Owlcat removes Rogue Trader launcher after fan backlash

Developer Owlcat Games has removed its newly launched proprietary launcher for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader less than a day after its introduction, following an immediate and overwhelmingly negative response from the game's community. The studio announced the rollback on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, stating the game would revert to a previous patch to completely eliminate the launcher-related changes.

The Owlcat Launcher was introduced on Monday, June 22, as a centralized hub for news, updates, and cross-promotion across the studio's portfolio of games, including Rogue Trader and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. The developer emphasized that the launcher was designed to be optional, requiring no mandatory registration and collecting no player data. Studio statements described it as an effort to help players keep up with announcements and to address internal research showing that fans of one Owlcat title were often unaware of the studio's other games.

However, player feedback on platforms like Steam and Reddit was intensely critical upon the launcher's release. Complaints cited technical issues, including increased system resource usage and problems with the game launching...