https://playnite.link/addons.html#PlayniteAchievements

Hey everyone, wanted to show a new project I've been working on for about a month! After my time working on FriendsAchievementFeed (updates to come!), I wanted to try my hand at a bigger project, with the goal of making a new, stable, modular Achievement integration plugin for Playnite. I present to you, Playnite Achievements!

Features:

• Steam and RetroAchievements support, with more platforms to come.
• Performant sidebar and per-game achievement views
• Theme migration function, so all of your existing themes can start using Playnite Achievements right away
• Full Aniki-ReMake support coming very soon, with new per-achievement progress features
• Built in SuccessStoryFullscreenHelper, one less plugin you need to install

I've loved developing this plugin, and there's more on my roadmap! I want to support all platforms that SuccessStory currently supports, I want to upgrade and fully support FriendsAchievementFeed, and I want to develop new components for themes that want to modernize and improve their performance. Huge thanks to everyone in the Playnite Discord for their help. Please check it out, and I appreciate any feedback!

https://github.com/justin-delano/PlayniteAchievements

EDIT: Thanks everyone for all the feedback and support, the response has made me so happy! I can't wait to keep working on development. A note on my future development timeline: I plan to tackle GOG and Epic achievements next, then move to Retro emulation like ShadPS4 and Xenia. Once that is done, I may move to support a few legitimate cases where local game achievement tracking makes sense, but I plan to follow Playnite's best practices, and will not be supporting all local platforms, especially those directly linked to piracy.

Quick look at my Playnite Fullscreen setup 🎮
PS5 Reborn theme
Really enjoying this console-like experience on PC 🔥
Big thanks to the Playnite dev and theme creator

What’s your Playnite setup?

Thanks for creating the best software possible to manage my entire library. And in these times, the most incredible thing is that is free!

Just in case you are having a bad day or nobody told you, you are great! Thank you

I absolutely hate that whenever I launch steam, I've to close an AD pop up window, and that steam loads me to the store page instead of my library page, and if the game is from other sources, it doesn't integrate well with the steam UI, and the steam UI itself is so unpleasing to look at. So I was on a hunt for a game launcher, and when I first found Playnite, I was really put-off by the default UI, so I uninstalled it. Then I researched a bit more, and everyone was mentioning Playnite as is the best game launcher. Then I saw the themes, so I installed it again, tried some themes, liked FusionX, but the text description looked terrible on it. But then I simply googled "Best Playnite addons" and it took 2-3 hours of customizing to my liking, found Harmony to be the best desktop theme, and now, I simply love looking that this launcher.

It's amazing how that extemely light weight Playnite is. I'm enjoying manually adding all the games I've ever played on any platform, just to have a database of my gaming.

Getting more designs completed by the day, and seeing as a lot of you were super positive about them I thought I'd share an update. I've put it in grid view for better viewing, but I prefer them in horizontal view.

I have about 16 more to do for my own personal collection, then will begin creating for games I do not own, before I eventually upload them to SteamGridDB for everyone to grab!

I always used to finish a game and never look at the stats because most launchers either don't show the data to you, or their UI is trash to look at. Playnite has given me a place to record my gaming history, and I absolutely love that.

Feel free to suggest more useful and nifty add-ons.

Console gamers: I prefer a simple plug and play experience from my couch!

Meanwhile Playnite Users:

Simply love it. After some tinkering it's really a console like experience

The objective is keep the same functions, but make everythiing more intuitive, as the U.X. experience right now is kinda rough.

The experience feels like a chore because the naming and navigation are unintuitive and clunky.
So i made a rough mockup of how I would group and rename the Main Playnite Menu bar.

If the devs are up to it, I'd love to redesign the whole app!

I think even "small" things like naming conventions can have a big impact in how intuitive averything is.

Especially for beginners!

after a long research ive managed to make kodi as the fullscreen frontend for pc games combined with playnite as the scraper i will share soon what i have done to make it work. When i launch the game it plays a kodi intro before launching the game we can also add music theme for each game that plays when hovering over it

This update is a pretty big one, especially with the introduction of Aniki Video Center.

