It feels like the world, in general, is in a tease place right now, where anything and everything is ready to blow at any minute. One topic that feels that way with gaming, especially in PC gaming circles, is the polarizing subject of the Epic Games Store. We, as well as many other gaming news sites, have covered the controversies surrounding the store. But things seem to be getting too intense, and the company behind it issued a statement to address the discourse developing around the whole thing.
While almost every title that Epic has secured as an exclusive to their store as part of their ongoing strategy to combat Steam has caused some stir, the recent announcement that Ooblets would be an EGS exclusive seems to have really sparked some real rage. It was perhaps just a tipping point for many frustrated players online, or it could have been a letter developer Glumberland released about the announcement as a preemptive response they anticipated that was maybe a little snarkier than it needed to be (but nothing really aggressive). Whatever it was, it feels like the rage got turned up to 11 with Glumberland saying they’ve received thousands of threats and nasty messages since the announcement.
Epic Games responded to this in a blog post, as well as the controversial nature in general, entitled “Epic’s Statement on Misinformation & Abuse” in which the company denounced the attitudes and intense discourse that has developed around the store and implored people to calm down.
“We at Epic Games have often shared our views about the game business and companies in it, and we support the entire game community’s right to speak freely and critically about these topics, including the topic of Epic, our products, and our store. When everyone shares their earnest views, the best ideas ultimately prevail.
The announcement of Ooblets highlighted a disturbing trend which is growing and undermining healthy public discourse, and that’s the coordinated and deliberate creation and promotion of false information, including fake screenshots, videos, and technical analysis, accompanied by harassment of partners, promotion of hateful themes, and intimidation of those with opposing views.
Epic is working together with many game developers and other partners to build what we believe will be a healthier and more competitive multi-store world for the future. We remain fully committed, and we will steadfastly support our partners throughout these challenges. Many thanks to all of you that continue to promote and advocate for healthy, truthful discussion about the games business and stand up to all manners of abuse.”
Speaking personally, as someone who has probably covered the Epic Games Store saga the most recently on GamingBolt, I think there’s a lot of criticisms that can be levied at the store, from its lack of features to how it’s handled exclusive deals with crowdfunded titles. In general, I feel the media, perhaps even ourselves as well, has done a poor job of covering a lot of these issues from a consumer side, but while I understand that frustration and think there’s legitimate problems that need to be discussed, that level of anger, vitriol and, for lack of a better word, abuse really doesn’t help anything.