Even after being available to the public for nearly three years, some users believe the Epic Games Store has room for improvement, as they regularly suggest ideas for new features. Recently, users have taken to Reddit to express frustrations with a specific aspect of the service.
The Epic Games Store is a storefront owned and operated by Epic Games, in direct competition with other large digital storefronts. Despite the massive competition and Epic Games' financial backing, the Epic Games Store is still lacking many features present on its competitors.
Redditor Digimon1123 expressed frustration with queue order changes on the Epic Games Store subreddit; currently, the only way to change the queue order in the Epic Games Store downloader is to remove and re-add downloads in the correct order. This is in direct contrast to to the competition, as a recently update for Steam included an easy drag-and-drop system that reprioritizes download tasks. This is especially frustrating since the Epic Games Launcher counts uninstalling as a part of the installation queue, meaning an accidental installation of a game before installing another to make space cannot be easily rearranged; Steam, meanwhile, uninstalls games on the spot, though its system for doing so may be somewhat clumsier.
While the Epic Games Store has gained favor through its weekly free game giveaways, the missing features mean many users still prefer Steam as a go-to platform for buying games digitally. Steam is also much better-established than Epic's platform, having existed since 2003 and constantly expanding as a major market force since then. Steam has drawn its share of criticism as well, but compared to Epic, the amount of additional features and quality of life improvements is undeniable, especially with recent updates.
Epic's exclusivity strategy has also drawn criticism from gamers; Epic Games has a tendency to secure time-limited agreements for games to only be available on its storefront. Having to wait a year before buying on another platform can be frustrating for users who prefer to have a unified library of games, but no doubt has swayed some users to Epic's side, however forcefully and frustratingly.
On top of the many reasons why users would prefer Steam as a platform, Epic has recently announced that games that rely on controversial cryptocurrency and NFT technology will be allowed on the platform. Game publishers and developers like SEGA and Square Enix have drawn major fan backlash for engaging with NFTs, and this Epic Games Store decision will undoubtedly draw similar criticism.
