Sega has now confirmed that Sonic Superstars on Steam requires an Epic Games Store login, as well as, it turns out, Denuvo.
As reported by The Gamer, Sonic fans have been up in arms over the requirements. Our report from yesterday pointed out the Epic Games Store requirement, which wasn’t properly listed on the Steam page at launch.
As it turns out, while you will need to have an Epic Games Store account, you won’t need to actually log on to the Epic Games Store client to play it on Steam. Steam will just open a browser so you can do the logon.
The Epic Games Store account is not really needed to play the whole game. Sonic Superstars’ online Battle Mode happens to use Epic’s servers, so that’s the reason that it comes up. This is nothing new for games on Steam, as many games also bring up logon to third party services for features like online play, matchmaking, and anti-cheat. And most of these logons are not for direct Steam competitors.
A bigger issue that has come up, of course, is the use of Denuvo. As always, this popular (for developers) anti-piracy measure is seen with suspicion by gamers, not only because of anti-DRM sentiment, but because Denuvo hampers performance of many video games.
As a result of all these issues, many fans are pointing out they are asking for refunds for the game, on Steam’s reviews. Some claim they intend to pirate the game, while others will be content with buying it on another platform.
Unfortunately, given the cachet that the Sonic name has, this may have all been deliberate on Sega’s part, as they did not trust their own fans about pirating the game.
At the same time, they didn’t want to be forthcoming about their choices for the game. This doesn’t just apply to Denuvo, but for using Epic’s services even on the Steam version of the game.
To be clear, it is the studios’ prerogative which companies they work with to bring features like online play to their games. They don’t have any actual obligation to only use Steam services on Steam releases, or Epic Games Store services on Epic Games Store releases.
Gamers are generally best advised to stay out of the competition that goes on between game companies, as these companies would be all too eager to weaponize their fandom.
As for Sega, shame on them if they got away with hiding all of these things from Steam users, and getting away with sales for Sonic Superstars on Steam. They were capitalizing on the Steam fandom’s loyalty to both Sonic and Steam, and don’t deserve to be rewarded for it. Even with all this hoopla, we may find out later that they very much got what they wanted.
