Steam Windows 7/8 will be losing support for Steam on January 1st 2024.

[Krvavi Abadas]

"The procedure entry point DiscardVirtualMemory could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll"

the most recent update to the client (released a few days ago) now displays this error message when launching on 7, and it unsurprisingly has completely broken pretty much every Ubisoft game that uses it. since they need the launcher running in the background to work.
pretty much everything sold on Ubisoft's store, including Ubisoft titles that are DRM-free elsewhere and a few random indie games. works like this, so you're basically screwed depending on how much you've bought there.
this is pretty much the worst case scenario, and what could possibly happen to Steam in a few months.

(oh, and if you think you could haphazardly work around it by using a very lightweight Linux distro + Wine/Proton. the compatibility layers are also breaking due to the change.)

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

we've now entered the twelfth day since Valve officially discontinued support. though they've thankfully backtracked on the client no longer working entirely. with the support article being updated to state that

We expect the Steam client and games on these older operating systems to continue running for some time without updates after January 1st, 2024, but we are unable to guarantee continued functionality after that date.

regardless, it's worth noting how other launchers have been going since the date. with the EGS launcher in particular still getting updates on 7.

while the patch notes make it clear the changes are solely "bug fixes" for now, it does suggest Epic might be more willing to keep the launcher running on older hardware in the long term.
this is particularly curious as games on the client are generally less reliant on requiring said launcher compared to Steam, with a larger selection of titles being pretty much DRM-free after installation.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

(message added in the most recent client update)

The Epic Games Launcher will no longer support Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 (32-bit) starting June 2024. After this date, existing installations on these operating systems will no longer receive updates of any kind. The Epic Games Launcher will continue supporting Windows 10 (64-bit), Windows 11, and macOS 10.13 or higher.

After June 2024, players will still be able to use the Epic Games Launcher on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 (32-bit), just not in an officially supported manner. Epic will be unable to provide technical support for users of these operating systems, and Launcher features on these operating systems may degrade or stop working over time.

six months isn't particularly long term, but it's appreciated that Epic is openly stating the client will still work even without new updates. pretty much the same issue as before, where the launcher uses the HTML-based Electron framework as a base.

again, the large selection of titles that only need the client for installation makes it less of an issue than Steam.