Why Do So Many Gamers Dislike the Epic Games Launcher?

I’m with you in loving the free games, but I understand the gripes. Steam’s just a superior all-around platform with tons of features and a solid community. Epic’s launcher feels slapped together and awkward. Also, many folks dislike Tim Sweeney and Epic’s business tactics, like pushing exclusives and trying to take market share out of nowhere rather than building a better experience. So it’s not just the software but the company image that stirs up the hate. But hey, free games are free games — gotta appreciate those! :)

Most of the hate comes from the early days when Epic bought exclusive rights to big games like Borderlands 3, locking them to their store for a while instead of letting people buy them on Steam or other platforms. That rubbed a lot of PC gamers the wrong way because one of the perks of PC gaming is being able to choose your storefront. Plus, the launcher was pretty barebones at launch — missing lots of features people take for granted on Steam, like chats, friend lists, and easy browsing options. It took them years just to add a shopping cart! These things combined made people view Epic as more greedy than user-friendly.

Epic doesn’t need to exist except for greed. They tried to muscle in by paying devs big money to make their games exclusive to Epic’s launcher. It’s not about improving the gaming experience, it’s about controlling where people buy games. The launcher started as a joke — it really looked like something that was barely tested before release. Even years later, it lacks so many features Steam has had forever. People don’t hate it just to hate Epic or Fortnite, it’s because the platform feels like a step backward for PC gamers.

Honestly, the Epic launcher just isn’t as polished or feature-rich as Steam. Steam has had years to build up awesome community features, reviews, forums, and neat stuff like easy friend invites. Epic is pretty barebones and clunky by comparison. Also, the launcher is annoying with popups and notifications, which you can turn off but it frustrates people at first. The constant exclusivity deals put a bad taste in gamers’ mouths since it feels like Epic is forcing their platform rather than competing on quality. At the end of the day, Epic’s free games are great but the launcher itself feels like a space-filler more than a real competitor.

For me, it’s just been a headache. The launcher is slow, buggy, and frequently signs me out. Sometimes my games disappear from my library and I’ve had problems with forced updates eating my internet bandwidth even when I didn’t want them. I don’t hate free games, but I’ve stuck with Steam because the Epic launcher feels like malware at times. I even bought games twice just to avoid using their launcher! Some people get lucky with no issues, but for some of us, it’s just a mess every time we open it.