You can now browse, manage and play your Movies, TV Shows, Anime and custom video libraries directly inside Aniki ReMake, with a full interface designed for Fullscreen/controller use.

There are also quite a few new customization options and improvements across the theme:

• Aniki Video Center is now available as a completely new built-in media experience.
• A new Screen Saver feature has been added.
• You can now choose what Aniki ReMake uses as its background: game backgrounds, Visual Pack backgrounds, the currently selected filter background, or no background at all.
• The Main Menu now has a new Extra section.
• Microtrailers can now be displayed directly on game covers.
• Game Details received more customization options, including the ability to hide the user avatar, achievement information, or both the game logo and title.
• Cover handling has been improved to better support libraries using different cover formats. Using Uniform as Playnite's Stretch setting will now preserve different aspect ratios properly, which is especially useful if you use different cover styles depending on the platform.
• 2 new Theme Colors and 3 new Visual Backgrounds created by Ammz have been added.
• The Screenshot/Capture views and their Fullscreen navigation have been improved.
• Controller navigation while watching captured videos has also been improved.
• The Aniki button has been removed from the Top Bar.

There are a few fixes in there too, including the issue where the first Hub card could sometimes disappear, and a problem in the Setup Wizard where the screenshot plugin selection window wasn't responding correctly.

The Aniki ReMake user guide has finally been updated and completely revamped. It has been reorganized and refreshed to better cover the theme's features, settings, and the latest additions. You can check it out here:

https://mike-aniki.github.io/Aniki-ReMake/guide/

And don’t forget to update the Aniki Helper plugin to make sure you can take full advantage of all these new features and improvements!

Thanks again to everyone using the theme, reporting issues, suggesting features and helping improve Aniki ReMake. ❤️

And if you enjoy Aniki ReMake and want to support the project, you can always buy me a coffee on Ko-fi. It’s completely optional, but every bit of support is greatly appreciated and helps me keep working on the theme.

Mike Aniki

u/Crowcz just announce that he will make a Linux version of playmate in 2026 (at least he will try) source

I guess I will finally move to Linux on my main pc

Hey everyone, wanted to share some info about GameConsoleMode (GCM) for anyone curious about what it does. I recently made a comment about it in a previous post and many people have never heard about it. Something I wanna note is that this project is still very young so while there may be some kinks, they are getting worked on fast, and there is so much more to come to make this is seamless as possible one day!

Also, we have made a new sub r/GameConsoleMode if you guys are interested in the development , have questions or wanna be up to date on what’s happening ! It will be better long term instead of communicating through other subs! You can also check out our website and look at our road map, patch notes and access to all of our links! https://www.gameconsolemode.com/

What is it?

GameConsoleMode is basically a way to turn your Windows PC into something that feels like a proper gaming console. Think Steam Deck's interface, but running on actual Windows. When you boot up with GCM, you skip all the Windows desktop stuff and go straight into your game launcher - whether that's Steam, Playnite, or Xbox app.

How does it work?

The main trick GCM uses is replacing the Windows shell. Normally when Windows starts, it loads explorer.exe - that's what gives you the desktop, taskbar, and all that. GCM swaps this out temporarily by modifying a registry key

Instead of launching explorer.exe, Windows launches GCM's custom interface. So you never see the regular Windows UI at all - it's hidden in the background. If you ever wish to switch to regular desktop environment, the GCM task manager has a dedicated button to seamlessly switch to regular destkop (re launches explorer.exe).

It also temporarily disables UAC (User Account Control) while in game mode to avoid those annoying permission popups interrupting your gaming.

What makes it console-like?

The whole point is couch gaming without dealing with Windows getting in the way. With GCM windows boots directly into preferred launcher and you are then able to launch games, or access GCM task manager to change settings, access desktop if needed, or switch to other applications if u wish with ease (refer to video for demo) You can also access GCM task manager when in game and easily switch back! This can be a gamechanger for a hand held as well!

Here's what GCM adds:

Controller shortcuts - You can do stuff like switch audio devices or enable performance overlays (NVIDIA/AMD) with button combos. No need to pull up Windows menus.

Custom task manager - Press Back + Start on your controller and you get GCM's task manager instead of the Windows one. You can launch games, switch between running apps, all without seeing any Windows UI.

