Good news faff dislikers, Civilization 7 is dropping the 2K launcher as a requirement on PC, with Steam copies of Civ 6 having just done the same

You! Do you find having to have nine million different launchers installed on your PC all at once to be something that keeps you up at night? Well, if so, good news, because Firaxis has confirmed that Civilization 7 is ditching the 2K launcher as a requirement on PC, with Civ 6 having also just dropped it too, assuming you bought your copy on Steam.

While I’d argue that 2K’s launcher isn’t the worst, even if that's a very low bar, having to log into extra things in order to play a game that you’re not even trying to play via the service or storefront in question is always an annoyance, so it’s no surprise that this move has gone down to a chorus of cheers and relieved sighs.

“Alongside Challenge 10 going live on August 14, the new update also removes the 2K Launcher from Sid Meier's Civilization VI on Steam,” Firaxis confirmed in its Steam announcement of Civ 6’s latest event, “In addition, Sid Meier's Civilization VII will not use the 2K Launcher on PC.”

The studio has also relayed the news to the armies of would-ve world conquerors over on the game’s subreddit, with a community manager revealing that there are also “plans to also remove it on [the] Epic [Store] in the near future”.

The top response to the latter announcement begins with the words “thank goodness”, which, yep, that seems about right.

So, you’re now free to spend all the time you want playing Civ 6 and finally completing your epic takeover of the world as a fascist Canada that’s hellbent on spreading the teachings of Zoroastrianism by building holy sites and theatre squares every two tiles in the run up to Civilization 7 getting its first gameplay showcase on August 20.

That’ll follow it making an appearance as part of Gamescom 2024’s Opening Night Live, which we’ll have plenty of coverage of for you to check out.