Project Ascension is the name of a new launcher that aims to provide a unified experience for gamers who have titles on multiple gaming clients, and to encourage said platforms to compete. Confused? We were too.

Soon after Valve announced and stopped the ability to sell mods on Steam, a new game launcher initiative was put together. Developers from all over the world have gathered under the umbrella of an open source project in order to create a game launcher that would draw titles from all the other clients installed on the system, along with the storefronts.

If you're like the average gamer, you probably have titles in Steam, Origin, GOG, uPlay, or any of other clients. Project Ascension, a working title by the way, aims to gather all the installed games under one interface. The novelty is that it will also bring the storefronts of said clients. In this way, users will be able to compare prices easily and make better choices, which in turn should encourage competition and much more regulated pricing method.

Project Ascension is not a replacement for these clients

The gaming community is getting pretty tired of splitting games in various clients. The companies are each looking out for their own interests, and they don't really seem to care that the gamer is on the other side of that competition. That's why we have a ton of gaming clients today.

"Project Ascension is an open source launcher. It does not replace Steam, Origin, uPlay, or any others. It is not a store. It will have a storefront that will be bringing several stores, including Steam, GOG, Origin, and more. We are trying to promote competition through unification of storefronts, ultimately making it better for the consumer," say the makers of the launcher about their project.

It's easy to understand why it would seem like a replacement for Steam or other clients, but it's actually not. What we do know so far is that the interface hasn't been decided just yet and what you have seen until now are more like placeholders for the features. It's open source, and the code is available on GitHub, and everyone will be able to try out the Alpha. And, the best of it, it will be available on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.