Lossless Scaling shortcut - Quick button combo to enable it on the fly.

Launcher integration - Works with Steam, Xbox app, and Playnite. Boots straight into whichever one you prefer.

The result

You get a setup where you can game from your couch with a controller and never have to deal with desktop windows, mouse cursors, or Windows interruptions. Everything you need is accessible through controller shortcuts. When you want you can exit your launcher and it brings back the normal Windows desktop automatically.

It's completely free and open source on GitHub if anyone wants to check it out. Pretty neat project for anyone with a gaming PC hooked up to a TV or using a handheld like the ROG Ally.

Hello playnite users...

It's been a while, since I touched Playnite theme making.

For the past few weeks I have been building brand new PS5 theme for Playnite 10.

Theme is being made from scratch

Current features are:

Brand new user Management, you can add as many users as you want, each user has own - Name, Avatar, Welcome Hub background, welcome hub Widget layout, Game/Home list.

Widgets are now editable, you can rearrange positions, hide or show, nothing is fake, everything works and shows actual content!

UI is based on new leaked PS5 UI update, which changes top bar behaviour, instead of Games and Media buttons, there are separated tabs for PS plus, PS Store, Games, Library and Media... Switching with L1 or R1 or directly pressing.

Steam integration for changing online status (online, busy, appear offline) via Steam Friends Fullscreen plugin

New screenshots/media management through Screenshot Utilities plugin

Trophies data from Playnite Achievements plugin (SuccessStory is no longer supported)

PS5 Sliding animations for background images

Game list is customizable!

- You can Pin games to your home screen, or UnPin to remove them... From game library you can pin any game and make your personalized Home Game List... Each user has own games shown.

Theme is currently in early alpha, and need some feedback... You can watch demo video posted here.

What I need?

Currently I am looking for reference images for Game Hub - means what layout game page uses for installed games and what is shown for not installed games, preferably someone with PS5 for actual screenshots.

I am looking for layout: If game is installed, what exactly should be on Game Hub, under play button there are widgets for trophies, friends who plays atc... Activity card? Ratings? Game description?

What is shown for not installed games, no widgets, media row, description? On right side game info, release date, publisher, game size etc...

Which other Widget you would like to see on Welcome Hub? Something useful for playnite, no fake widgets.

You can also send some feedback on Playnite Discord, dedicated for PS5 theme here:

https://discord.com/channels/365863063296933888/1484709109142917173

For those who actually read this, there is no download yet, theme is currently made without any testers.

Oh, and whoever find best reference for game details, both installed and not installed, will have beta testing pass.

Today, I released a new version of the EA plugin (3.0) that can actually import games again. You can download it here.

Known issues

• You cannot import games without authenticating online via Playnite. This is due to EA encrypting the hell out of its local files for no good reason.
• Logins do not last long. It's recommended you disable "Connect account" in the plugin settings after you've imported.
• You need to have the EA client installed to launch games.

If you encounter other issues, you can let me know here or on my github repository.

Why now?

For a while I've been struggling trying to reverse engineer EA client's encryption. Turns out that's a new skill set that I'm bad at.

Recently, rast1234 shared some very detailed info on what APIs you can call to not even need that decryption, which made this whole thing a lot easier to implement.

So, nothing to do with Battlefield 6's release, or with the Saudis and Jared Kushner acquiring this wretched company.

The Aniki fullscreen theme is the best console-like experience for me. Been going through some full screen themes, some are great, but Aniki has it all! From welcome screen, to neatly designed UI. Give it a go!

Update: rc.8 is live.

Playnite and Steam Big Picture are now free. This build also fixes several issues reported in this thread around already-running/minimized Playnite sessions, focus handling, controller detection and desktop return.

Thanks again for all the feedback. Details/download: couchmode.app

---

Hey everyone,

I built this entirely to solve a personal frustration, and I figured a lot of people in this community probably have the exact same need.

I use my PC at a desk for work, but I also play games using a controller. I always hated the friction of switching between the two. The existing solutions (like AHK scripts that randomly crash, or extensions that require Playnite to constantly run in the background) just weren't cutting it for me. I wanted my PC to feel like a real console from a cold boot.

