
Rocket League now requires an Epic account to play, even through Steam - donpott
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/iu1a6w/rocket_league_now_requires_an_epic_account_to/
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dleslie
The rolling upgrade cycle for software and games is running afoul of our
assumptions about what you get when you pay for a product.

With RL, customers have lost Linux support and are now losing the ability to
opt-out of the EGS.

But it's not the only example; Valve's own TF2 increased its minimum system
requirements over its lifespan. They may not have stated as much, but the
rolling updates eventually made the game unplayable on machines that could
play it decently.

Hell, Oculus is going to require a Facebook account.

And so on, there's plenty of examples of game developers breaking a product
their users paid for, and with no recourse for them.

~~~
alexgmcm
Yep, Fall Guys just broke Proton (i.e. Linux) and Ultrawide Monitor support
with the addition of Easy Anti-Cheat in the latest patch.

I feel consumers need better protections against this stuff.

~~~
matheusmoreira
We need to get rid of invasive technology like anti-cheating software. Many of
these things are actually implemented as _kernel drivers_ that are designed to
take over the machine and monitor everything users do. That's the only way
they can even hope to prevent cheating and it's not even guaranteed.

Lots of games will start working again on Linux if we get rid of this stuff.
Online gaming with random people is just like networking with random people:
you never know who is going to be a malicious actor. People should play only
with those they personally know and trust.

~~~
dleslie
SaaS games are the only proven viable alternative to anti-cheating software;
if the host is the sole authority then there's less concern for peers to
cheat. Wallhacks and input hacks notwithstanding.

~~~
matheusmoreira
Cheaters can still automate inputs, decision making and what not. Honestly,
given how games these days are straight up _designed_ to be addictive, I'd
even say they _should_ be automated in order to cure people of their addiction
to stuff like daily rewards.

There's just no way it's going to work unless there's trust between the people
playing. Can't trust randoms.

~~~
lacker
But anti-cheat software _does_ work pretty well. It certainly reduces the
amount of cheaters. It’s an arms race against the cheaters, rather than a
perfect mechanism to stop all cheating, but it helps a lot.

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babuskov
And it's even required for offline, split-screen, local multiplayer! You can't
even get into the main menu.

~~~
termain
They broke split screen on the switch.

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devwastaken
Standard buyout practices. Epic wants the whole pie and is willing to be a
toxic market player to get there. Valve was too good for the gaming market,
consumers are bad at recognizing a snake pit, they just see the magical free
games and exclusive cuts in price, not remembering that those costs will be
made back by the company later.

~~~
rthomas6
I don't understand why valve/steam gets a free pass from everyone. What does
Epic do that Steam doesn't? Honest question.

~~~
dleslie
AFAIK, Steam has never insisted on exclusivity from those selling on its
store; yes, Valve's own games aren't sold elsewhere but that's not quite the
same as demanding exclusivity from others.

And Epic explicitly refuses to add forums and reviews, which many of us find
to be invaluable sources of information.

And Epic has/had atrocious account security; for instance, not verifying email
addresses on new accounts.

Those are my personal gripes; you'll find longer lists elsewhere.

~~~
rthomas6
Makes sense. Thanks for the answer.

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unionpivo
Still bitter about them dropping Linux support.

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kevingadd
At least it works well in Proton (AFAIK the Proton version has been better
than the original Linux port for ages). Still frustrating

~~~
kgwxd
Anyone thinking of getting it for Linux should buy it via Steam now because it
will only be available for PC through Epic Game Store when it goes FTP next
Wednesday. I got my kid his own copy last week because he was loving playing
bots and doing training mode on my account. He's only 4 and there seems to be
enough players at his level to keep queue times short.

I really think it is the best competitive game (video or otherwise) ever made.

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treis
This is misleading. With one button you can create an account w/ no name,
email, password, or any other information. So technically I guess I have an
Epic account, but I have no way of accessing it outside of RL. And Epic has
nothing except a random ID that they generated for me.

~~~
drcongo
That's a very optimistic reading of it.

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treis
I went through the process last night. It was exactly as I described. IIRC
they had an option to create/link an Epic account or create the shell one. I
chose the shell and then it asked me if I wanted to link Steam friends. I said
no and that was the end of it. Took 10 seconds.

~~~
rStar
so you’re arguing it isn’t as you’re telling us it is?

~~~
0x6c6f6c
Not OP.

But the flow was confusing because it asked if I wanted to link an account, I
clicked "Not now", and then it automatically created an account for me with no
input from me and then I could play.

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cwhiz
I just want to be able to buy skins for me cars outside of the Rocket League
store. I don’t appreciate the Rocket League monopoly on rocket league skins.

