Epic Games, Inc.

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Epic Games is a software development and media-publishing company founded in 1991 by Tim Sweeney.

Epic Games, Inc.

Basic information
Founded	1991
Type	Private
Industry	Video Games
Official website	https://epicgames.com/

Consumer impact summary

Overview of concerns that arise from the company's conduct regarding (if applicable):

• User Freedom
• User Privacy
• Business Model
• Market Control

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Bad Practices

Forced Arbitration

Since before March 18, 2022 Epic Games updated their policy for using their Epic Games Store to include include forced arbitration in their Terms of Service in order to continue using their platform. In case you do not agree to it you are effectively locked from all your previously purchased games and software.

Incidents

Unreal and Unreal Tournament

In 2022, owners of various entries within the Unreal and Unreal Tournament series had their licenses effectively expired, and were thus unable to launch or install these games. (Editor's note: add a screenshot of UT being grayed out in the launcher!)

A few years later, some entries in the series would make its way to the Internet Archive for users to freely install, but not all delisted games have been re-published onto the platform.

Removal of Linux and MacOS versions of Rocket League

In 2020, Epic and its subsidiary Psyonix announced that whilst Rocket League gamers had purchased the game with full support for Linux and MacOS, this support was being withdrawn and the game would be offline only for these Operating Systems, and gamers were directed to play the game on Windows instead. Many speculated that the change was in relation to Psyonix's acquisition by Epic Games several months earlier. At the time of acquisition Epic stated that gamers "will still be able to play Rocket League on Steam with all of the content they've previously purchased."

Account requirement for Rocket League

Main article: Epic Games forced third party account creation in Rocket League

With the v2.48 patch on January 29th 2025, Steam users wanting to play Rocket League were suddenly met with an error upon startup of the game, with the user being required to create an account with Epic Games before being able to access the game they bought and paid for. This change was not mentioned in the patch notes, and was done well after the game was moved from Steam to EGS in 2020.

Violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and usage of dark patterns

In December 2022 the FTC announced that it secured agreements that require Epic Games, Inc. to pay a total of $520 million for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and using dark patterns to trick players into making purchases.