I had the problem too, tried everything to fix it, trying downloading and reinstalling but I doubt it'll work. If that's the case F it I'm just going to play... I tried everything I could think of and it just never got to working.
It's entirely possible that SOE didn't add it. Sometimes the steam integration only includes launching the game. The steam version of Blacklight Retribution didn't have the overlay either, did it?
We did test this and it worked - we are big fans of Steam and want the overlay as much as you guys do. Can someone with this problem give us a dxdiag output? You can PM it to me if you like. There may be some combinations of cards/OS/admin rights that are a problem (also, try running Steam at least once as Administrator to see if this changes it).
It seems to me that Steam is starting the Launcher updater (a UAC prompt for ApplicationUpdaterService pops up when starting the game from Steam) which then starts the Launcher, which then starts the game. Steam doesn't seem to be following the process all the way through. Edit: If I press Yes to the UAC prompt for ApplicationUpdaterService, Steam loses its connection to the game, the overlay doesn't work, and Steam lists me as not in a game. If I press No to the UAC prompt, Steam follows through properly and the overlay works.
Happening to me as well. When i hit "yes" and the SOE launcher pops up Steam fails to see the game as being played. I chose to use Steam for the download so i could have my friends list and time played. At the moment neither are possible.
If you press no it just means the game won't patch (because it doesn't have admin rights to the file location), but the game will run fine.
The overlay works if Steam is launched with admin rights and thus launches the game with admin rights, or Steam is launched with standard rights and the UAC elevation for the game is refused. It does not work if Steam is launched with standard rights and elevation is granted to the game. TL;DR: Steam cannot hook into the game to run the overlay if the game is running with higher privileges than Steam.
I'm having this problem except both Teamspeak and in game Comms don't work either when the games loaded but as soon as I quit TS3 worked again. I'm on W8 preview and assumed it was that but if other people are having the same problem maybe not, and if your wondering why W8 preview, I was gonna buy a release version this week but bought a years sub for ps2 instead. I'll try this Admin thing and see if it works.
It's something to do with UAC. When I turn UAC on, and press No on the dialogue that comes up on Planetside launch I get the overlay. When I turn UAC off, I no longer get the overlay.
Confirmed that when I don't grant the application updater service, PS2 starts up fine and I get the steam overlay. (I can't actually log into a game server because all 3 of mine are down right now).
Step 1 - open steam Step 2 - start planetside2 Step 3 - USER ACCOUNT CONTROL is UAC, and you click no. DOH Step 4 - Steal Underpants Step 5 - ??? Step 6 - Profit
I can confirm the issue, and can now confirm that it does seem to be because of the UAC for the patcher. Last night I kept hitting "Yes" to the UAC popup and had no Steam integration. This morning, after finding this thread, I just denied the UAC popup, and I see that Steam still "sees" that I'm in PS2. FWIW: My computer is a clean Windows 8 x64 build.
Err.. no. Any game run using the Steam client will by default try to inject the overlay to the game. And Planetside 2 runs just fine with the overlay - has done since start of beta.
UAC bites everyone on the *** again. Seriously who other than big corporates with security policies to stick to actually needs this ****? Disable UAC Profit.