Reason for this meme is that some ubisoft titles are shipped with a broken version of ubisoft connect launcher. Installing these games is only possible by running the installer for the launcher again via protontricks.
i think you might be misunderstanding what '3rd party' means. if ubisoft is making you use an ubisoft launcher to run ubisoft games, that'd be first party. here's an article detailing what the terms mean with regards to game developers. a third party launcher would be like when you add a non-steam game to steam.
I dunno, I tend to think of the useless thing that comes up for a game I bought on Steam and run through Steam to be "third party"... Maybe that's a stretch, but whatever, it's just unwanted and unnecessary at that point
Yes, the launcher I use for almost all my games which gives me a single interface to install, update, and run them. It has purpose. It's the launcher I'm actually intending to use.
Eats Ass games (as one example) loading up their own launcher in the middle of that and providing no actual benefit other than wasting my time and resources is NOT something I choose to use.
Whichever one is primary or third party, I don't really care about the semantics of it, but the extra launcher that isn't needed or wanted is what I think of when someone's talking about third party launchers.
I don't think it's entirely a double standard. Yes Steam is still a launcher, but it's also the marketplace I buy my games. If I bought a game on Origin or UPlay, and then Steam popped up when I was trying to play my game, that would still be bullshit.