Why is Epic hated/disliked by some? (noob question)

[Rakanoth]

I am sort of ignorant about the discussion surrounding "Epic". As far as I know it's a platform like Steam, Uplay or Origin.

I see lots of negative comments about it. But I can't find any explanation in people's comments why people react negatively to Epic. I am sure there is a good reason.

Could you please explain why? A short and simple summary would suffice.

 

[Princess Luna]

Mostly because Epic is making exclusivity deals taking games from all the other launchers and pissing off people who wants to continue with Steam to decrease the amount of launchers installed in their system or GOG so they don't have launchers at all.

 

Epic also is as shady as it gets about costumer's support and privacy policy and so on... all in all it's nothing too outstanding.

[ThePD]

The rumor is that sometimes Epic pays developers to put games exclusively on their platforms, versus allowing the game to be on steam/epic.
Another issue people have is that Epic has ties back to China as Tencent the owner of Epic is 40% owned by the Chinese Government.
People dont want another game launcher as well.

[Dedayog]

4 minutes ago, Rakanoth said:

I am sort of ignorant about the discussion surrounding "Epic". As far as I know it's a platform like Steam, Uplay or Origin.

I see lots of negative comments about it. But I can't find any explanation in people's comments why people react negatively to Epic. I am sure there is a good reason.

Could you please explain why? A short and simple summary would suffice.

 

Read the thread fully that prompted your question.

[Bananasplit_00]

Because Epic makes exclusive deals, is mostly owned by the Chinese government and this:

[Fasauceome]

It bluescreened my PC once so...

 

Also, if you have a game downloaded already but have to reinstall the launcher, you cannot identify preexisting titles. You have to redownload any game again if you reinstall the epic launcher.

[tarfeef101]

1. Laziness to have/use another platform
2. Racism against companies partially owned by chinese companies
   1. this includes claims that somehow a non-majority stakeholder can exercise the power to get the company to send personal information of users to their government. which is not true
3. fortnite hate translating over to the company as a whole
4. steam fanboyism
5. concerns about lack of features
6. concerns about the seeming lack of care about privacy (automatically looks at your steam files when you install it
7. them explicitly making exclusivity deals apparently makes people mad. in the end your devs agreed, so i don't get this one. but sure, be mad at the store if you want. good for you

 

probably missed more, but here are some of em

Edited April 3, 2019 by tarfeef101
added stuffs

[minibois]

It's mainly because of the company behind Epic (I believe the Chinese company 'Tencent' owns like 40% of Epic and Tencent is also the creator of that scary social hierarchy software in China) and it also has to do with the somewhat scary stuff found in their EULA.

 

There has also been evidence of the EGS 'spying' on people's PC, snooping in files it shouldn't (like the Steam friend's list - which Valve has said programs should not look at unless given permission by you yourself).

 

Somewhere in their EULA they also mention something about being allowed to transfer your personal details to authorities in any country they (Epic) is active in.

One part of their privacy policy which irks me the most:

Quote

As part of our international operations, we may transfer information about you to any jurisdiction where we do business.  When you use our websites, games, game engines, or applications, you acknowledge that we may transfer information about you as described in this policy.

 

[M1RR0RED]

I can understand why people are getting annoyed. I personally am a Steam user however Steam kinda was starting to become too powerful with the amount of say they had when it came to money. They kinda were becoming what Amazon is but only with downloadable content.

[Theguywhobea]

I think the one ironic thing about this whole situation is the outcry about Epic being owned by a Chinese company with ties to the Chinese Government, but you rarely see any kind of fuss about ZTE or Huawei products

[Brooksie359]

14 minutes ago, tarfeef101 said:

1. Laziness to have/use another platform
2. Racism against companies partially owned by chinese companies
   1. this includes claims that somehow a non-majority stakeholder can exercise the power to get the company to send personal information of users to their government. which is not true
3. fortnite hate translating over to the company as a whole
4. steam fanboyism
5. concerns about lack of features
6. concerns about the seeming lack of care about privacy (automatically looks at your steam files when you install it
7. them explicitly making exclusivity deals apparently makes people mad. in the end your devs agreed, so i don't get this one. but sure, be mad at the store if you want. good for you

 

probably missed more, but here are some of em

I am way more concerned about account security. The amount of people who have had their accounts hacked is kinda ridiculous.

[Suika]

3 minutes ago, Theguywhobea said:

I think the one ironic thing about this whole situation is the outcry about Epic being owned by a Chinese company with ties to the Chinese Government, but you rarely see any kind of fuss about ZTE or Huawei products

I don't know where you've been getting your news but Huawei has been getting a lot of flack for its close ties with the Chinese government.

[Brooksie359]

4 minutes ago, Theguywhobea said:

I think the one ironic thing about this whole situation is the outcry about Epic being owned by a Chinese company with ties to the Chinese Government, but you rarely see any kind of fuss about ZTE or Huawei products

That's not even true. I have heard plenty of people complain about Huawei 

[Taja]

7 minutes ago, Theguywhobea said:

I think the one ironic thing about this whole situation is the outcry about Epic being owned by a Chinese company with ties to the Chinese Government, but you rarely see any kind of fuss about ZTE or Huawei products

Well, to be fair Huawei is getting rekt by a lot of countries because of that.

But I agree, this chinese government angle is flimsy at best IMO. It looks like a cherry picked privacy issue to me.

 

 

[tarfeef101]

30 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

I am way more concerned about account security. The amount of people who have had their accounts hacked is kinda ridiculous.

is that because of the fortnite demographic maybe not being the most security minded though, or just crappy security and epic's servers or in-transit information being compromised?

because one is a cause for educating users, the other is a serious issue

[LogicalDrm]

45 minutes ago, tarfeef101 said:

• Racism against companies partially owned by chinese companies

Racism would be wrong term. Chinese is not race, nor is any company race. You are talking about discrimination based on ownership by certain nationality.

