Earth Defense Force 6, the latest entry in the long-running franchise that inspired the likes of Helldivers 2, is out on Steam. It’s already facing hardship, however, as players are pummeling it with negative reviews due to its mandatory Epic Games sign-up.
EDF 6 was initially released for PlayStation in 2022 and spent a couple of years there before recently migrating to Steam on July 25. It was immediately met with a sharp negative reaction from players as the game requires everyone to sign in with an Epic Games account to access some online elements. Some Steam reviews claimed the game didn’t mention the Epic Games requirement on its Steam page, leading to their being surprised when the prompt came up. Though the requirement has since been added to the game’s listing page, developer Sandlot has issued a response to the backlash and apologized for not mentioning this sooner.
In the response, the developer explained an Epic Games account is required to “enhance crossplay and online functionality.” Sandlot explained players only need to sign in once and won’t face the prompt again—the developer then shared a link for players to create the account. This, too, received a ton of negative comments from players opposing such practices. It is reminiscent of the Helldivers 2 drama regarding PlayStation Network sign-ups that even got the game removed from over 170 countries due to the PSN not being available within them.
As things stand, Earth Defense Force 6, the first new competitor to Helldivers 2, is currently sitting at “Mostly Negative” reviews on Steam, with 61 percent of players unwilling to recommend the game. An overwhelming majority of the reviews simply cite the Epic Games account requirement as the reason, leading to an unfortunate situation as the game itself isn’t the reason for such a reception.
Review bombing has led to developers U-turning on decisions before, such as Sony’s regarding Helldivers 2, but whether Sandlot will backtrack on this is yet to be seen.
