Question Epic Games Launcher Question

[Atterus]

Hello all!

First I want to preface that I'm ultimately not a fan of Epic business practices (or Tencent for that matter) and that I am mostly interested in learning exactly what the truth behind a lot of the BS is.

So, I'm liking how Borderlands 3 is shaping up. I have friends that are going to be getting it I have played various looter shooters with for years. I have thus far been stubborn about using Epic largely because I had envisioned it was impossible to purchase anywhere but the Epic Store. Apparently this is not the case. Like I said, I'm not a fan of the business practice, but that only means I don't want them taking my money as far as I'm concerned. If I can acquire the game somewhere else and just run off their launcher (or link the exe through Steam anyways), that would be fine with me.

However, I'm concerned about the whole alleged spyware/file accessing business going on. I haven't followed it too closely, and I know there is a bunch of BS, marketing, and strangeness around that (I'm aware the major "scandal" was BS, but some of the stuff was legitimately odd). I have sensitive stuff on my computer that I consider pretty "safe" but if I install something that is a security risk my stuff won't do much good.

So my question is whether just having the Epic installer would be a security problem. My philosophy is that Epic/Tencent are getting diddly if I'm buying from someone else and just using their launcher to activate the game. I'm certain some people around here know more about this stuff than I do so I figured I would ask.

Please be courteous, I know some people get raw over this topic. There is just so much junk out there I'd prefer to hear from people that have already taken the time to wade through the garbage. Thanks!

 

[jimmysmitty]

From what I have read Epic has a lot more security issues all together than Steam or other launchers.

The spyware issue came from the launcher pulling data from a file in Steam, encrypting it and shipping it off to their servers. While the CEO came out stating they would fix it and it shouldn't have I have a feeling its a "they got caught" situation. If no one noticed they would have kept going. I mainly think that they were/are data mining to get information on what people mostly play to try and corner people into their launcher.

From my understanding even if you buy the game outside of Epic, they still get their 12%. This is not like Steam that allows key generation and they do not get any share for those keys sold outside of Steam. So you pretty much will fund Epic unless you buy it on the console or wait till the Steam release of the game 6 months later (if that even happens considering Gearboxs CEO seems to be a bit of a jerk about it all)

My issue is the way they are doing it. I could care less about Epic anymore as their last good game was Unreal Tournament 2004. Fortnite is just a PUBG rip that is free so it easily pulls people in, yet I bet they have spent more in cosmetic items than paying for a full game by now easily, especially newbies. However they are not only paying publishers for the timed exclusives, they are putting a Revenue Guarantee in place to ensure the devs and publishers meet sales numbers. In essence they are taking the power out of the consumers hands.

I personally hope it bites Gearbox/2K in the arse. I love the Borderlands series but will not buy it on Epic. With how their CEO is handling the fan grievances I might not even buy BL3 at all. Not sure I want to support a CEO who is that aggressive instead of understanding.

 

[Gam3r01]

Borderlands is one of my favorite game series out there, but Ill be waiting for the steam release.

 

[Atterus]

Sounds like it's a generally poor situation then... Well, I'll probably look into that 12% and see if it is possible to basically isolate the Epic launcher from anything beyond just launching a game. It's always hard when friends are bent on going forward regardless, but I agree that I'd prefer they just wait (I've tried explaining, but if I like borderlands, they love it).

 

[jimmysmitty]

Best of luck on the research but I have not found anything stating that there is a way around Epic getting their cut even if you buy it from another source. Unless you buy it on a console or wait for Steam Epic will get theirs and I can't say if they still pull Steam (or other) data as I haven't kept up on it but the way the company is doing things makes me not trust them at all.