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The Rockstar Games Launcher is here, and it comes with GTA: San Andreas for free

Another new launcher has launched

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past year of covering PC games, it’s that players really love downloading additional launchers to play their games. Rockstar is the latest to capitalise on this beloved trend, and you can now download the Rockstar Games Launcher to see the results for yourself – and snag a free copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas while you’re at it.

The Rockstar Games Launcher works pretty much as you’d expect, once it’s installed from the official site. You can buy games through the attached store – currently including GTA5, GTA3 Vice City, Max Payne 3, Bully, and L.A. Noire – and run them through the simple interface with the benefit of automatic updates and cloud saves. There’s also an option to scan your PC for existing installs of Rockstar titles so that you can add them to your library here.

To sweeten the deal, Rockstar is offering a free copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to redeem through the launcher for “a limited time.” It’ll stick with your library in perpetuity, so you can say “aw shit, here we go again” whenever the mood strikes.

At this point, no publisher wants to give another platform a cut when it can just sell its own games directly – at least on PC, where there aren’t any barriers to making that happen.

In other words, get used to the Rockstar Games Launcher if you’re waiting for the Red Dead Redemption 2 PC release date – chances are good that this’ll be the exclusive home of future releases from the company.