Unowned Games Suddenly Showing as Owned - Why?

Sp33dyKat

Hoping for some help solving a mystery...

Is anyone else seeing unowned PC games being added to their owned games collection? They all appear to be marked as "Microsoft launcher."

I spot-checked a few and some are Game Pass titles (examples: Jusant, As Dusk Falls, Still Wakes the Deep), while others are not (Brothers by Parable Games, Medium, Cyber Shadow, Resident Evil 7 Teaser: Beginning Hour). These are definitely NOT games I own in ANY platform.

At a glance, I would guess potentially hundreds of titles are now erroneously marked as part of my collection. This happened within the last 1-2 weeks - at least, that's when I first noticed the problem. Could this be related to the recently introduced "Improved 'Owned' Button, perhaps?

Thanks for any help!

rob006

This is probably added by Playnite plugin (AFAIK it adds games automatically). I would double check if all games detected by Playnite are correct - detecting Game Pass games as owned is a known issue.

Sp33dyKat

Oh no! I did recently set-up Playnite, after seeing the announcement here. Just checked and...yep, that looks like the cause. In addition to marking Game Pass games as "owned", it also appears to be marking free demos as "owned".
What a nightmare this is going to be to fix manually! At least now I know what caused the problem. Bye bye, Playnite!

Many thanks for the help, rob006!

rob006

If it helps, here you can find games added exclusively by Playnite: https://gg.deals/collection/?source=-4,-2,-1,16

Sp33dyKat

Well, that gets it down to 400 or so games I'll need to evaluate, which is better. Thanks for the tip.

remike

Remember that in Playnite add-on settings you can choose which launchers to connect and which ignore. I recommend disabling Xbox and Xbox Game Pass since they are very inaccurate.

Step 5 of this tutorial https://gg.deals/page/how-to-import-games-to-your-ggdeals-collection-using-playnite/

Sp33dyKat

It's a shame the Playnite instructions here don't mention the fact that importing Xbox games is not currently working correctly. In fact, the instructions actually encourage the user to select the Xbox library (among other libraries):

"Follow the on-screen instructions to link your Amazon, Battle.net, EA, Epic, Ubisoft and Xbox libraries to Playnite."

Given that this is currently a "known" issue (although I did NOT know), it really should be noted in the instructions - or disabled in Playnite until it works.
I certainly wouldn't have knowingly endangered my sizable game library collection here, had I known the Xbox portion is glitched. Now I have a "clean-up" nightmare and my collection on GG.Deals is no longer accurate for an entire platform.

Prior to this event, my GG.Deals experience has been absolutely stellar. After Playnite...much less so.

Edited for formatting error.

remike

Importing Xbox games does work correctly in a way that everything you have on Playnite will be imported to GG.deals. In fact, you can import any games from Playnite, you can even use extensions not mentioned in the tutorial, and it will all work.

What causes the issue is the link between Playnite and Xbox. Playnite is getting inaccurate data. I believe it's something that Playnite will not be able to fix, because data they collect from Microsoft's API is flawed.

But you're right - I will update the tutorial and make a note about the problem with Xbox games.

PS: removing xbox games shouldn't be much of an issue though. You can use filters "Added from: Playnite sync" + "Launcher: Microsoft Store" to narrow down your results to potentially flawed products. Then mass-select 96 games at once using the checkbox above the table. Then use the bar on the bottom to remove 96 games at once. In theory, you should be able to fix it within minutes. Let me know if you struggle and I'll try to help.

Sp33dyKat

I really appreciate that the tutorial will be updated to reflect the current state of the Xbox/Playnite situation.

Thanks, too, for the offer of help.
Here's what I am experiencing when using the suggested "mass delete" method.
1) First, I use the GGD filters to select: "Added from=Playnite sync", "Launcher=Microsoft Store" and "Platforms=Windows".
In the resulting filtered games list:
2) If I select multiple games, then chose "Remove", GGD removes the selected games for ALL launchers (Epic, EA, etc.), not just Microsoft games on Windows.
Example: "Call of the Sea", which I own on Epic Games, but not on Windows PC.
This game appears on my GGD filtered list (which it should). If I use the mass delete removal tool, however, GGD removes this game entirely from my collection - both the Epic Games version I do own and the Windows PC version I have * never* owned.

Thus, I'm having to be extremely careful with the use of the mass delete approach.

Sp33dyKat

Oh, and as an added caveat...
There are some Microsoft Store Windows PC titles that Playnite added that are correct, such as Alto's Adventure.
So, yes, this is a nightmare, made much much worse by the fact that I own thousands of games, across multiple platforms and launchers.

Question - I've uninstalled Playnite from my pc. Is there anything else I need to do, to ensure Playnite never, ever updates my GGD collection list again? Thanks.

remike

@Sp33dyKat I have already added the warning regarding Xbox games to the tutorial. PlayStation isn't even mentioned there.

As for the Playnite sync, it will only work when Playnite is launched. It does autosync, but only when the application is running.

As for removing games, even if you remove too much (ie in the case you described), you can always sync your games back from Steam / GOG / Playnite.

Sp33dyKat

@remike Thanks for the updated tutorial! It looks great and I'm sure other users will find this helpful.

Not sure about your reference to Playstation. I haven't mentioned PS - I don't have that console, so wouldn't have an educated opinion in regards to that machine.

I really am quite pleased with other aspects of this website, including the price alerts, as well as the GOG and Steam syncing tools. All work flawlessly for me and are welcome time saver!

Keep up the good work! 🙂