First sale at Epic Games store botched, users locked for buying games

Epic Games is not making it easy for new users of its storefront to give the company money.

The company’s Epic Games Store ran one of its first “mega sale” events, giving gamers the opportunity to stock up on games at a steep discount. The problem? If players bought too many games at once, they immediately had their accounts frozen.

The issue was discussed by a number of users on social media, who reported the issue after buying several games. The issue stemmed from a security problem with the Epic Games Store that was easily remedied, but still proved problematic for customers.

“This was a result of our aggressive fraud rules,” Nick Chester of Epic Games said in a statement to Game Revolution. “If players run into this issue, they should contact player support so we can investigate.”

The Epic Games Store has begun making serious strides in terms of attracting developers to the platform, but is still in the early stages of luring in users. Massive sales have been a key part of Valve’s ability to attract and retain gamers on Steam, and Epic was hoping to do the same here.

The trouble is that the Epic Games Store is still obviously a work in progress. Basic features are missing from the service, most notably a shopping cart. This has forced players to buy games on sale one by one, exacerbating the existing security issues.

Though this news isn’t good for anyone, Epic Games’ naysayers have been reveling in the mess.

Since the initial rollout of the Epic Games Store, the company has frustrated gamers with its aggressive approach to attracting developers. While most are incentivized to sell games through Epic with a superior revenue split compared to Steam, Epic has also made moves to secure exclusive digital distribution rights on PC to a number of prominent titles, including The Walking Dead: The Final Season and Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, as well as notable upcoming games such as Borderlands 3 and Super Meat Boy Forever.

With time, the issues with the Epic Games Store will likely be ironed out. But right now this is an inauspicious milestone for the new endeavor.