Earth Defense Force 6 drops controversial Epic account requirement for players on Steam

Earth Defense Force 6, the B-movie-themed third-person shooter about fending off an alien invasion of Earth, has removed a controversial requirement that forced players to have a linked Epic Games account in order to play online.

The Epic Games account requirement was first confirmed by D3Publisher in July, when EDF6 launched. «To enhance cross play and online functionality, online play requires signing in to your Epic Games account,» the publisher said at the time. «We apologize for the lack of advance notice.»

I have no great interest in complaints about the mere existence of the Epic Games Store or games that opt to use Epic Online Services for multiplayer functionality, but this was more egregious: Even if you owned the game on Steam and had no interest in crossplay with Epic, you had to have a linked Epic account in order to play online at all. No Epic account? Make one or stay alone.

As you might imagine, this did not go over particularly well. The EDF6 user rating on Steam crashed to "mostly negative" immediately after launch, almost entirely because of the Epic account requirement and the fact that D3Publisher didn't say anything about it prior to release. That second point in particular is fair: A little overstated in some cases, perhaps, but as a matter of practicality and principle, if an external account is going to be required to access a significant portion of a videogame, that should be stated up front, the same way system requirements let people know whether or not their rigs will be able to properly play a given game.

Anyway, happy day, because that's all gone now. «This application has been modified so that you can play online missions without signing in to your Epic Games account,» D3Publisher said in a new update. «Signing in to your Epic Games account is no longer required. If you wish to unlink your Steam account from your Epic Games account, please visit Epic Games website in a web browser.»

Do note, however, that if you unlink your Epic