Launcher

Mostly seen in desktop computer (PC) platforms like Windows, Linux, Mac, and possibly others.

Occasionally these are only visible on first-run and don't appear again unless the game detects a problem in previous run, specifically invoked by the user (via command-line option), or other automated feature (e.g. automatic patching). The launcher is not necessarily a separate application, but fairly commonly is.

Common features:
* Game news, changelog/patch notes, game specific ads, etc.
* Configuration
* Auto-update/update checker
* Login
* Access to game's website, forums, and support
* Server status display
* Self-heal/repair (via checksum scanning or other methods)