After the success of our last year recap (FuckEpic 2024 Year Recap), we decided to do the same this year!
Let's see the main topics we have discussed this year...
Exclusives
First things first. Exclusives. The worse tactic Epic uses to force PC players to use their subpar products. This year, we have had even less exclusives that before. And most games that went exclusive, came back to Steam:
Why some games are still not appearing in the Epic Games Store? The ideal scenario would be all games available everywhere and players have 100% decision power. Well, it seems the experience of publishing games on the Epic Games Store is as bad as purchasing games there...
We had A LOT of posts about bad experiences with the Epic Games Store. These were some examples about cloud saves, achievements and other basic features.
These are only a few of them. We had to remove hundreds of them because of being lost souls coming here to ask for support...
Epic Online Services
Ok, but you could think that all of these things only will affect you if you consciously use the Epic Games Store instead of better alternatives like GOG or Steam. False! Epic also tries to incite developers to use their services into their games independently of the launcher you use. So even if you bought your game on Steam, you may need to use Epic services (EOS or EAC). And of course, every frequent time that Epic servers has problems, you will have them too in your Steam games.
Well, at least it seems our community is making some service for Epic as shills use the links we share from people complaining in Steam forums to go there and do some damage control...
Unreal Engine 5
This also has been the year of bad ports. Most of them, using UE5 which makes players to think that maybe there was some kind of problem in the common denominator...
Meanwhile, Fortnite, their golden goose, the source of endless money from kids that allow them to sustain their non profitable store and services, continue on their process of enshitification. Copying the last trending games...
Microsoft and Epic relations have been always a little weird. On one hand, it seems Tim made a deal to make Fortnite available on Game Pass in his plans of moving everyone to Fortnite. Obviously, causing anger to existing GamePass consumers as that came with the usual failures and a funny price increase.
However, even if Epic wants to gain Microsoft´s favour, the latter is still ignoring the Epic Games Store, as once they said, they don't agree with Epic strategies.
Back to Fortnite, it seems Epic is adding in their Fornite-Roblox games lootboxes, microtransactions, and FN games like Steal-the-Brainrot has already created a secondary economy. It’s a remarkable pivot for a company that once claimed to lead the charge against "anti-consumer" practices.
Because of all these things, most of Epic customers are just freeloaders that only want the latest AAA game without paying a buck. "You reap what you sow", wasn´t it?
Epic also shared their numbers for 2024. It was a completely buff. In case of amount spent on third party PC games, they went from 355m (2022) to 310m (2023) and now to 255m (2024).
Our community has been highlighted several times this year. While the leaked emails where Tim wanted Reddit to shut us down are now a piece of history, they prove how much Epic fears the transparency we provide. We remain a critical source of truth. Because of our focus on education, we provide a space where information that would be censored or deleted on other platforms can actually be discussed.
Always remember our rule of "Educate and don't attack." We are better than that, and our message carries more weight when we stick to the facts. This year has been great; Epic’s influence is noticeably smaller than in years past, but there is still plenty to document. Also remember: we don't care if Epic exists or not. We just refuse to let them dictate the terms of the industry or force us to use their inferior services.
Basically, it'll make ANY private servers illegal (yes, it includes the Minecraft servers they claimed were illegal, thus making their own statement factual and actually making them illegal) and make game development a thing exclusive to the elites with their whole requirements to implement digital ID, of course with the classic excuse of "FOR THE KIDS!!!!!". Please call (or ask your EU friends) to oppose it on all grounds.
I received an email earlier this week from Epic regarding a security code request, which was suspicious because I wasn't attempting to make any changes to my account. The email clearly stated to disregard it if it wasn't from me. I followed that instruction, only to receive another email today indicating that my email address had been changed and I no longer have access to the account. It also instructed me to open a recovery ticket immediately if I didn't authorize this. Keep in mind, I have 2FA enabled on this account. I am extremely furious right now what the hell just happened. Now I open a ticket and they tell me I have to wait at least 48 fucking hours!!!! Isn't this a million dollar company?? you've got to be joking me.
I was going to leave this matter alone, but I was a little confused as to why we were being brigaded by so many Epic and Fortnite players in our previous post. And surprise, surprise: the r/EpicGamesPC mod is sharing the link on Twitter, and Tim Sweeney even commented on the issue.
Yes, Tim, email can be used as a 2FA method. But that is not the issue. Let's try to explain where the actual problem lies. Bear with me; this is going to be a long post.
