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Edit 10/13/24 - We have been seeing people connecting Junk Store announcing a paid version of their plugin to the NonSteamLaunchers plugin getting delisted. We have confirmed with Steam Deck Homebrew that this is pure coincidence, and there is no correlation between Junk Store's announcement and NonSteamLauncher's plugin.

A couple of days ago, there was a development on the Decky Loader Plugin store that caught not only my eye but also the eyes of many others who saw it happen in real-time. One of the easiest ways to install third-party launchers on the Steam Deck is using NonSteamLaunchers, and while they have a Desktop version of their script, they also have a full plugin that can install launchers without leaving Game Mode. But, a couple of days ago, the plugin was taken down from the Decky store, and we were left with little explanation at the time.

NonSteamLaunchersLogo

I reached out to the team behind Decky Loader, and they mentioned that the reason why the plugin was removed was due to the creator's harassment of members of Steam Deck-related subreddits and their own Steam Deck Homebrew discord server. The Steam Deck Homebrew team provided this official statement regarding the ban:

Steam Deck Homebrew has decided to remove the NonSteamLaunchers plugin from the Decky Plugin Store after being shown statements on Steam Deck-related subreddits from its creator in a report. These appear to show continued harassment of members of these communities. We have also discovered harassment from the creator in our own server. We decided to delist the plugin from our store alongside banning its creator to prevent potential abuse of our community and plugin store.

Decky plugins can be downloaded outside the Decky Plugin Store, but we have decided to separate ourselves from NonSteamLaunchers.

On top of this, they provided different links to me as evidence to support their claims and reasoning behind the ban. They mention that:

From their stance, it does seem the Steam Deck Homebrew team is standing by their reasons for removing the plugin, but they do note that you can still install this plugin manually if you so choose by adding the folder into the Homebrew folder where the other plugins are stored. This is some extra work, but it does mean you can continue using or install using NSL as a plugin.

I reached out to the creator of NonSteamLaunchers for a response to the ban, and he provided this statement:

I don't believe I said anything racist or wrong to anyone regarding race or color or bigotry of any type or orientation of any kind. I will continue holding this stance and will not move from it. I still don't really know what I did wrong for my plug-in to be taken away so fast but I just want to apologize to the steam deck community for causing any sort of drama and for failing them as a developer. Unfortunately, I don't know what has transpired but I am obviously not wanted in their environment.

As I mentioned above, if you still want to use NonSteamLaunchers, you can download it from their Github and use the desktop version or manually install the plugin. I also want to thank the Steam Deck Homebrew team and NonSteamLauncher's creator for providing statements regarding this development.

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Noah Kupetsky
A lover of gaming since 4, Noah has grown up with a love and passion for the industry. From there, he started to travel a lot and develop a joy for handheld and PC gaming. When the Steam Deck released, it just all clicked.
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