Remember the 2K Launcher, the completely pointless bit of bloatware that got crammed into games like BioShock Remastered, Civ 6, Mafia, and XCOM 2?
The one that straight-up broke certain games for some users and dinged performance in others? It's dead. Gone. Donezo. Never, god willing, to return.
2K announced the «complete sunset» of its extraneous launcher in a blog post yesterday, although it actually kicked in a few days prior. «As of November 18, 2024, the 2K Launcher has been removed from every game that used it on Epic and Steam,» went the announcement, and «On November 25, a follow-up update was sent out via Steam to make sure the 2K Launcher was fully removed.» 2K also says it has removed the «2K Launcher beta,» a new and improved version of that garbage, from Civ 5.
In other words, the evil is defeated. Oh, fine, not evil, but I along with many others have been thoroughly annoyed by the prevalence of launcher bloat over the past few years.
I have never, not once, not ever been happy to see another bit of software pop up when I try to launch a game from Steam, whether it's Uplay or Origin.