Please Bring Back the Standalone BitCraft Launcher

[torpid shadow]

I love playing BitCraft on my handheld while using my main PC for other things. But Steam does not allow me to stay logged in on two devices at once.

This leaves me with two frustrating options:

1. Play BitCraft on my main PC which means sitting at a desk for long hours after already working at one.
   Or
2. Play BitCraft only on my handheld while being forced to use my PS5 because my main PC cannot access Steam while the handheld is running BitCraft. The problem is my PS5 does not have access to the games I actually want to play from my Steam library.

A standalone BitCraft launcher would fix this. It would let me run the game on my handheld without Steam, so I could keep using my main PC as usual. I am even willing to pay again if needed to access the game through a standalone version. It is a simple change that would go a long way for people playing across multiple devices.

[proven surge]

while a bit of a workaround, if you launch and log into Bitcraft on your handheld, and then just log into steam from your PC, it wont kick you from Bitcraft on your handheld... of course if you need to reboot you need to do the whole trick again

[deft garnet]

If I understand right, you want to play different games on two different devices at the same time? That's what steam doesn't allow for obvious reasons. You can be LOGGED on two devices at once, you can't just play games on both of them at the same time.

[white saffron]

i like this idea because steam was just down and i wanted to play but i couldn't because of a launcher being down.. kind of sucks.

[dusky spire]

I'm always a fan for standalone launchers. Bonus points for stand alone store page option

[steady willow]

this goes against steam policy I believe.
certain purchases must go through steam regardless (GW2's steam version for example.)
aka, if you want to be on steam, you must eat the 30% steam tax.

[dusky spire]

that sounds horrid and should be illegal. Thus one of the reasons I was really hoping I could have bought it directly from the website instead. But legality gon' do what it gon' do.

[steady willow]

Steam gives you so much for the amount they take. imagine if you will, selling fruit. you get to advertise on the worlds biggest platform, and they handle all of the shipping, making sure it's packaged in boxes, providing a way for customers to provide feedback in a single spot, quite a few smaller qol things (trading cards, achievements, inviting friends via steam instead of port forwarding, or "goodies beyond the fruit for customers" in this idea) will handle support for a variety of issues (as in refunding if the fruit went bad, feedback avenues, if they didn't even get their fruit after definitely getting charged), and you just make sure this platform gets the fruit to give to your customers. they want 30 cents on the dollar (or just 30%) of the purchase to handle all of this for you.

Why should they allow you to get around them getting their cut? certain games such as EVE and GW2 were around for however long before they went to steam, and were able to negotiate being off platform (more like partners getting help with larger reach, that... frankly they didn't need, versus platform). BitCraft frankly, is not proven like those titles. I'd personally be upset, because it'd mean BitCraft would be incentivised to up their prices on-platform the 30% to compensate for "lost profits". I use steam a lot for many other games, so my wallet which would be able to purchase those items, now cannot because they up-charged because they want to avoid the "totally evil and dreaded 30% tax".

Also... nearly every platform is like that, they all take a cut of the profits... it's how they operate, because there is no such thing as a free lunch. Steam, for what it's worth, is one of the better places to go, some of the most bang for the buck, so to speak.

If you don't like the tax, that's fine, but saying it should be illegal is frankly, misunderstanding how this all works.

[torpid shadow]

You can buy outside of steam

PoE has one

its not allowed on PlayStore and Apple App Store

it's just not allowed to redirected steam users to outside steam to make purchases

[steady willow]

funnily enough, I went ahead and checked poe2. (I verified that yes, poe1 does have an off platform store.) Poe2 does not sell almost anything you can purchase with points (the stash tabs, mostly.) unless I've missed something.

Getting back on topic though, my point is mostly that games that do that are the exception, not the rule. Helldivers 2, which on pc, does not have any have other way of making purchases outside of steam. (it could likely be due to the playstore, though this is strange, since Poe 2.... is on playstore, and has ways of making purchases not via the playstore.)

[torpid shadow]

Path of Exile 1 and 2 share the same microtransaction system. If you buy something in PoE 1, it will also appear in PoE 2, and the same applies the other way around. This includes cosmetics and premium coins.

That is why PoE 2 does not have its own microtransaction page. It uses the same system as the first game. However, premium currency purchased on different platforms does not sync with consoles because of the terms of service set by PlayStation and Xbox.

The only digital stores that do not allow in-game purchases outside their own systems are Google Play, which is not always strict about it, Apple’s App Store, which is changing due to EU laws, and PlayStation and Xbox.