~~~
gruez
What would this look like? Clearly the entire purpose of being able to buy
skins is to provide revenue to the developers/publishers. This is even more
apparent now that the game has gone f2p. Therefore, it's not really reasonable
to expect that any third party would be able to make and sell skins (like how
any third party can make and sell software for windows, for instance). The
only alternative would be something like a cd key store model, where you can
buy from multiple storefronts. However, I'm not sure how that would benefit
the consumer, other than possibly allowing them to use exotic payment methods.

~~~
cwhiz
Epic could allow other studios to create stores within Rocket League so that I
could buy from those other studios instead of Epic. I just don’t want to be
restricted to what Epic has to offer.

I’m actually just taking the piss out of Epic legal arguments that Apple has a
monopoly within their own platform.

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easton
Bungie did a similar thing with Destiny 2, as you now need to login with
Steam, not Battle.net. It happens that more people have Steam accounts so it
didn’t upset too many people, but how is this different? It seems like people
are just finding reasons to get mad at Psyonix instead of pushing hard on the
big issues, like dropping Linux support.

~~~
SketchySeaBeast
The difference, to me at least, is that you can't find Destiny 2 on Battle.net
anymore - they entirely switched platforms. This is an end run around sneaky
where they require you to have your steam account AND an epic account, so you
can't play a steam game without an epic account - with Destiny 2 whatever
platform you were on you needed a matching account.

Now why is this egregious while Ubisofts uplay launcher isn't? I'm not sure. I
assume it's just because uplay has always been there and awful, and this is
new.

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esyir
Part of the issue is that rocket league was cross platform if I recall
correctly. Then epic comes in, buys it out and screws the potatoes who bought
it on the competitor platform.

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skocznymroczny
Most AAA games require playing through Steam for single or multiplayer, even
if bought in a different store.

~~~
zamadatix
The thing of note isn't that the game is integrated to one sign in service
it's that 5 years after purchase it now requires a different one.

~~~
colejohnson66
^ This. I’ve bought a few games outside of Steam than turned out to just be a
Steam redemption code. That’s not a problem.

Take Minecraft for example.[a] One used to be able to buy and play Minecraft
without an account. Then Microsoft bought it and the game now requires an XBox
Live account![b] _Why?_ Sure, it wasn’t a big deal as I already had a MS
account for Windows, but why must I use it?

EDIT: I just checked, and they’ve also added this “feature” to the iOS version
as well. Which means a game I spent _actual money_ on now requires me to use
an account. As in, people who previously _didn’t_ have to agree to MS’ TOS
_now do._ And it’s too late to “refund” the game.

[a]: My memory may not be the full picture as I play it on and off. I
previously played on iOS, but now on the Switch.

[b]: Even _local_ play on the Switch requires a Microsoft account!

~~~
formerly_proven
> Take Minecraft for example.[a] One used to be able to buy and play Minecraft
> without an account. Then Microsoft bought it and the game now requires an
> XBox Live account![b] Why? Sure, it wasn’t a big deal as I already had a MS
> account for Windows, but why must I use it?

Somewhere between me having more or less accidentally created about a dozen
(different) Microsoft accounts for all their previous and weird Many-SSO
things, the Mojang acquisition and Mojang-internal account migrations it seems
like my original 2009 account was just lost... :|

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indentit
I hope someone will make a similarly fun open source reincarnation of Rocket
League one day...

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ILikeOwls
I'm very bummed about this. I'm on Linux and didn't go for a refund when they
dropped native support because I was playing the game through Proton anyways
but this one really hurts. Epic employs scummy practices all around and I
dislike them with a passion. With over 1.2k hours clocked in this game it
might have very well come to an end for me.

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dontcarethrow2
Huh, great timing, it looks like I did my last 2hrs ingame last week. I hadn't
played since the announcement, I thought I might give it some more playtime
since its the funnest game of the decade - but dang these principles I have.
Oh well I lose. GG. Well played. What a save!

~~~
farias0
For a long time I've been like you, but at this point I can't really justify
not playing something I love because of stuff like this. I had to create a
Steam account to play Counter Strike, a Blizzard account to play Overwatch and
now an Epic account to play Rocket League. Is this such a bad thing?

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s9w
It was inevitable after they were bought. Funny how they lied about this up to
the last moment still. It's also blatantly illegal. Well the game is readily
available at the common piracy sites though.

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kevingadd
I'm not clear on how this is illegal. Is it something about the EULA? Most of
the big publishers force you to use their launcher on Steam.

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s_dev
I doubt it's criminal but probably against Steam's terms of service. Who
probably require not having a third party account as a condition to play a
game bought on Steam.

~~~
majewsky
If that's against Steam ToS, Epic wouldn't be the first on Steam to break it.
I had to create a account with Paradox Interactive to play some of their games
in multiplayer.

