I saw that no one had shared Junk Store’s newly released version ‘2.0’ announcement, so I figured I’d format it for Lemmy and post it here.
Is anyone picking it up? Or trying it out?
Anyway, everything below here is their words that I’m pasting in:
The wait is over! Junk Store 2.0 is now live, and we’re excited for you to try it! You’ve heard the fuss, now you can judge it for yourself. If it’s not for you, no hard feelings; all we ask is that you make up your own mind.
What is Junk Store 2.0?
Junk Store 2.0 is a fully extensible game launcher designed to help you easily install and manage games from platforms like Epic, GOG, Amazon, and more — all without the hassle of complex workarounds. It’s faster, more stable, and includes a ton of new features to enhance your experience on the Steam Deck.
Try Junk Store 2.0 Now!
We know you’ve been waiting for a faster, more stable, and expanded experience, and Junk Store 2.0 delivers just that. While we continue to scale up some of our supporting systems, we’re offering a 25% discount on your first year if you sign up before the end of the month. Use the code EarlyBird at checkout to take advantage of the savings Learn more here
What Users Are Saying
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“Junk Store 2.0 gives me access to dozens of games I already own on platforms I rarely use — without all the convoluted workarounds.” — Anonymous
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“JS allows me the freedom to choose stores with better deals, DRM-free options, or freebies — without sacrificing the joy and simplicity of the Steam Deck.” — BadServo
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“This is f*ing great and well worth the sub. It’s leagues better than before and blows the Decky Loader version out of the water.” — Zer04evr
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“It’s the perfect Swiss Army knife for my Deck!” — Tiny Tech
How to Try It?
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7-day Free Trial – Try before you buy! If you cancel within the first 7 days, you won’t be charged.
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25% off your first year – Discount available until the end of the month.
Why Upgrade?
You’ll still have access to the old version of Junk Store, but we truly believe the new version offers too many improvements to ignore. Whether it’s the download queue, the new extension generation tools, or the ability to view up to 1,000 games, this is the future of Junk Store. Check out “What’s New” here
Hear from the Developer:
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Hear from the developer himself in this interview with Gardiner Bryant: Watch here
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Listen to Gardiner Bryant: Watch it here
We’re Here to Help
Junk Store is a living project. We’re constantly working on improvements, and we need your feedback to make it even better. If you run into any issues, let us know — we’re a small team, but we strive for fast resolutions.
Thank you for your support — Game on!
Thanks for that. I’m not a Discord user, so I hadn’t seen that. It’s not a total reversal of their previous position, but that is a little different. They didn’t say they’re definitely going to stop the open source plugin, but that is certainly not a commitment to it either.
I would say that open source means anyone is free to fork their work and continue on with it if they can’t. They’re trying to make a living like anyone else, and they’re trying to be self employed. The reality of that situation is that most of their decisions need to be through the lens of how they feed and clothe themselves.
Personally, that reads to me that there already is en expiration date on the plugin version as well as the GOG extension.
Either way, while they are free to charge what they see fit, I was flabbergasted by the high price and it being a subscription. I’d argue it should never be their bread and butter. I see the target audience to be too niche for this to be a fulltime gig, I dont believe there’s going to be enough users for this to be sustainable, which is (I guess) the reason they went for a SAAS subscription model.
Yes, the plugin version is open source, but I don’t believe anyone is going to bother to fork it. Simply because there already is a sophisticated, quite advanced community project (Heroic) that does the job well on a steam deck, also works very well on the desktop, and uses the same backends (legendary, gogdl, nile) as JS.
And it really irks me, that they rely on free, open-source components for their proprietary, closed-source software to function. From what i understand, they are not in breach of the GPL license if they just invoke the binaries, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.