LaunchBox 13.23 Released!

[AstroBob]

Version 13.23 - Released August 21st 2025

Release Summary

Full Changelog: https://www.launchbox-app.com/about/changelog

 

Known Issues:

• Although FFMPEG provides some major advantages over VLC, it has both advantages AND disadvantages over WMP. See our doc here for a full breakdown and comparison
• For users experiencing crashing in Big Box on Version 13.23, we've put together a short troubleshooting guide to help with this.

 

New Features:

• Added a new Screensavers feature to Big Box, letting users discover games with fully themeable views and interact directly with the games shown
• LaunchBox and Big Box now include a brand new FFMPEG-based video playback option, delivering more reliable performance, with the old VLC engine now phased out
• LaunchBox now opens with a brand new Welcome Wizard that helps users quickly set up their games, preferences, and media so they can jump straight into the fun
• A new automation rule for Game Progress Tracking now allows games to be marked as paused if they have not been played in a user-defined number of days
• A new Media Settings section under Tools > Options > Media > Automatic Imports lets users customize which media files are downloaded during automated imports

 

Improvements:

• Platform detail views in both LaunchBox and Big Box now display numerical counts for games that are beaten, completed, or mastered, based on Game Progress Tracking stats
• When arranging by Game Progress, sorting now follows your user-defined order for progress values and headers
• The "Attract Mode Master Volume" option in Big Box is now called "Idle Master Volume" and now controls both Screensaver and Attract Mode audio
• Platform icons have been visually refreshed for Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, and PICO-8 to better represent each system (Thanks to @Dan Patrick)

 

Fixed:

• Games hidden by the user will no longer appear in the Game Discovery Center
• RetroAchievements were not loading in Game Details when using a List View, resulting in no achievement data being shown
• Selecting a game too quickly in Big Box could prevent LEDBlinky from displaying the correct lighting behavior
• The Beat em Up clear logo now displays correctly under all conditions
• Resetting play time and play count now also resets these values for all additional apps attached to a game
• Hybrid views now provide proper audio feedback when navigating with a controller or keyboard
• Some custom LaunchBox themes were silently failing to poll the selected game, which could prevent item highlighting from working correctly
• In some custom LaunchBox themes, multiple carousel controls in the Game Details panel were not always updating as expected
• Legacy Big Box themes using Old Default theme code had a stray completed graphic that would always show, regardless of user data
• Removed the outdated Change Badge Images option from the Badge menu in LaunchBox, which no longer applied after the media manager overhaul in version 13.21
• A specific crash related to the MAME High Score system is now caught with error handling, and logging has been added to help identify the root cause

[kurzih]

Hi,

Just updated and launchbox is stuck in this state right now when it tries to start the latest version:

I haven't changed any playlists or anything else the last 3-5 times I started version 13.22

Is there a new function that deep-scans playlists for the first time for a very long time or any ideas why it doesn't open up?

EDIT: it did launch after roughly 20mins wait.

Edited 9 hours ago by kurzih

[KRI$85]

Interesting, interesting, it's a pity, but Screensavers plays random games from every platform, regardless of the platform we're on. In the case of platforms, categories, and platforms, it's average. I thought it would detect, for example, Platform Category Arcade, and detect and show only random games from these platforms: Mame, Neo-Geo, etc. And if you go to Mame, for example, does it detect and show only games from Mame, Neo-Geo, etc.?
I don't know about you, but it looks strange to me when Mame shows games from consoles, etc., and vice versa.
I hope that in the future, you'll add the option to choose whether they should
- Show randomly, as they do now
- Depending on the platform 
- Maybe if it doesn't detect background, image, or video, it will play randomly  

Of course, I hope you don't take this as hate and complaining, because you're doing a great job. I'm just presenting my view and I'm curious who else has a similar experience?

Regarding the Welcome Wizard, it's clearer than the previous one.

As for FFmpeg, hmm, I still need to test it, but so far it seems heavy and has problems displaying some of my videos, it also displays them with a delay after hovering over them, and it cuts and loops the background music, but it's probably because my PC is no longer the newest after this update. 😟

[AstroBob]

4 hours ago, KRI$85 said:

Interesting, interesting, it's a pity, but Screensavers plays random games from every platform,

This is a great idea! I've gone ahead and scoped it out on our feature board here:
🔗 https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/context-aware-screensaver-mode-in-big-box

Let me know if that covers what you had in mind

[AstroBob]

For any users experiencing video related issues in Big Box or crashes, please see this troubleshooting guide. Please drop any reports over on that thread (following the instructions of what to try and provide)

 

[KRI$85]

3 hours ago, AstroBob said:

This is a great idea! I've gone ahead and scoped it out on our feature board here:
🔗 https://feedback.launchbox.gg/p/context-aware-screensaver-mode-in-big-box

Let me know if that covers what you had in mind

Yea That's the point