45 minutes ago, tarfeef101 said:

• steam fanboyism

Consider how bad Steam is and how much Gabe Newell is both unprofessional and fankly stupid, that sure is a thing.

 

Also, there was already thread about this:

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1050013-poll-why-are-people-bothered-by-the-epic-games-store/

[tarfeef101]

Just now, LoGiCalDrm said:

Racism would be wrong term. Chinese is not race, nor is any company race. You are talking about discrimination based on ownership by certain nationality.

Consider how bad Steam is and how much Gabe Newell is both unprofessional and fankly stupid, that sure is a thing.

 

Also, there was already thread about this:

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1050013-poll-why-are-people-bothered-by-the-epic-games-store/

forgive me if i frankly don't give a crap about being politically correct to a T about everything. anyone with half a brain understood what I meant (yourself included). and I saved a lot of time. does it really matter? no

 

Not sure if you were agreeing or not about the fanboyism thing considering you presented arguments about how bad steam is, but also said "that sure is a thing", and even if you wanted to be sarcastic, that's not how most people trying to convey sarcasm would phrase it. I'll just say there are definitely fanboys of things, even bad products. so there's that. 

[Wh0_Am_1]

1 hour ago, Rakanoth said:

I am sort of ignorant about the discussion surrounding "Epic". As far as I know it's a platform like Steam, Uplay or Origin.

I see lots of negative comments about it. But I can't find any explanation in people's comments why people react negatively to Epic. I am sure there is a good reason.

Could you please explain why? A short and simple summary would suffice.

 

I don't trust them because they are owned by Tencent, which not only has close ties to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) but also how it plays a critical role in the setup and maintenance of the Sesame credit system, it's maintenance of the "Great Firewall of China"  and other surveillance software that is used to increase the power and influence of the CCP. Honestly I want nothing to do with them.

[LogicalDrm]

13 minutes ago, tarfeef101 said:

forgive me if i frankly don't give a crap about being politically correct to a T about everything. anyone with half a brain understood what I meant (yourself included). and I saved a lot of time. does it really matter? no

Its not about being politically anything. Its about using correct terminology and not being ass about it. We have enough people calling things racist that aren't related to race. Or calling things legal/illegal that aren't based on any law. Just don't be one of those people.

 

(I wasn't being sarcastic about Steam. I've been using Steam long enough to remember where it came from.)

[Arika]

2 hours ago, ThePD said:

The rumor is that sometimes Epic pays developers to put games exclusively on their platforms, versus allowing the game to be on steam/epic.

It's not a rumor at all, it is absolutely a thing, multiple developers have stating this as being the exact reason for going to the epic store.

 

 

[Delicieuxz]

Because Epic Games shows no consideration for the consumer, demonstrates a poor and contradicted-by-law position on software ownership, is hypocritical in their attacks against Microsoft for trying to create a walled garden with UWP, is a bully and is trying to make itself popular by underhanded force and not quality of service, because Tim Sweeney is a conniving con-man, because Epic Games are being anti-competitive, and because Epic Games' Fortnite wealth by which EGS is purchasing exclusives is largely a result of circumstantial happenstance, trend-following, and lifting from an Unreal Engine 4 licenser.

 

Scummy practices all around, not a company worthy of supporting, IMO, and not a place that I trust with the custodian of the games that I own. Going by the attitude EGS have been showing, they won't care one bit if they shut down their service in the future once it's no longer their interest to continue, or it Tim Sweeney retires. And as they're 40% owned by a large corporation, and as so far Tim Sweeney has asserted that consumers don't matter and it's all about the developers, I think that it's likely EGS' policies could gravitate more towards benefiting developers and publishers over time at the cost of the consumer's interests.

 

That's why I'm only taking the free game offers on EGS.

[kpluck]

I don't dislike Epic or its store. In fact, having viable competition for Steam can only be good for end users. However, I hate these exclusive deals. They provide no benefit to the user.

 

The main reason I use Steam is because on many titles, I get access to both the Windows and macOS versions of the game (I use both operating systems on a regular basis). I use GOG because they are DRM free and are great for older titles. I am not adding another launcher to the mix that gives me no benefits to do so.

 

That being said, I am not too concerned about this. History has shown there are usually other ways to get games without going through a company store. I am guessing a lot of people will be going that route with BL3.

 

-kp

[Paul Rudd]

8 hours ago, Rakanoth said:

I am sort of ignorant about the discussion surrounding "Epic". As far as I know it's a platform like Steam, Uplay or Origin.

I see lots of negative comments about it. But I can't find any explanation in people's comments why people react negatively to Epic. I am sure there is a good reason.

Could you please explain why? A short and simple summary would suffice.

I think it's because they prefer to install games on the platform of which they've been using for years. And when Epic keeps bringing games from Steam and making them exclusive to their platform and releasing brand new games exclusive to their platform(most recently Borderlands 3), it makes them bitter about it. I have zero issues with Epic and the games I play on it run flawlessly. Plus I haven't paid any amount of money for my Epic library. If I want to play Borderlands 3, I will have zero issue installing it to my Epic library.

[poochyena]

For me its that Tencent (china) owns a large % of it. Though, I don't "hate" it, I'd just prefer going somewhere not owned by china.

[PlayStation 2]

8 hours ago, tarfeef101 said:

1. Racism against companies partially owned by chinese companies
   1. this includes claims that somehow a non-majority stakeholder can exercise the power to get the company to send personal information of users to their government. which is not true

What kind of weak ass copout is calling people who are wary about Chinese-owned (or partially-owned) companies "racist"?

It's almost like you don't want anyone to dispute your point on the pretense that they'll look offensive.