Kotaku: Epic Games Store will block your account from making purchases if you buy too many games too quickly

[PrimeBeef]

Imagine trying to defending a blatant oversight... Defense culture truly is something.
Also given timeframe and already missed deadline for some features seems like shopping cart will probably be here next year at this point. Yikes!

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I doubt it was an oversight. All the shit planned for last month are pretty much industry standards today. The fact that they were not in at launch nor still in today is just incompetence on the part of Tim and Epic. But gamers have to have their games right?

 

[Deleted member 8861]

obviously this is to keep gamers safe from their own impulsive sales decisions. thanks epic for protecting our wallets /s

 

[Kaguya]

Sound fine to me, they should probably turn it off or make it harder to trigger during sales though.

 

[Kayant]

I doubt it was an oversight. All the shit planned for last month are pretty much industry standards today. The fact that they were not in at launch nor still in today is just incompetence on the part of Tim and Epic. But gamers have to have their games right?

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Yh you're right it still amazes me they were able to launch like this.
That and publishers get that sweet free money especially Ubisoft.

 

[Maccix]

Maybe its setup this way cause the lose money on every game during the sale and people don't go overboard. Or stop devs buying their own games. It's a shitty solution for sure

 

[Detail]

Sound fine to me, they should probably turn it off or make it harder to trigger during sales though.

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A completely pointless measure that is a result of a company being too lazy, incompetent or ignorant to implement a basic feature that is commonplace on the majority of modern storefronts is fine to you?

I don't understand comments like this, it comes across as trolling or just defending Epic because of some sort of allegiance, nobody who looks at this objectively would think it's fine.

 

[RoninChaos]

This is just standard credit fraud protection. If you buy repeated purchases from the same vendor especially online in a very short time frame there is a good chance that will trip fraud protection of some sort. This is just silly trying to blame epic for this.

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Oh my fucking god. Are you serious?! This is happening because they don't have a basic shopping cart system for their store. You know, the same shopping cart system that even podunk online stores have. This is absolutely their fault. This is basic level shit that shows they aren't taking their consumers or the products they sell seriously. Don't fucking excuse this. Epic has billions of dollars, they aren't some indie new-comer. Jesus fucking Christ. This is McDonald's opening and not having any fries. It's fucking amateur hour.

 

[Detail]

We have developers in this thread, whos companies are owned by Tencent might I add, handwaving and defending Epic over this and making false comparisons to other stores in order to try and justify EGS not having basic features.

I mean, who cares about consumers right?

 

[Leviathan]

Am I still required to act like EGS is a matter that should be discussed with the usual civility if the mods haven't popped in with those corny EGS Guidelines yet?

Also, when do all these "tiny problems, inevitable with any new store" add up to real issues we can criticize?

 

[Zombegoast]

UE4 Marketplace has a shopping cart. And there's a protection against fraud when they have kids playing Fortnite?

 

[Mars People]

God bless Epic protecting me from buying games off their store.

 

[GhostTrick]

This is just standard credit fraud protection. If you buy repeated purchases from the same vendor especially online in a very short time frame there is a good chance that will trip fraud protection of some sort. This is just silly trying to blame epic for this.

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If only someone invented something that allowed to purchase multiple stuff at the same time, in one purchase.

If only something like that existed. But I'm sure it'd take time and money to build such a forward thinking, never seen before, cutting edge feature.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Reminder, as with all EGS topics:

Given the volatility in recent Epic Game Store related threads we have decided that some clearer guidelines are required to cultivate healthier discussion.

• Do not enter these threads in bad faith. If we conclude that your goal is to misrepresent the concerns of other users or rile people up, you will be moderated. Intent matters here. Honest questions or commentary about the differences and similarities between the Epic Games Store and other storefronts are fine. Deliberately and dismissively attempting to troll concerned members on those topics is not okay. These discussions must be held in good faith and in a civil manner.
• As a reminder, antagonizing or engaging in personal attacks on other members is still against the rules. We have a large community with a wide range of preferences and personal priorities. Not everyone will feel the same way as you do on any given topic. If you feel a post is breaking a rule please report it and do not respond with hostility. If you choose to engage do so politely. We always check to see which users have a history of trouble in this area.
• It is perfectly acceptable to want to wait for a game to be released on the storefront of your preference (ex: "I'll just wait for the Steam release.") It is not acceptable to troll threads because of storefront exclusivity timed or otherwise (ex: "So the real PC release is going to be a year later.") The latter is needlessly inflammatory and distracts from discussion. We will be scrutinizing these posts more closely going forward.
• Do not advocate, defend, or admit to piracy under any circumstances. This is explicitly against our Terms of Service. There are no justifications that will make this acceptable.

