Good news! There’s a new Earth Defense Force game and it’s out now! Bad news, if you want to play the game online on Steam you’ll have to create an Epic Games account. This fact was revealed on launch day and went over so poorly with players that the devs behind the new giant bug-killin’ game are already announcing plans to remove the requirement after just 24 hours.
Earth Defense Force 6—the highly-anticipated next entry in the third-person sci-fi shooter series all about blasting giant monsters—launched on Steam on July 25. It’s the first main entry in the cult classic franchise since 2019. People were excited to get their hands on the game, which launched in Japan in 2022 but is only now arriving in the US on PS4, PS5, and PC. EDF 6 promises more missions (all of which are playable via online co-op) than any previous entry. But the game quickly received a ton of negative reviews on Steam because of a previously unannounced Epic Games account requirement for online play.
On July 25, the day EDF 6 launched, a post went up on the game’s Steam page quietly confirming that players would need to create and log into an Epic Games account to play the shooter online.
Players weren’t happy about this, criticizing the devs for not making this clear before launch and for forcing them to use a different account outside of Steam to play online. What followed was about 24 hours of players review bombing EDF 6 on Valve’s digital storefront. As reported by GamesRadar, by the end of launch day, EDF 6 had over 1,000 reviews and a “Mostly Negative” status on Steam.
EDF 6 devs announce changes to Epic account requirement
On Friday, just 24 hours after this all started and in response to the overwhelmingly negative reviews, EDF 6′s devs published a new post on Steam confirming that it had heard all the “feedback” and was going to make some changes.
“Thank you for your feedback on Earth Defense Forces 6,” said developer Sandlot. “The EDF 6 development team for Steam is reviewing and planning changes to the specification that requires sign-in to Epic Games account, which has received the most feedback.”
Sandlot didn’t share any specifics on when it will change the Epic Games account requirement but wanted to assure fans that yes, they heard all the yelling and saw all the negative reviews, and are now working on fixing the situation.
This whole fiasco reminds me of the Helldivers 2 PSN requirement meltdown that happened earlier this year. Like with EDF 6, players review bombed the popular sci-fi shooter’s Steam page enough that Sony eventually relented and backpedaled on its PSN requirement.
If I had a nickel for every time a third-person co-op shooter about killing bugs in space had angered its fans by requiring a third-party account to play online on Steam…
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