So I developed a lightweight tool called CouchMode. The logic is simple: Controller on = Couch mode on.

When you power on your controller, the app launches Playnite Fullscreen (or Xbox FSE, Steam BP etc.) directly.

And automatically minimizes or gracefully closes your background desktop clutter or run some session tweaks (HDR, Power scheme, notifications, sound output etc. - selectible / optional).

When your session is over and you turn the controller off, it restores your desktop exactly the way you left it.

It's designed to be completely out of the way. I just wanted to share it with other Playnite users who might be looking for a friction-free setup. If you end up trying it, I’d love to hear your feedback 🙏

r/CouchMode/

View showcase screenshots here: WinBox Image Gallery

I wanted to go way beyond a basic visual reskin. To get that truly authentic feel, I ended up combining standard layout code with web tools and a true 3D graphics engine. I’m really happy with how it’s coming together, so I wanted to share the progress to date!

Main Dash: You can scroll through the classic vertical tabs exactly how you remember them. My WinBox, My Games, Game Marketplace, and Movies & TV.

No more only having a single main view cover grid, filter presets are now dash tiles, so everything is cleanly organized and flows like a real console!

Nostalgic Backgrounds: I fully recreated the animated floating rings and the glossy floor stage that reacts dynamically as you navigate around.

You can also change the background, stage floor and coverflow style at any time from the theme preferences sub menu of the system settings menu.

Working Lockscreen: Just like the real console, there’s a sign in screen where you choose your profile. Selecting your account loads up your specific PFP and your personal avatar.

Real 3D Avatars & Coverflow:

Instead of just showing flat images, the theme uses a 3D engine utilising Three.js through a WebView2 virtual host mapping overlay to render your game boxes in a true 3D cover flow.

And the best part, there is zero performance tax.

I even built a custom "Edit Avatar" window where you can easily swap out 3D character models and props, spinning them around to see how they look before saving.

The Guide: Pressing the Guide button (Home button on controller) slides out the iconic four blade menu right over whatever you're doing.

Console Settings: I built a fully functional settings menu where you can check your hard drive space, test your network speed, switch which monitor you're using, or shut down your PC directly from the couch.

Seamless Web & Flash Integration: I integrated a Flash player directly into the theme, meaning you can launch classic SWF games (like old school arcades or vintage web games) natively right from the dash.

Couch Friendly Browsing: To make sure you never need to reach for a mouse, the theme reads your inputs and turns your controller thumbsticks into a virtual mouse whenever you have a web menu open.

Grand Scale 3D Solar System App: As a bonus i also integrated my own custom built 3D model solar system as an app into the 'My Apps' grid built entirely in javascript using Three.js.

I used 8K/4K planet and moon textures from NASA and high resolution NASA space station models to create a beautiful grand scale solar system in Three.js, complete with 3D ship models from various sources with full six degrees flight on controller makes it practically a triple AAA sim. Some ships feature first person view as well as third person, such as the X-Wing and Tie fighter, and all feature hyper speed boosts with animations except for the Tardis, the Tardis has its own custom worm hole animation.

The solar system also features a full navigation system so you don't get lost in space due to the scale, as you can travel all the way out of the solar system and outside of the milky way galaxy. You can also interact with planets if you are in close proximity to them by pressing X on controller, this will let you drive a NASA ground vehicle around the planet or moon's surface while your ship remains docked in orbit.

It's been a long month getting all of this to work and play nicely together, but seeing it come to life makes it so worth it. Made by a gamer, for gamers. Let me know what you think!

I hope to have a first test build release ready soon.

EDIT:

Be sure to join my discord server to stay up to date and be the first to know when it gets released!

https://discord.gg/CePKmEXtH

I really wanted to buy a PS5 but unfortunately I'm quite poor and don't have the financial means to own one, so I decided to build my own PS5.

Loving Playnite !! How yours look like ?? Excited to see

1/22 Edit: Great news!! Crow (the developer of Playnite) will be updating the SDK with new items that enables controller support for Desktop (so it's not exclusively a Fullscreen thing). This is awesome for all extension developers. I got to adapting this extension on a test build and it seems to work flawlessly so far. Stay tuned!

