![]() ![]() However the guy who writes it self describes himself as an amateur, and rightly so lmost everything in his post is him failing to understand how software works." The Facepunch poster writes, "Let's start with this specific Reddit post, it is linked to in just about every thread regarding Epic. In a recent post on the Facepunch forums titled, " Epic Games Store Is Shit – But It's Not Spyware," a user refutes, line-by-line, each point the Reddit thread makes that's used as evidence that the Epic Games Store is spyware. ![]() In the post, the user digs around the Epic Games Store and discovers what they say are troubling instances of the Epic Games Store trying to access information they shouldn't be. Never mind that the author of the post describes themselves as a "rank amateur" when it comes to computer software. As mentioned previously, a regularly cited Reddit post has been used as evidence that the Epic Games Store is spyware. No, the Epic Games Store isn't spyware, at least in the malicious sense. So is the Epic Games Store a Communist Espionage Tactic? ![]() In this regard, the accusations levied against the Epic Games Store are no different than the ones against laptops and smartphones sold by Huawei. It's hardly new in the tech space as Chinese companies like Huawei are regularly cited as selling unsafe hardware which the Chinese government can spy in on. This relationship has been used by various agencies to accuse Chinese enterprises of being tools of the Chinese government for espionage. Tencent, like almost all of China's biggest companies, has a close relationship with the Communist government of China. Nevermind that Tencent also owns sizable chunks of other game companies including Ubisoft, Activision-Blizzard, Riot Games, Paradox, and more, many of which also offer their own video game launchers with exclusives. One of the largest video game companies in the world, Tencent owns 40% of Epic Games-a fact cited by English speaking netizens as reason for concern. It's a lot to unpack, but the origins of the claim go back to the Chinese video game megacorporation Tencent. A sample of tweets accusing the Epic Games Store of being Spyware. Here are a few comments on Twitter to such effect. While Epic says that it can't keep offering exclusives at its current rate forever, that hasn't stopped Epic from picking up other exclusivity deals with Remedy, Obsidian, and even 2K, for the upcoming Borderlands 3.Īnd as the exclusives pile up, the assertion that the Epic Games Store is spyware has only intensified. Epic picked up highly-anticipated games like 4A Games' Metro Exodus and Ubisoft's The Division 2. One of the ways Epic has gotten potential customers to look at the Epic Games Store is through exclusives. Buoyed by the success of Fortnite Battle Royale, Epic was in a strong position to challenge Steam. But instead of asking for 30% like Valve, Epic only asks for 12%. Like Valve, the Epic Games Store also takes a cut from sales made on games sold through its store. It was during this time that Epic Games announced the Epic Games Store, a direct competitor to Steam that planned to not only offer Epic Games titles, but third-party games as well. Companies like Activision, EA, and Bethesda began launching games on their own digital stores to varying degrees of success, all bypassing a need to pay distributors like Valve. Last year, publishers began branching out on their own. That's a hefty sum, but it gives publishers access to the largest digital PC games customer base. Valve's popular digital PC games store in 2011 was reported to control anywhere between 50 to 70% of downloaded PC games, but in 2018, things started to change.īehind the scenes, Valve asked for 30 percent of the revenue on games sold through Steam. The Epic Games Store Appearsīefore the Epic Games Store, the online digital PC games market was dominated by one name: Steam. The Epic Games Store is, safe to say, certainly not a spy agency for the Chinese government, but Epic's relationship with a Chinese corporation has complicated the narrative and reinforced certain stereotypes. EA's Origin service faced similar accusations when it first launched. The accusations though are largely baseless, and criticisms of improper data handling aren't new to the Epic Games Store. There's also a highly-cited Reddit thread titled, "Epic Game Store, Spyware, Tracking, and You!" A quick search online of the terms "Epic Games Store" and "Spyware" pulls up a variety of results, mostly of commenters saying that yes, Epic Games Store is spyware. ![]()
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