Earth Defense Force 6 just removed its controversial requirement | Tech Reader

While the response to Earth Defense Force 6, the latest in the gory sci-fi shooter series, has been generally positive, many PC users had complaints, specifically about how they were required to sign in with an Epic Games account to play online co-op.

The developers have good news for those players. On Thursday, developer Sandlot released a small update on Steam that removed that requirement. Now you can play online missions without the account. “This application has been modified so that you can play online missions without signing into your Epic Games Account,” the post reads.

Players who have already connected their Epic and Steam accounts can unlink them on the Epic Games website in a browser by following these steps.

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This is just the latest instance of a video game team removing a second account requirement for a PC game. This practice has fallen out of favor with players and the industry, with players specifically often review-bombing games to protest those decisions. This has come up a lot with recent PlayStation PC releases such as Helldivers 2, where even developers at Arrowhead Game Studios spoke out against the PlayStation Network account requirement. Granted, this became an issue months after the game released, but the outcry was so loud that PlayStation walked back the decision.

However, it still hasn’t responded to similar criticism for its God of War Ragnarok PC port, which also needed a PSN account and caused it to launch to mixed reviews on Steam (although it’s now sitting at “Mostly Positive”). A community member even created a mod that allowed players to get around the account requirement, although it has since been taken it down.

But discussions around account or launcher requirements have moved to the forefront. Ubisoft just announced that it is going back to releasing its games day one on Steam after years of launching them on its own platform. Additionally, The Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be launching natively on Steam. This facilitates the experience of playing on Steam and — sort of more importantly — the Steam Deck.