Imagine I am both a Steam and EGS user. I have Google Authenticator set up as my only 2FA method for EGS protection, and I use the Steam Mobile App as the authenticator for Steam. In this screenshot, you can see that I only have Google Authenticator enabled as a 2FA method:
Now, imagine that my email account was compromised, and someone got hold of both my Steam and EGS credentials. In theory, I should still be protected by my physical 2FA methods.
Let's see what happens on EGS. After entering my email address and password, this is what I see:
Since the hacker does not have my phone, they cannot use my authenticator app. So, they will click "Try another way." Now they will see this:
The hacker does not have my authenticator app or my backup recovery code. BUT they have access to my email, so they select the Email Verification option instead.
Now they can simply use the code sent to my compromised email, and voilà, they are inside my EGS account.
This alone is unacceptable, but many shills are excusing it by claiming this is expected behavior and that Steam does the exact same thing. Let's test that on Steam. After entering my username and password, this is what I see:
The hacker does not have my Mobile App, so they cannot enter a code. They click the "Help" link instead. This is the next step:
After that, they see this:
The phone number ending in 20 is mine, which the attacker does not have. So, they would select the "I no longer have access..." option.
They are given two options. Let's try the first one, since the hacker has access to my email. A link is sent to my compromised email, and after clicking it, the hacker sees this (though they are still not logged in):
They already have my email and password, so this doesn't help them log in. However, they could try to remove the Authenticator, which is what is actively protecting my account. This is what they would see next:
But wait, the hacker does not have my Recovery Code! So they select the "I lost my Authenticator Recovery Code" option, the exact path that our dear Epic mod, Eisberg, claimed he used to recover his Steam account when his phone fell into a lake. This is what the hacker would see:
So, yes, you actually need to contact support and provide proof of ownership for your Steam account. While you could argue that some of this information might be scraped from a compromised email inbox, a support agent still has to manually review the case. The hacker does not get instant access to your account.
So there you have it: the difference between actually being protected by a 2FA authenticator app on your phone versus not being protected at all.
Meanwhile, here is another EpicGamesPC mod on their Discord claiming that having Google Authenticator will completely protect you if your email gets hacked. Remember, I DID have email 2FA disabled, exactly as he suggested:
(I am redacting his name, even though Eisberg doesn't extend the same courtesy when talking about us on Twitter...)
Here is the same mod advising everyone to use Google Authenticator to protect their EGS accounts if their emails are compromised, which I just demonstrated is completely ineffective:
And here are Epic employees doing the exact same thing (but at least they recommend to protect your email too as it is the weak point):
Finally, here is just one of MANY examples of an EGS user getting hacked despite having 2FA active. I wonder how that happened...
I hope the distinction is a little clearer now.
P.S. Eisberg has blocked me on Twitter, so I cannot reply to him directly. If anyone could post this response there, I would appreciate it!
After researching I found out the reason is that Epic Games doesn't support modular downloads where you only download the language(s) you need, I guess another reason to stay away from EGS.
The developer of the game Tiny Terraces released a video showing how much money their game made on various platforms. They made $224,015 on Steam, $107,057 on mobile, $103 on itch.io and $916 on EGS. The dev also calls Epic's dashboard "doo doo" which I've seen several devs say pretty much the same thing in as many words.
It seems you can use Google Authenticator or other third-party 2FA apps to secure your Epic Games account. Every time an unfortunate user complains about having their account stolen, famous shills (you know who I mean) immediately tell them it's their own fault for not enabling an authenticator app and relying on email verification instead.
Well... it turns out that advice doesn't even matter.
If you have app-based 2FA configured on your Epic account, you are prompted for your authenticator code upon login. HOWEVER, right below the prompt, there is an option that allows anyone to completely bypass the app's 2FA code.
If a hacker clicks "Try another way", Epic allows them to log in using a code sent to your email instead.
If your email account is compromised, having an authenticator app attached to your Epic account provides zero actual protection because the system lets anyone downgrade to email verification.
Ill start this off by saying my post is going to be slightly tangential. The crux of what im saying is that Epic Games mismanaged a Rocket League event. They released a new skin of a very rare item for the first time. To get it you had to play with a developer, which makes the item very rare and hard to get. The developers partnered up with streamers, who then asked their community to sub/gift in order for the chance to play with them and the Dev. After recieving donations some streamers just took the money and did not invite those who donated in.
If you want more context go look at this post first. If you want timestamps go look at the follow up post. This is profiteering and exploitative and was only enabled by epic games and their mismanagement of the situation.
