces of entertainment of all time and continuously rakes in billions with in-game monetization, this could very well suffice. An obvious speculation with this news, is that Rockstar is preparing the PC launch of Red Dead Redemption 2 and possibly a remaster of the first game. Rumors and leaks have been swirling on the web for a long time.
