Epic Store Fiasco

I'm all for competition, but when it exists as nothing but power plays in the upper reaches of the industry I've no use for it. Where are the price cuts and concessions to the buyers? That's ultimately the beginning and end of any interest I have it all the jockeying, and so far all this has been is the PC version of console exclusives. Now, it's not like I have any great love for Steam. I resented it the instant it existed, and played my retail copy of HL2 via some workaround I've long forgotten because I wanted nothing to do with it. I wasn't even willing to install Steam until around 2009, because the crazy sales were in full swing. In the last couple years I've functionally abandoned Steam, putting my session into permanent offline mode and am getting my games off GoG/itch.io.

But even after all that the Epic store is a whole other can of worms, for one simple reason: They've got Tencent's claws in them. Tencent ultimately answers to the Chinese government, and that means nothing they've put hands on can be trusted. No amount of arguments, wheedling, or name-calling will ever convince me otherwise after all the compromised software and digital devices I've seen with Beijing's fingerprints on them. We already know EGS is hijacking and cataloging user/system info far beyond the scope of its own operation, and you don't need much of an imagination to guess one of the places where it's being archived. That software will never, at any point, be permitted on any computer I own.