Download Epic Games Launcher 14.6.0 (Mac) Free

There’s been a lot of talk about the Epic Games Store over the past few years, and not all of it is good. From the company’s anti-competitive practices and privacy concerns, to the current state of the store and the austere feature set the launcher comes with, there’s certainly a lot to discuss. The latter two are perhaps unsurprising, given the company’s meteoric rise following the astonishingly massive success of Fortnite.

Of course we can’t talk about Epic Games Launcher There is no need to override the stores as they are interdependent. They each have their pros and cons, but in this review, I’ll focus more on the launcher’s features and how it compares to desktop apps offered by other major distribution platforms.

Why some people dislike the Epic Games Store on principle

But not before addressing some of the community’s concerns about the platform. You may disagree that Epic’s financial strategy is anti-competitive, but restricting games to one platform, even those that are crowdfunded and promised to be available to users in other markets, is objectively bad for consumers.

Epic has also faced criticism for its EULA and questionable data collection. The original licensing agreement allowed the company a lot of freedom in managing and selling user-created content, and also claimed that the app collected more information than it should when importing Steam friend lists.

the transmitter itself

First impressions are actually pretty good. The app looks modern, with the same UI design as the web version of the store. It provides direct access to this marketplace, allowing you to browse titles and purchase them without opening a web browser.

The sidebar provides quick access to your library, friends list, and Unreal Engine, and the overall interface layout is very intuitive.

However, the home screen isn’t particularly great. While it includes a quick game launcher and displays your online friends, these features are relegated to the right side of the UI, where most of the space is taken up by featured games and the latest news. This wouldn’t be a problem if you could customize your home screen or choose a different start page, but you can’t.

game related functions

Things could be better when it comes to organizing and keeping track of games. Filtering and sorting options are very limited, and you can’t categorize titles or hide them from your library, nor can you add non-Epic games.

The launcher tracks your playtime but doesn’t support achievements, which is a pretty big downside considering all of its main competitors offer this feature.

Even grabbing screenshots is out of the question. It feels like a lot of the app’s features are still a work in progress, but it’s been long enough since the launcher was released that we really should see more progress.

community function

Unfortunately, things aren’t looking better for Epic. When it comes to interacting with your friends or community, your options are pretty limited. Text chat is basic at best, voice chat is not supported. You can at least add friends from Steam or Facebook, provided they have linked accounts as well.

While an offline mode has been added since release, there is no option to stay online but not visible to your friends, Blizzard also recently added this feature to their launcher following a lot of requests from users.

The launcher you must use, not the one you must use

That’s what it comes down to. The current state of the Kickstarter and the Epic Store is probably the main reason many are unhappy with the company’s exclusive deals. Other distribution platforms offer better store and desktop apps, but we didn’t have the option to use them for some games. Epic may be a better choice for developers because they get a smaller share of the profits, but it’s certainly not a better choice for users.

To be fair, Epic Game Launcher has come a long way in the past year, but it hasn’t grown as quickly as the company’s vast financial resources should have. It’s certainly not terrible, but if it aimed to take down Steam, Origin, or even GOG, it should be much better.