The 2K Launcher has been removed from every game that had used it on the Epic Games Store and Steam, according to a support page for the launcher that 2K updated this week. Some of the affected games include Bioshock Remastered, Bioshock 2 Remastered, Bioshock Infinite, The Quarry, and Marvel’s Midnight Suns, the tactical action RPG that Firaxis initially launched for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S in December 2022 before bringing it to previous-gen consoles in 2023. The 2K Launcher Beta, a completely separate launcher, has also been removed from Sid Meier’s Civilization V, 2K noted.
The games mentioned by 2K include:
- Bioshock Remastered
- Bioshock 2 Remastered
- Bioshock Infinite
- The Quarry
- Marvel’s Midnight Suns
- Mafia Trilogy Definitive Edition
- Civilization VI
- Civilization V
- XCOM 2
- XCOM: Chimera Squad
As of November 18, 2024, the 2K Launcher has been removed from every game that used it on Epic and Steam. On November 25, a follow-up update was sent out via Steam to make sure the 2K Launcher was fully removed. You may notice the 2KLauncher folder was replaced with a text file called 2kLauncherRemoved.txt. This file isn’t needed, and you can safely delete it!
We’ve done the heavy lifting, but to take it all the way home there might be one step left for you. First thing is to try closing and reopening Steam – that means completely closing and not just using the X to minimize the platform. Rebooting your PC is a good way to be sure it happened. For Epic, just make sure you’ve downloaded the most recent update for the game.
Discussion (10 replies)
Join Discussion →Now let's see Rockstar, EA, Ubisoft, Battle,net, etc, go the way of the dodo.
Honestly didn't even know there was a 2K launcher. Either it wasn't required or it was launched at some point after I played those games because I don't remember having to deal with it.
But, but, competition is good
Competition, yes, but exclusive silos, no. If the consumer has a choice of game launchers, great. If the consumer is required to install multiple launchers to access their entire game library, boo.
Thank god. I hate launchers inside launchers.
Only time I remember encountering it was when I launched Civilization, and I always found it annoying.
Indeed.
Put all games on all stores. Let the best store win on its own merits, not because it is holding some popular titles hostage.
You all realize all thre hardware is basically the same now. So all the Xbox and ps4 or switch platforms are the same. They are just a physical representation of the same storefront.
I wasn't even thinking about hardware platforms, just PC stores.
But I mean, yeah, technically, consoles are all running PC hardware now (though Sony does not use Microsofts API's I don't think, so the games are different)
2K thought it was a good marketing tool and released it 2-3 years ago. It made Xcom2 and Midnight Suns annoying to deal with. It is one thing to do it with new games but when you force older games into it, it can screw things up that might not get fixed so easily.
We're talking about PC digital storefronts here, on one platform: PC (although at this point, each PC storefront can be considered it's own "platform", unfortunately). Also while PS4 and XB1 are based on the same AMD Jaguar SoC, and PS5 and XBSX are both Zen 2+RDNA2 machines, Switch with its nVidia Tegra SoC is quite different from those systems. We're talking x86-64/AMD64 vs ARM64.
While the PlayStation store, the Xbox store, and the Switch eShop may all be digital storefronts that serve the same ultimate purpose of selling games to consumers, the stores themselves are not the same as each other.
D4mn straight.