Addendum: It's fine and often healthy to be critical of media coverage (ex: "I don't think this article is good and here's why"), but please avoid going down any rabbit holes with excessive vitriol and conspiracy theories (ex: "This outlet is clearly paid off because I don't agree with their coverage"). We've long had a general policy against hyperbolical vilification of the media and that rule has not been suspended.

 

[Kaguya]

A completely pointless measure that is a result of a company being too lazy, incompetent or ignorant to implement a basic feature that is commonplace on the majority of modern storefronts is fine to you?

I don't understand comments like this, it comes across as trolling or just defending Epic because of some sort of allegiance, nobody who looks at this objectively would think it's fine.

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If you think a store, which doesn't have a sophisticated anti-fraud measure, using a standard basic one for the time being is pointless, then I can't help you here.

But you're projecting a bit too much with that allegiance garbage stuff, considering I've yet to even use EGS(or plan to do so any time soon).

 

[RoninChaos]

FWIW Steam and Origin do this too, as will most digital storefronts run by big companies in many scenarios. Others (like Amazon!) have other systems to prevent this (cooldowns, or delays in any transactions beyond X number until they've had the purchase method validated)

Fraud prevention, specifically for compromised accounts & credit card theft (mostly the latter) is a BFD in terms of time, money and customer trust. Most (in my experience, over 99%) legitimate purchase scenarios are going to be at the most three short term short order purchases. In areas of the 1% that it doesn't fall under, it's a high probability of some sort of purchase fraud.

It sucks if this is effecting legit customers, but in my personal opinion this is ultimately great design with bad but not horrific ramifications if it has a false positive. It would be cooler if there was a more elegant implementation (notifying a customer on their last purchase under X time series that hey, after this, no more buys until Y time has elapsed, or something akin to that) but this is Epic doing a "right thing", just not with the best execution.

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I don't know if you heard, but amazon has a shopping cart. The thing that would solve this problem for epic. The thing that is standard with basically any online store.

Epic released a STORE FRONT in early access. There's no excusing this.

 

[Detail]

If you think a store, which doesn't have a sophisticated anti-fraud measure, using a standard basic one for the time being is pointless, then I can't help you here.

But you're projecting a bit too much with that allegiance garbage stuff, considering I've yet to even use EGS(or plan to do so any time soon).

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You said you're "fine with it" why would you be fine with a store launching that doesn't have basic features such as a shopping cart or advanced fraud protection measures?

Especially when said company has daily complaints about poor security measures?

This isn't an indie start-up that's making mistakes along the way, Epic are worth billions there is literally no excuse for how poor this is, these things should have been implemented on day one.

I am not projecting at all, I am simply saying that when people defend these sort of practices without even doing the bare minimum of research into why this sort of thing is unacceptable it comes across as blind allegiance because there really is no other logical reason as to why someone would defend it, if Steam was in this sort of state I would be saying the same thing, or any other store for that matter.

 

[cognizant]

I'm waiting for the day when Epic users learn their passwords are stored in plain text files. Gonna be a fun day.

Edit: just a cynical prediction, not an insider statement! :D

 

[RoninChaos]

Just wanted to add that epic does know what a shopping cart is. The unreal engine market place has one. This isn't a foreign or unknown concept to them.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

"Nintendo doesn't do it either" isn't a great defense, you know that right?

Hell, the Switch eShop launches with a search bar and has a wishlist feature, so congrats to Epic for officially being more behind the times than fucking Nintendo

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Sigh. That's not what I was saying at all.... If you read my next post you'll probably realise I was pointing out that Nintendo doesn't have any such restriction despite not having a cart and selling a ton more software. I was not defending the EGS (or Nintendo for that matter)

 

[rumbling]

So you guys really think that if making 5 "rapid" purchases is enough to be blocked we would not see LOTS of people posting about being blocked. Really? All we know from this is that they have anti-fraud that can trigger.

