Earth Defense Force 6 removes controversial Epic account requirement on Steam

Earth Defense Force 6, a B-movie themed third-person shooter that has players fighting off an alien invasion on Earth, has removed the controversial requirement which forced players to have an Epic Games account linked in order to play online.

D3Publisher confirmed the Epic Games account requirement for EDF6 in July, at the time of its launch. D3Publisher said that in order to enhance cross-play and online functionality, signing in with your Epic Games account is required for online play. "We apologize for not giving you advance notice."

I don't have any interest in complaining about the Epic Games Store, or games that use Epic Online Services to provide multiplayer functionality. But this was worse: even if you owned a game on Steam, and had no desire to crossplay with Epic Games, you still had to have an Epic account linked to your Steam account to play online. No Epic account? Create one or remain alone.

This was not received well. EDF6's Steam user rating plummeted to "mostly-negative" almost immediately after launch. This was almost entirely due to the Epic account requirement, and the fact that D3Publisher hadn't said anything about it before release. This second point is particularly fair: It may be overstated, but it is a practical and principled matter that if an external account will be required to access significant portions of a videogame then this should be made clear up front.

It's gone. D3Publisher announced in a recent update that the application had been modified to allow users to play online missions without logging into their Epic Games account. "Signing into your Epic Games account no longer requires. If you want to unlink your Steam Account from your Epic Games Account, please visit the Epic Games Website in a web-browser."

Note that you will lose some functionality if you choose to unlink your Epic Account or if you decide not to link it in the future if you buy EDF6.

D3Publisher stated in a statement to PC Gamer that "EDF 6 supports cross-play online with Epic Games Store users." "As per the latest update, you can still play the game online and off-line even if you do not link your Epic Games Account. To use the Friend and Invite features for Epic Games Store users during online play, however, you must link your Steam account to an Epic Games account.

The whole episode reminds me of the Helldivers 2 fiasco that occurred earlier this year when Sony started requiring players to sign up for a PlayStation Network account in order to play the game. The situation was even worse, as Helldivers 2 didn't require a PSN account to launch, and ran for several months without one. Sony had made it clear that Helldivers 2 would require a PSN account before its release. However, the backlash was so fierce that the company quickly abandoned the idea.

I honestly think you should get an Epic account. Epic still releases free games every week, and with a larger crossplay pool, you'll have more people to play against. This week's free game is the woodlands B&B Management Sim Bear and Breakfast. But I don't believe you should have to have an Epic Account to play your Steam Games online: If you are really set against it for whatever reason, I figure that you should be able say "no thank you" to crossplay and continue with the things within Steam. Now you can! Have fun!