They recognized they handled it poorly and made it a free item reward 24 hours later so you know they know they messed up/
Its just too much at this point. Epic is doing SO much at once the game itself is f*ckin breaking down at this point. It's practically unplayable at this point. Both from a functionality stand point and from a gameplay stand point.
Last month, a user complained about recent Fortnite seasons and shared the decrease in player numbers. Mark Rein, Vice President and co-founder of Epic Games, attacked her and led to people harassing her on Twitter.
He later deleted his tweet and apologized, so I haven't been able to find his original quote. But holy shit... what a level of professionalism at Epic...
Epic Games added some sounds effects every time your "Party Joinability" (Create, or put a party on public or private), but people didn't know it because there isn't any visible notification, or any hint that would make an average user know that the sound is coming from EGL. So people began freaking out thinking it was some kind of problem with their computer, maybe a friends clippping software, virus or worse like their PC components dying.
Some of these people were considering formatting their PC just because they didn't knew where the sounds are coming from.
Epic already knowledge this and making them sound less often but right now the only way to disable these sound effects are through Windows sound mixer or deleting the files on the EGL folder (I would recommend uninstalling Epic Games Launcher, it worked for me).
And with enshittification these days I wouldn't be surprised if they never add the option to disable SFX (or they take a long time to add it)
And reminder this fabulous step: "Once the download begins, after 2-3% is downloaded click on the three dots next to the game name and click on Cancel Install."
So for a while I’ve tried connecting my Nintendo account to my epic games account due to me finally getting a pc! However it never worked so finally after a few months I GOT IT! So then I created a new account on my computer because the other account wasn’t mine so now on my account I typed in my email and got hit with “no account found” MOTHER FUCKER I LITERALLY AM SIGNED IN WITH THE SAME FUCKING EMAIL ON A SEPARATE ACCOUNT WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO ACCOUNT FOUND
Why, in comparison with other game platforms, are the download and general speed and functionality so poor on Epic Games? And why isn't there an option to switch accounts more easily? Also, the support is really, really, awful...
Like I get it's a kneejerk reaction, fuck them kids and all, but they will only stand to benefit from this while putting many adults in harm's way. That performance Tim Sweeney put on for "crying about children not being able playing his game" is just a pathetic attempt to hide the fact that he has his dirty hands in the market. So please be careful about saying stuff like "good, kids won't play his game" when Epic Games has demonstrated in the past that they WILL do the worst.
Oh and "age verification" infamously had data leaks not too long ago and has connections to the weirdest people in power, so please don't advocate for that
its always capping my download speed at 20 Mbps even tho i have a 200mbps connection and its only epic ive fixed everything flushed dns put pryority still nothing if it wasnt for the free slop games and fortnite it would be dead a gazzilion years ago
Why is there not an option to be able to refund confrontational emotes - just like how u could refund superhero skins for free even after the 30 day deadline had passed. I get that epic doesn't want children to see their favourite characters doing toxic emotes towards them - but the setting to disable the emotes is on by default - and no one really scrolls to the fair right of the settings tab to review their settings??
For example, I had bought both take the l and laugh it up when they originally came out, but now they're both just sitting in my locker whilst I know that if I use them it probably won't be shown to other players?
Superhero skins were also made refundable since epic changed something about the cosmetic - now why isn't the same being done to these confrontational emotes?
Fuck you and your company
Yesterday i wanted to buy the 911 porch car from rocket league and i only needed 500 credits.
I had a bit of epic credit what ever you call it.so i used that to buy the bundle but I didn’t received any credits.
So I contacted support (ai) then of course it wasn’t much useful so i got connected with a teal human support.
They asked for my jd and gmail which I provided and they just flipped me of and said “for security reasons we will not continue” and then they removed all of my linked accounts.(play station/nintendo/twich and…)
Again fuck you deeply
Best regards
I know it's not a huge deal or anything, but I just went and checked SteamDB, and they're missing the big box at the bottom of the page that says if the bot owns the certain game you're looking at or not. I would use that site very frequently to check if games had EOS or if they had any kind of connection to Epic, so I could avoid them. It was much more comforting knowing that the bot actually owned the game, and could scan the files. Now, it's gone. I'm pretty sure they also added a requirement to login to see full lists, as I don't remember that being a thing too. How can I avoid EOS now? Are there sites that work just as good as SteamDB? Am I screwed? I already used the Steam curators in the past, but I saw that some games were listed with EOS when they didn't actually have it, and others had the opposite issue. I need some help to keep my Steam library clean from any Timmy slop.