So far we have seen one (1!) person posting about it and claiming that the only thing that could have triggered it was making rapid purchases. I'm betting on either:

1. This was in effect but was removed very early into the sale. With very few effected.

or

2. Anti fraud triggered from more information. Maybe the account was compromised earlier?

 

[_Aaron_]

Epic Sale. More like EPIC FAIL.

#Steam4lyfe

 

[Sha_96]

This is so sad it's actually hilarious

 

[Captain Wreckus]

Probably said already but what an Epic failure on their part.

 

[Kaguya]

You said you're "fine with it" why would you be fine with a store launching that doesn't have basic features such as a shopping cart or advanced fraud protection measures?

Especially when said company has daily complaints about poor security measures?

This isn't an indie start-up, Epic are worth billions, there is literally no excuse for how poor this is, these things should have been implemented on day one.

I am not projecting at all, I am simply saying that when people defend these sort of practices without even doing the bare minimum of research into why this sort of thing is unacceptable it comes across as blind allegiance because there really is no other logical reason as to why someone would defend it, if Steam was in this sort of state I would be saying the same thing, or any other store for that matter.

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What I said is fine is the anti fraud measure listed in the OP, which is a standard for those without a sophisticated one, nothing else. That it was "on" during a sale is pretty stupid, but what I said is not a meta commentary about the whole state of Epic's store and there's no reason to take it as such! You did so because you're obviously too invested in this, though not everyone need to know the store's whole history before commenting on a specific thing that got its own thread.

 

[Deleted member 7148]

I don't really understand why it's taking so long to get this store in a condition that's acceptable to modern online store standards. The damn store has a roadmap on the level of an early access game. It's bizarre to me.

I'm fine with the Epic Store. I'm all for competition. Yet they at least need to have a fully functional app and store.

 

[Doomshine]

I don't really understand why it's taking so long to get this store in a condition that's acceptable to modern online store standards. The damn store has a roadmap on the level of an early access game. It's bizarre to me.

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Need to strike while the iron Fortnite is hot.

 

[PrimeBeef]

Yh you're right it still amazes me they were able to launch like this.
That and publishers get that sweet free money especially Ubisoft.

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Like many of the examples like a new phone company launching a smartphone without standard features, I bet would be ripped to shreds by many of the EGS defenders in this forum. It's simply inexcusable. But gamers(humans) have proven time in and out that they will gladly lower standards for thier entertainment needs.

 

[PrimeBeef]

I don't really understand why it's taking so long to get this store in a condition that's acceptable to modern online store standards. The damn store has a roadmap on the level of an early access game. It's bizarre to me.

I'm fine with the Epic Store. I'm all for competition. Yet they at least need to have a fully functional app and store.

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Epic does pretty well in the making shit tons of money off a products in EA.

 

[Detail]

What I said is fine is the anti fraud measure listed in the OP, which is a standard for those without a sophisticated one, nothing else. That it was "on" during a sale is pretty stupid, but what I said is not a meta commentary about the whole state of Epic's store and there's no reason to take it as such! You did so because you're obviously too invested in this, though not everyone need to know the store's whole history before commenting on a specific thing that got its own thread.

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But how is their current anti-fraud measure fine? Because it prevents legitimate consumers from purchasing products? The fact that they don't have a more sophisticated anti-fraud measure or that they don't even have a shopping cart would, imo, make anybody looking at this objectively think it is not fine, quite the opposite because it negatively impacts consumers, which we all are, even developers are consumers so it impacts them as well.

That's my entire point, like I said, this is a company worth billions, not some indie start-up, where you could possibly excuse it as teething issues, I am not trying to cause an argument, I just want to try and understand your reasoning behind thinking that this is fine?

It's not really that I am too invested and more that every time an Epic thread pops up there are people defending their terrible anti-consumer decisions but never have any logical or factual reasoning behind doing so.

 

[Detail]

Also, not to try and sound like a conspiracy theorist here but has anybody considered that Epic are probably avoiding putting a shopping cart in because they know people are more likely to make impulse purchases on individual products but when they have a shopping cart and can see all the products stacked up they are more likely to remove some and purchase them at a later date (or not at all) because consumers are more conscious of what they are spending when they see all the products in the cart at once?

I mean I see no other logical reason as to why they wouldn't have a shopping cart, even their UE4 store has one.

