It's been 4 months since Epic launched their storefront, and in that time it's been nothing if not polarizing. However, for all the articles and posts deriding or defending, there has been one major problem that has gone completely unseen. We need to talk about that problem.
Epic has a pretty serious DLC problem. As it stands there isn't a single game that has full DLC parity between Epic and Steam versions. Certainly Epic has been selling DLC, you can get the "Gold" editions for Metro Exodus and Borderlands 3 which promise you the DLC, but as it stands now, for games where DLC has actually released, their "support" is cutting it.
There are two especially egregious examples. The first is Telltale's The Walking Dead. The game is now exclusive to Epic's Store, but it is missing the "400 Days" DLC. Even Steam users can no longer buy it due to the deal with Epic. Epic's failure to provide proper DLC support has essentially erased that chapter from the story.
The second is Epic's own game, Shadow Complex Remastered. Despite being an Epic game, SCR is missing it's "Superfan DLC," which is the only way to buy the games soundtrack digitally. Thankfully it's still available on Steam, but it's a pretty damning indictment of the system if even the people who made it can't use it.
However those aren't the only ones. Super Meat Boy is missing it's Race Mode DLC. Slime Rancer is missing it's free VR Playground DLC. Vampyr is missing the Hunter's Heirlooms DLC. Thimbleweed Park is missing it's Ransome Unbleeped DLC. Half a dozen other games are missing soundtracks.
There are only two games that have DLC you can actually buy and download right now: Darksiders 3 and The Division 2. Darksiders 3 has The Crucible, but is missing the Digital Deluxe cosmetics DLC. The Division 2 has it's Year One pass with some cosmetics already availablem. Division 2 is the only game will full content parity between storefronts, and so far as I can tell that's because they're letting Uplay handle the DLC.
(As a side note, Spellbreak has it's various versions labeled "DLC" for whatever, reason, but they all come with the game itself and there is no means to upgrade between the different versions.)
There is only one reasonable explanation for why so many games are missing content, which is that Epic simply does not have a system in place for handling DLC. Anything added likely has to be done manually, by Epic themselves. The fact that Darksiders 3 and Division 2 put their DLC on opposite ends of their page indicates that it's added manually, as needed, and without any sort of plan for standardization. The fact that Epic can't even provide parity with their own game indicates that adding DLC manually is not a trivial process.
The takeaway from this is clear; Epic does not care if the version you get from their store is the worst version of the game. Even with their own game they are not concerned with the idea that if you want more you'll have to rebuy the game on another platform.
This is a feature people have taken for granted to the point that no one seems to have noticed Epic went through a full quarter of a year without it. It's just assumed it was there, because launching a storefront where you can only sell inferior versions of games would be ridiculous. Yet here we are.
This is too big of a problem to ignore when we've got articles telling us that "Epic is what PC Gamers Need" or that it's not bad just because it isn't Steam. The issue is not that it's lacking the specialized features of Steam. The issue is it's lacking features, both major and minor, that literally everyone else supports. It's easy to say "if the game is the same then why does it matter what store you get it from?" but the truth is the games aren't the same. Epic is selling cut-down versions missing any possibility for expansion.
Written by: SwineHerald
Source: http://bit.ly/2uSp6H2
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