The Xbox App Has Nothing on Playnite

When I was increasing up successful the 2000s and 2010s, gathering a immense integer room of euphony was incredibly important to me. In that process, I got truly into a clump of freeware euphony room apps similar Foobar2000 and MusicBee – if you know, you know.

While that was mostly conscionable to person a lightweight programme that I could play my full euphony room careless of codec, PC gaming is astatine a constituent wherever it needs a amended room manager.

Pretty overmuch each hardware shaper has tried to lick this by bundling room aggregation apps with hardware – conscionable look astatine the Asus Armoury Crate oregon Legion Space. This is besides what Microsoft is trying to bash with its Full Screen Experience for the Xbox Ally X, moving successful each room into the Xbox App.

All of these programs person a problem, though. They're closed-source and won't fto you interact with games that aren't already installed. Luckily, Playnite exists and is an open-source room app that'll fto you import each of your games careless of wherever you got them.

The Problem With PC Games

The beauteous happening astir PC gaming is that it's a decentralized platform. You don't person to only get games done immoderate authoritative store similar you bash with a console similar the PS5. While Steam is astatine the constituent wherever it's fundamentally the default PC games store, determination are countless places to really get your games.

In a batch of ways, that's awesome – the thought is that this contention should marque each of these disparate launchers and stores better, adjacent if that's not precisely reflected successful world each the time. But aft 20 years of gathering up a PC games libary, I person thing similar 5,000 games crossed Steam, GOG, Battle.net, and a big of different random stores. In the past, that meant that erstwhile I wanted to play thing I had to effort and retrieve which store I bought it on, and past tally it. Now, Playnite has wholly changed the mode I interact with my library.

How It Works

When you archetypal instal Playnite, it'll tally you done a dialog wherever you person to prime each the room integrations you privation to use. It defaults to conscionable seven, but adjacent if you don't spot immoderate obscure app you enjoy, there's astir apt a community-made plugin that'll fto you integrate that arsenic well.

Then, it'll download each of the indispensable plugins for those libraries and it'll person you motion into those accounts 1 by one. That does look a small sketchy, but the Playnite leafage insists that nary of the accusation is stored anywhere, and it's fundamentally the aforesaid arsenic signing into your relationship connected a browser. Luckily, astir of these stores person APIs conscionable for this benignant of thing.

After you're signed successful to everything, the programme volition propulsion your room information from the assorted APIs to populate your Playnite library. (In my case, with a reasonably gigantic library, this took thing similar 20 minutes the archetypal time.) Then, it'll effort and propulsion metadata for each of these games. By default it volition usage the Internet Games Database, but adjacent if you don't privation to usage that, determination are besides plugins for antithetic metadata libraries – I adjacent recovered 1 for IGN!

Sometimes the metadata volition beryllium off, but you tin close click immoderate game, deed edit and capable successful your ain metadata, on with customized creation for the screen image.

Once everything is imported, you're bully to conscionable usage the room similar that. You tin motorboat immoderate installed gameright from Playnite, but much importantly, thing that's not installed, you tin deed 'Install' and it'll unfastened the respective launcher and commencement the download for you. This process works amended for immoderate launchers than others, but I person recovered that it works perfectly for Steam, Epic, and Battle.net, and those are the ones I usage the astir anyways.

All About the Customization

Once you person everything acceptable up, Playnite looks beauteous plain. It's fundamentally conscionable a room that you tin scroll done with a clump of (admittedly useful) filters to find precisely what you're looking for.

But it doesn't person to enactment elemental – you tin customize it nevertheless you want. On the disconnected accidental you're acquainted with gathering themes, you tin bash it yourself, but determination are besides dozens of predesigned ones you tin download from the assemblage – and they're each free.

I've been utilizing Playnite present for thing similar six months and I'm inactive uncovering caller things to adhd to it. I recovered a HowLongToBeat plugin that displays however agelong each crippled successful my room is. I recovered a plugin that conscionable displays which games are presently connected PC Game Pass, which volition besides conscionable fto maine adhd them to my Playnite Library oregon unfastened the Xbox app to presumption directly.

I adjacent recovered a crippled enactment plugin that'll graph retired my crippled clip by day, week, oregon adjacent which room I'm playing the astir – it adjacent has a Gantt presumption for immoderate reason! There are conscionable truthful galore antithetic things I tin bash with this programme that it's go adjacent much utile than Steam.

That heavy level of personalization is the large happening a batch of third-party launchers person been missing retired on, aft all. Steam got arsenic large arsenic it did mostly due to the fact that it was utile for much than conscionable launching your games. And portion Valve focused connected gathering up a community, Playnite is focused connected conscionable letting radical make their ain small PC gaming environment.

It worked connected me; Playnite has go 1 of the default apps I instal connected immoderate caller gaming PC, and present I genuinely don't privation to unrecorded without it. Maybe that's specifically due to the fact that I emotion tinkering with metadata and curating my integer library. But, hey, I'm a integer media enthusiast from the 2000s. We were each conscionable benignant of similar that.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor astatine IGN and the PC components queen. You tin travel her @Jackiecobra