Some games include launchers for practical reasons. Launchers allow you to change settings before having the game up, for example, which can be nice. They also sometimes can do mod management, though this is less common. Paradox does mod management through the launcher, for an example of that.
Usually the launchers suck though and only slow things down, but you can also usually use an argument to skip them.
Even CD Project Red added such shit. Instead of directly launching Witcher or Cyberpunk I now have to go through a(nother) launcher now. Pointless.
Baldurs Gate 3 needed one from the beginning as well.
I don’t get it.
Some games include launchers for practical reasons. Launchers allow you to change settings before having the game up, for example, which can be nice. They also sometimes can do mod management, though this is less common. Paradox does mod management through the launcher, for an example of that.
Usually the launchers suck though and only slow things down, but you can also usually use an argument to skip them.
use --launcher-skip start argument for CDPR games
BG3 also has the slightly different --skip-launcher