I have never bought a single game on Steam for this exact reason. I will buy from any game store except Steam.
The service on Steam is nothing superior over others. For people that want privacy but can live with DRM, I like Heroic open source launcher for playing games on both Epic and GOG, but Heroic does have issues launching Fortnite.
Fortnite is riddled with overreaching anti-cheat. No shit it wont run on linux.
GOG doesn't sell you anything more than a license, either. The difference is that you can download and keep the game forever.
Except you can actually do that with a lot of games on steam, too. These games don't need steam, which means you could completely uninstall steam, and the game .exe would still work.
Why are you mentioning Linux? I did not. Keeping this all with the context of using Windows, both Epic and GOG stores provide API access which proves they only want to compete but Steam demands tyrannical control and tell gamers want they are allowed to do while Steam maintains the right to erase a user's game library without a refund.
Steam does and has deleted ganes from people's library without giving refunds. People have developed a blind allegience to Steam either through ignorance or lower cognitive function, but Steam is between aburden and a plaque on PC gaming.
Did you read the court documents in the video? The simple fact that Epic allows API proves that they not tracking and datamining people's information.
I have never bought a game on Steam. I will never buy game on Steam. It was a court ruling that made Steam change their user agreement, not Steam trying to be nice.
The simple fact that Epic allows API proves that they not tracking and datamining people's information
That's not how anything works. Even literal spyware would have to make use of some APIs. The acronym literally just refers to a interactive protocol between software applications.
AFAIK, legendary, the python application which Heroic uses to interact with Epic services was created by reverse-engineering the Epic store API used by their launcher, not by implementing some public spec they freely provide. It's essentially a workaround they haven't bothered shutting down. For now Epic hasn't blocked it, but that's not the same as an endorsement.
Legendary may not have implemented the parts of the Epic launcher that collects user data, but that doesn't mean Epic doesn't do that.
I mention Linux, because that is the primary use-case for Heroic. I entirely forgot it works on Windows.
I'm under no illusions about how Steam works, but to claim EPIC of all companies is any better, is beyond rich.
GOG I can agree with, but even they have some games that don't work quite right without galaxy. That may improve, as those APIs are being reverse-engineered, as well.
Steam maintains the right to erase a user's game library without a refund
So does GOG and Epic. The only difference is that there's a third-party downloader for their libraries.
All three storefronts sell at least some games with executables that function entirely on their own, no launcher necessary once the game files are acquired.
All three also sell some games that can be shut down by their respective developers or publishers, or rely on other services that may not stick around.