 

[AtmaPhoenix]

As much as I appreciate the idea of competition for Steam, it seems like everything Epic has done in regards to the actual store has come out half-baked. I haven't even looked at it myself, but did they seriously make a digital store without a shopping cart? That's like Online Store 101.

I know Steam wasn't perfect in its early stages, but Epic seems to have dropped the ball with store design and are just trying to cover the difference with exclusive games instead of enticing people in with an actual good product. Reminds me a lot of Origin.

 

[Demacabre]

 

[.exe]

Also, not to try and sound like a conspiracy theorist here but has anybody considered that Epic are probably avoiding putting a shopping cart in because they know people are more likely to make impulse purchases on individual products but when they have a shopping cart and can see all the products stacked up they are more likely to remove some and purchase them at a later date (or not at all) because consumers are more conscious of what they are spending when they see all the products in the cart at once?

I mean I see no other logical reason as to why they wouldn't have a shopping cart, even their UE4 store has one.

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Gonna hazard a guess that right now they didn't rush to implement among others because it'd mess the current sale up a bit. If they counted it as 14.99 minimum spend, it'd solve the issue of smaller games not being included, but you'd save less compared to what it is now unless you go out of your way to make separate purchases. If they made the discount only apply on a game by game basis rather than total spend, it'd muddy the otherwise simple sales pitch they have now. It's possible to do both with some clever tags, but the store is such a work in progress on all fronts that I'm not surprised anymore.

 

[CthulhuSars]

Also, not to try and sound like a conspiracy theorist here but has anybody considered that Epic are probably avoiding putting a shopping cart in because they know people are more likely to make impulse purchases on individual products but when they have a shopping cart and can see all the products stacked up they are more likely to remove some and purchase them at a later date (or not at all) because consumers are more conscious of what they are spending when they see all the products in the cart at once?

I mean I see no other logical reason as to why they wouldn't have a shopping cart, even their UE4 store has one.

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I love crazy ideas but honestly Epic is just lazy. Everything they are doing with EGS is half assed so I view it as laziness and nothing more.

 

[Lothars]

This is just standard credit fraud protection. If you buy repeated purchases from the same vendor especially online in a very short time frame there is a good chance that will trip fraud protection of some sort. This is just silly trying to blame epic for this.

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Epic should have a shopping cart than. It's not the users fault that Epic is so inept and are not implementing basic features that should have been in when they launched their store.

 

[mclem]

Here's the new shopping cart they're going to implement next week.

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That directory structure offends me. What the hell are they doing putting Zone 66 in a subdirectory of Wolfenstein?!?

 

[Demacabre]

I truly look forward to some people having the same overly generous patience and positive spin read when any other storefronts have issues.

 

[Detail]

I love crazy ideas but honestly Epic is just lazy. Everything they are doing with EGS is half assed so I view it as laziness and nothing more.

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It is possible that it's sheer laziness (and I honestly wouldn't put it past them because they seem to arrogantly think that all they need to do is buy exclusives and PC gamers will come flocking irrespective of features on their store) but they already have a shopping cart on their UE4 store so it makes no sense to me.

Gonna hazard a guess that right now they didn't rush to implement among others because it'd mess the current sale up a bit. If they counted it as 14.99 minimum spend, it'd solve the issue of smaller games not being included, but you'd save less compared to what it is now unless you go out of your way to make separate purchases. If they made the discount only apply on a game by game basis rather than total spend, it'd muddy the otherwise simple sales pitch they have now. It's possible to do both with some clever tags, but the store is such a work in progress on all fronts that I'm not surprised anymore.

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I see what you're saying. The truth is that this store isn't fit for purpose and what Epic are doing is bad for consumers and also for developers (irrespective of the latter getting a higher cut on games.)

A shopping cart should have been on the store, day one imo.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

That directory structure offends me. What the hell are they doing putting Zone 66 in a subdirectory of Wolfenstein?!?

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good eye. can confirm gross.

 

[CthulhuSars]

It is possible that it's sheer laziness (and I honestly wouldn't put it past them because they seem to arrogantly think that all they need to do is buy exclusives and PC gamers will come flocking irrespective of features on their store) but they already have a shopping cart on their UE4 store so it makes no sense to me.



I see what you're saying. The truth is that this store isn't fit for purpose and what Epic are doing is bad for consumers and also for developers (irrespective of the latter getting a higher cut on games.)

