what does it say if you try running without client?

It redirects your browser to Gragar's post.

After various logos, it posts a message in Japanese (no, I didn't select Japanese as language), along with "Epic Games Store" in English, which I think means something like "The Epic Games Store client is not running". Afterwards, there is a button prompt (also in Japanese) which, when clicked, will just quit the game.

From this week's freebies, Tharsis will launch out of the box.

Speed Brawl will launch without the client if the -EpicPortal command is used, but the game gets stuck on the splash screen, so it's no good.

Tested both on Windows 10.

GameDec works without the client. Save and restore also works. Does not work with a controller outside of the menus for the time being. Supposed to be fixed in a later patch.

I got Speed Brawl to work with the

-AUTH_LOGIN= -AUTH_PASSWORD= -AUTH_TYPE=

parameters, although it does popup the browser for authentication and seems a bit touchy about that. But I played the first level and was able to reload it after restarting.

Interesting. I'll give it another go, then.

Edit: I tried the parameter, but it didn't work. It would either launch and shut down shortly thereafter (If I renamed the EpicGameslauncher.exe) or launch the client (If I didn't rename it). Maybe it works on Windows 7, but not on Windows 10?

^ Can anyone else confirm this?

When you say "browser", do you mean it causes a popup in your web browser like Firefox or Chrome, or do you mean the "browser" in the Epic Game Launcher?

Thanks Marko. Removed again.

Just a reminder to everyone that stuff like this (games that come with API calls to the Epic Client which doesn't necessarily have to be "proper DRM") is why it's important to completely rename the client when testing as if the game can still see it, it can create a false positive. Although not everyone can do this, the ultimate litmus test is downloading on one PC and testing on a 2nd (that has never had the Epic Client installed).

Anyone planning on picking up Kena? Really interested in that one if it's DRM-free.

It's a 20GB download, I should be able to experiment a bit later.

Awesome, thank you!

Kena: Bridge of Spirits

So far so good. Does require the -EpicPortal argument and opens a browser tab, asking for permission to use my Epic profile data, but seems to work nonetheless. Copying to another PC that doesn't have the launcher, we'll see how that goes.

Oh, this is excellent news, thank you for checking! Did you happen to get the deluxe edition, or the pre-order DLC? I'm just curious to see if that stuff loads without Epic.

Regardless, I'm pretty happy about this. Let's hope it doesn't get patched.