Well, I've never seen usage stats in the launcher, and I have friends who play it via Steam. I want those players to know I play the game as well. I also want to be able to make purchases either way, via Steam or the Crown Store or wherever. And, I want to tell Steam I play this game so their recommendation to buy it goes away without my telling it I'm not interested, which would be a lie. You'd think they'd want to integrate this, both to create larger, friendlier communities of players and to make it more convenient for us to support them by being able to pay for things more than one way, via Steam, via their website or Steam's and in-game.

[ Double Post]

ZOS, I found your reply to me quite confusing, and this is coming from a guy who has demonstrated building computers blindfolded, and they still boot. Yep, I'm odd that way and others.

Anyway, I read the link and it looks like it's saying that if I didn't originally buy the game via Steam, then I can never link my ESO with Steam without buying the game all over again, which I am not likely to do, buying multiple versions of the same game on the same PC just because the devs did not make the Steam and regular versions interact and play nice together.

I started with a prepurchase f the $80 version of the game and have purchased every DLC and chapter since then, plus some extras from the Crown Store and, oh yes, the monthly subscription fee. To suggest that such a person should pay for another copy of the same game and start this expensive process all over is a bit much, especially to play this same game on the very same computer.

Besides, I think this one is not only on ZOS, but it's also their loss. They make money when I buy Crowns and upgrades and all that. You'd think they would want there to be as many ways for me to do that as possible. When I am in the Steam client and see Crowns on sale, I don't buy them because the devs didn't make the two work together. Thus they rightfully lose out on the benefits of what would have been my purchase. Also, I am a Steam curator, a reviewer and a leader of a Steam community, but because the devs didn't make the Steam and ESO versions work together from the beginning, without my having to buy an extra copy (as punishment for having prepurchased the expensive version originally), the people who follow me in Steam don't know that I play ESO. They don't see it in the list of the games I play because it's not listed as a Steam game. As far as it looks to other Steam users, I don't play ESO. People have followed me into all kinds of Steam purchases, but Steam users would never follow me into buying ESO, either in Steam or elsewhere because they don't know that I do own a copy of ESO and I do play it. Again, this potentially costs the ESO devs money.

ZOS, you're doing this for a living, right? You use the money from people who buy the game, the DLCs, the chapters, the Crowns and the subscriptions to pay your rents, mortgages, clothes, food and for your kiddies, right? Wouldn't you make the most compatible, platform-friendly ways possible for me to spend my money, so it will flow that easier to you, and for others to see that I do that, so Steam users will see a lot more ESO players and want to get in on the fun? Don't y'all LIKE money?

In summary, it would be nice, very nice, to see my play stats for ESO in Steam, and to be able to buy upgrades and Crowns via Steam, but it's not worth rebuying the most expensive game I ever bought (when you consider original cost, DLCs, chapters and subscription) on the same computer. This is an unreasonable limitation the ESO devs have created (or left in), and in the end, it only hurts the ESO devs financially.

Calculator? Am I supposed to go back in a time machine to 2013 when I created my ESO account and watch myself every day? The game officially launched in April of 2014, but many of us played it before then. How do I use a calculator to know when I played and didn't play?

You do miss the point. Other games I haven't bought through Steam aren't generally available via Steam. So, for instance, Sim City requires Origin to play. It doesn't show up in Steam. If it did and I had the Origin version instead of the Steam version, people in Steam might think I didn't have Sim City. That would be the same thing, but Sim City, the latest version, isn't sold in two competing versions, Steam and non-Steam.

Oh, and you're incorrect. I have games I bought via GOG and other places that I downloaded outside of Steam and then received a Steam code either when I first played them or later. Hundreds, actually. You don't have to buy a game through Steam or even download it through Steam in order to later be able to manage it through Steam. The game maker just has to do whatever it takes to be in the Steam client.

I bought Planet Coaster years ago. The company had their own game client. I started with a beta and then kept getting updates. They decided it would be easier for some players to use the Steam client. So, they made this available as an option, but you could still use the Frontier client to launch it if you wanted. I didn't buy Planet Coaster from Steam. I never bought it from Steam. I don't know whether the Frontier client even still exists. I do know that when I buy DLC for Planet Coaster, I just buy it via the Steam client. So, I buy DLC in Steam for a game I play via Steam, a game I didn't buy in Steam or download via Steam originally.

So, "Rocket Science." When a company wants their games to be available through Steam, they find a way unless Steam doesn't want them. I have hundreds on my current PC, so there must be at least thousands available, games that are not purchased via Steam nor initially downloaded via Steam and yet are added to the Steam client via keys provided by the game companies.

The Bethesda launcher is a fine thing. Still, I would prefer it if everything in Bethesda's launcher was integrated into Steam's. Same with the GOG launcher, the Runescape launcher, UPlay and Origin. I like things under one roof, like the game section that used to be in Windows. One client to launch them all. I have two copies of "Fallout Shelter," the Bethesda Launcher version and the Steam one. This wastes space on my system.

Fallout Freakin' Four. Now there's an example. I did not buy it via Steam. I did not download it via Steam. But, like Skyrim and Oblivion and New Vegas and Fallout 3 before it, none of which I had downloaded via Steam, they were integrated into Steam, and I'm glad they were. So, Bethesda has taken their product and added it to Steam no matter where it was purchased, downloaded or even if it was on a CD or DVD and didn't require an initial download at all. They could do it again, for the convenience of their players, who pay them a LOT of money for this game, and for their devs, who live off that money we pay them.

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

MrKit wrote: »

They could do it again, for the convenience of their players, who pay them a LOT of money for this game, and for their devs, who live off that money we pay them.

Not all players prefer the Steam overlay, @MrKit.

I don't.

I'd rather launch the game from the game launcher.

Fortunately for players like me, this is ESO ... and not Fallout, Sim City, or Planet Coaster.

People don't get me. I guess that's why I play games rather than go do things with humans. It's also why I play this MMO as a solo game. And, I create social hubs and experiences for gamers as if I got along well with, you know...…..people.

I never advocated taking AWAY the game launcher you like. I said that since ESO is sold via Steam, and Steam pretends to tell its customers which people on their buddy lists play ESO, that ESO be fully integrated into the Steam client. That way Steam customers will know how popular it is, how much it is played, and will be able to buy Crowns, updates, etc. no matter where they bought ESO or how they choose to launch it.

This was never about which launcher is better. It is about bringing ESO under one roof. Besides, I think I used to run the ESO launcher through the Windows Games browser back when that was a thing.

Also, if every game company had their own launchers, I would have dozens and dozens of launchers on my desktop. I do like Steam because it tells me how much I have played a game (if that game is a Steam game or has been written to do that), and it is a convenient place to organize my games. I would much prefer a generic games area of the computer, like we used to have in previous versions of the OS, with everyone's installed games, ratings, statistics and the ability to launch. But not all games ever did install there and it is missing from the latest Win 10 update.