The Epic Games backlash has become commonplace in recent months, with people going so far to cry “spyware,” and other general grievances. It makes sense to slate a digital storefront for its issues such as a lack of a basket at the checkout. You don’t want to pay for your rope, condoms, and rechargeable batteries separately, that’s stupid. However, some are almost militant in their hatred of the storefront with their weekly giveaways, exclusives, and everything else the industry already does. Tim Sweeney should be shouting “woe is me!” every time he berates someone online.

I’ve made it clear, I don’t care either way if Epic and Valve battle it out, either passively as they have done already, or go into a full-blown metaphorical nuclear war on us. If Epic wants the latter, they need to fix a lot of their storefront, that’s for sure. If Steam wants anything to go in their favor, they need to get in the fight and not act as if they are too big to lose. Another option is that we all take a lesson from the wrestling handbook and ignore the bits we don’t care about and use the launchers we do want.

While I have been fairly adaptive to the Epic Games Store, as I write a weekly article about the free games available through the store, some aren’t as quick. An example would be our own David, who for his reasons isn’t “jumping ship” and has no intentions to either. I can’t blame him; there are many reasons why one shouldn’t. I’ve already spoken about the storefront not having a checkout basket, but you still can’t gift, wishlist, or submit reviews for the products. Now we’re almost a year on from the store’s release, and I can’t blame someone for those issues with it.

With that, there are a few who aren’t so rational with their arguments towards the storefront; some just want Steam as their comfortable space on PC. I’ve already started talking about the vocal group that yells “spyware” in the replies and comments of anything slightly related to Epic. However, according to one at Coffee Stain Studios, developers of Satisfactory, the backlash is but water off a duck’s back. The quote by Nathalie Verwei, UI/UX designed at Coffee Stain Studios, to PCGamesN when speaking about the storefront’s exclusive deals states: “Of course, we had some backlash but I think it’s a loud minority.”

This undoubtedly incensed the minority of those yelling, and it will no doubt be the focus of many people’s articles. I’ve spoken about the issues with this toxic venom that has pierced the community over the last year, especially those horrible things said when (WARNING: linked article references strong language and racially charged comments) Ooblets was announced for the Epic Games Store. It is almost inevitable to see these bitter and angry comments corroding the reputation PC gaming has as the adult’s platform of choice.

However, that’s not all that Nathalie’s comments were about. For the most part, the interview is about how as an indie developer, the support Epic is providing through the exclusive deals can help developers succeed. Creating a game isn’t easy, and funding is one of the hardest parts of that. For the team at Coffee Stain to create Satisfactory, I would assume they needed more than one developer to create this huge 3D Factorio-like game that I’ve still to scratch the surface of. The only other alternative to Epic’s money would be a Kickstarter, which I trust about as much as I do myself around a cake.

I’m not saying Epic are the lesser of two evils, but they aren’t entirely wholesome with their exclusives engulfing half the western world. The reason one could assume such backlash takes place for the exclusives would be our inclination to absorb as much entertainment as possible. Often it’s said that it is millennials who sit looking at Instagram all day; well, part of gaming is to be on the lookout for everything new and play it. Part of what we do here at Phenixx Gaming is review entertainment, some of which we are given to review. We can take for granted our ability to have all those games available.

This may sound condescending, but when we as consumers see that we have to wait a year to play something on Steam, we can get bitter or upset. I can’t blame someone for feeling left out when there is an exclusive sitting on another storefront, but that’s not uncommon for video games. The Burnout series has only come to PC once, and it was Burnout Paradise. To continue my point, we don’t complain when Sony or Nintendo have exclusives; because it’s not right there on the store right now, we want instant gratification. This reason is why I could easily start a lecture about social media being the cause of this scourge in gaming.

To return to the point of the interview Nathalie had with PCGamesN, Epic are doing some good to the overall PC gaming market. Returning to my analogy of wrestling, the best time in North America for wrestling fans was when then WWF (now WWE), the largest promotion, had competition. Now Valve, who has sat on their laurels for quite some time, has an opponent looking for a fight. Epic Games, while not the underdog, are going to force some kind of rebuke from Valve either sooner or later. I would rather developers have this option as it gives us, the players, the best of the games.

With Steam offering very little to developers other than an open platform to defecate on, I can see why some desire other options. Epic might not be doing themselves any favors with a storefront made of sticky bricks and child’s urine. Meanwhile, GOG are a little bit uptight about what’s on their store. Maybe now that Epic has given Valve a reason to bow down to several million fans, they will release Half-Life 3 so I don’t have to hear about the bloody thing every eleven seconds.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.