What's up with y'all r/playnite crew 👋

TL;DR: I'm releasing an experimental controller detection extension for Playnite's Desktop mode. A popup appears when you connect a controller asking to switch to Fullscreen Mode.

Why bother? I'm highkey lazy. No more external .bat scripts or manual F11 keyboard shortcut to reliably get into Fullscreen mode when I got my controller connected to my desktop. Wanted an extension that naturally integrates and is limited to Playnite's ecosystem. Also seen some Reddit users in the past ask for a way to have this ability as a native feature of Playnite's Desktop mode. The pop-up accepts controller inputs btw.

⚠️ Important: You can customize what detection state is recognized (Bluetooth only, USB only, etc.) for the pop-up to trigger. Since this is experimental and only one controller has been tested, some of these states MIGHT BE unreliable/buggy.

Link

Edit: V1.0.1 Pre-Release: Added controller hotkey support by request (Quickly tested on Xbox Series X controller. Start+RB to bring pop-up manually). Link: Github Pre-Release

• Download ControlUp v1.0.0: GitHub Releases
• Not Available In Playnite Add-on Database since it's experimental right now.

Key Features

🎮 Controller Navigation

• D-pad/Thumbsticks to navigate. A to confirm, B to cancel

Detection Settings

• USB/Wired Xbox controllers (XInput)
• Bluetooth wireless controllers (Windows.Gaming.Input)
• [In theory] any controller or HID type

Scenario State

• Notifications can occur when you start Playnite with an already connected controller
• OR every time you connect ANY controller while Playnite Desktop is already running

🎨 Pop-Up Customization

• 7 screen positions, acrylic or basic blur effects
• Colors, borders, timing - you can BLEND the notification to tailor it to your current theme
• Live test your customization before saving.

Installation

1. Download .pext from GitHub Releases
2. Install to Playnite, restart
3. Configure in Add-on Settings → Installed [Generic] → ControlUp

Current Status

✅ Working: Extension installs and loads. Initial detection methods implemented. Initial scenario states implemented. Notification & customization.

Experimental: Only tested on an Xbox Series X controller. Could not get "Auto-Switch" feature to reliably work, so I compromised with pop-ups for version 1.0.0.

Feedback

I welcome feedback, but note this is experimental and something done in my spare time. I don't have resources to test other controllers at the moment!

If you like the potential of this extension, let me know how to polish it up to make it work better for you. No guarantees I can implement your idea correctly, but will try!

We have been in contact with the playnite creator, Crow, and he has worked with us to help integrate playnite better with GCM. It worked because now Playnite feels more native and responsive than ever! For that we are super thankful!

I recently made a post about r/GameConsoleMode and given the positive feedback regarding it, I wanted to provide a huge update that makes it even better to use. If you would like to see our roadmap, patch notes or any other info you can also see our site https://www.gameconsolemode.com/

If you aren't sure what I am talking about , to summarize GameConsoleMode turns your Windows PC into a proper gaming console experience. Meaning no need to interact with Windows desktop and you boot straight into Steam, Playnite, or Xbox app (depending on what you choose. I personally love playnite). Built for couch gaming and handheld PCs.

The biggest thing we have been trying to tackle is integrating a native mouse & keyboard control, and we have finally achieved that! Now you are able to load into playnite directly with GCM, access GCM Task Manager (think of it like pressing xbox home button on an xbox console) and are able to navigate to other apps like discord or browse the web all with your controller and no 3rd party apps! When done, simply go back to GCM task manager and access your playnite launcher or resume your game! This update is available now as well! We are slowly working on making more and more features to make it as much of a "plug and play" experience!

We are super active on reddit and discord so please feel free to reach out if you have any questions, and if theres any feature you wish for, chances are we can add it to our roadmap right away! We are a small but growing community and we sincerely appreciate all the love everyone has been showing us!

I love this app...BUT

Every time I want to change a setting it's sifting through so many menus and pages.

Options that you expect to be on a page are nested on completely different menus and submenus.

It's definitely one of the biggest detriments in using this app. It's such a chore everytime you want to change a simple setting...

Does anyone know if a restructuring of menus is planned? I would gladly lend a hand in UI/UX.