A shopping cart should have been on the store, day one imo.

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Basic functions should have been there day one I completely agree. This is what I cannot figure out about the EGS releasing when it did. They have the money to do it right and there are examples of how not to do it out there. Why did they not wait until it was completely ready with search, shopping cart and basic back end features such as adding and removing games quickly.

 

[ThreepQuest64]

So why is this bad? My credit card company do the same when I buy a) unusual amounts in cash or items or b) from sites known to them related to fraud.

Not being able to buy five games within one minute really IS a first world consumer's problems... but of course people need to turn it to the usual "epic's shit" circlejerk.

 

[Rosebud]

So why is this bad? My credit card company do the same when I buy a) unusual amounts in cash or items or b) from sites known to them related to fraud.

Not being able to buy five games within one minute really IS a first world consumer's problems... but of course people need to turn it to the usual "epic's shit" circlejerk.

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This is bad because they don't have a shopping cart, so your only option is to make many purchases.

People have to right to buy more than 5 games, especially in big sales.

 

[Armaros]

So why is this bad? My credit card company do the same when I buy a) unusual amounts in cash or items or b) from sites known to them related to fraud.

Not being able to buy five games within one minute really IS a first world consumer's problems... but of course people need to turn it to the usual "epic's shit" circlejerk.

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You do know that even the smallest mom and pop online store has a shopping cart so people can buy multiple items at once without trigger fraud alerts?

 

[Anustart]

Could have sworn steam does this too.

Edit: see it's already been brought up.

 

[Detail]

So why is this bad? My credit card company do the same when I buy a) unusual amounts in cash or items or b) from sites known to them related to fraud.

Not being able to buy five games within one minute really IS a first world consumer's problems... but of course people need to turn it to the usual "epic's shit" circlejerk.

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Since when did wanting basic features like a shopping cart from a billion $ company become a "circlejerk" against Epic?

I don't understand why people are defending their anti-consumer practices and then blaming consumers for being upset with them?

These kind of posts in every single Epic thread that ignore every single logical argument people make and handwave them away as people just being hateful towards Epic just make me scratch my head.

Basic functions should have been there day one I completely agree. This is what I cannot figure out about the EGS releasing when it did. They have the money to do it right and there are examples of how not to do it out there. Why did they not wait until it was completely ready with search, shopping cart and basic back end features such as adding and removing games quickly.

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Yup, agreed.

 

[ThreepQuest64]

You do know that even the smallest mom and pop online store has a shopping cart so people can buy multiple items at once without trigger fraud alerts?

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So? Just because other shops use it, it doesn't make any kind of fraud protection "shit". I mean, it's video games, not some hardware online shop where I shop for many tools I need for my latest fence repairs or other home improvements.

I simply think it's okay to buy video games with, God forbid, a few minutes in between.

Since when did wanting basic features like a shopping cart from a billion $ company become a "circlejerk" against Epic?

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Because that's what people like do. Having no shopping cart is now anti consumer? Come the fuck on. This word is thrown around inflationary it almost lost its meaning. And this is just what bugs me, not defending their privacy violation and moneyhatting thing.

 

[Thekeats]

Could have sworn steam does this too.

Edit: see it's already been brought up.

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They probably do. But they also have a cart so you don't need to make rapid purchases of multiple items.

Edit: missed the edit

 

[Punchline]

legitimately still baffled by the lack of a shopping cart by epic. how is it still not a thing? what the hell is so complicated about such a basic feature? can anyone clue me in? they've gone well past the milestone in which they said it would be added and it's STILL not there?

 

[Lothars]

So? Just because other shops use it, it doesn't make any kind of fraud protection "shit". I mean, it's video games, not some hardware online shop where I shop for many tools I need for my latest fence repairs or other home improvements.

I simply think it's okay to buy video games with, God forbid, a few minutes in between.

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Handwaving issues with epic like that it's no big deal when epic should have had a shopping cart. This is insane that you are blindly defending them for something that is basic implementation.

 

[EloKa]

I simply think it's okay to buy video games with, God forbid, a few minutes in between.

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Really? Could have sworn that you instead called critics on EGS as circlejerk just 2 minutes ago. Oh, right:

Not being able to buy five games within one minute really IS a first world consumer's problems... but of course people need to turn it to the usual "epic's shit" circlejerk.

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