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Epic Games accused of removing copies of Detroit: Become Human from user accounts

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Epic Games is in hot water yet again. Earlier this month, the company was accused of data mining user info from the Steam games store and now fans are accusing Epic Games of illegally removing purchases of the PC version of Detroit: Become Human from their accounts.

The controversy started earlier today when a bug caused the newly announced PC version of Detroit: Become Human to go free on the Epic Games Store in Russia.

A screenshot showing Detroit: Become Human being offered for free in the Epic Games Store.
Source: EpicGamesStore.com – Detroit: Become Human

When Epic Games realized the bug, it started to remove free copies of the game from user accounts. People were understandably not very happy about this and started to complain to Sergey Galyonkin, the Director of Publishing Strategy at Epic Games.

A Twitter user complaining to Sergey Galyonkin about Epic Games taking the free version of Detroit: Become Human from their account.
Source: Twitter.com – @gajiew

The reason they were complaining to Galyonkin specifically is because in a December edition of his podcast, he made the following statement about bugged purchases in the Epic Games Store (translated from Russian):

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believe Epic Games should allow users to keep their free copies of Detroit: Become Human.

A Twitter user highlighting how Sergey Galyonkin said he would not take back games that were received as a result of a bug yet this is what Epic Games are doing with Detroit become human.
Source: Twitter.com – @Mordred43239627

Galyonkin addressed these complaints by saying his statement on the podcast didn’t relate to free copies of games and that free games don’t qualify as purchases.

A Twitter user asking Sergey Galyonkin about the situation with Detroit: Become Human and highlighting Galyonkin’s statements from his podcast.
Source: Twitter.com – @sowahwoo
Sergey Galyonkin saying his podcast statements were related to buying the game.
Source: Twitter.com – @galyonkin
A Twitter user replying Sergey Galyonkin saying that they did purchase the game with a 100% discount.
Twitter.com – @sowahwoo
Sergey Galyonkin saying free is not a purchase.
Source: Twitter.com – @galyonkin

However, some Twitter users who claim to be lawyers are saying that this is still a legitimate purchase for 0 RUB and are threatening to sue Epic Games.

A Twitter user threatening to sue Epic Games.
Source: Twitter.com – @v00d00m4n

After people started to threaten Epic Games with legal action, these users then reported that their Epic Games purchase history page had become unavailable.

A Twitter user saying their Epic Games purchase history page has become unavailable and that Sergey Galyonkin has blocked them on Twitter.
Source: Twitter.com – @v00d00m4n

This led these users to speculate that it’s an attempt by Epic Games to remove evidence of what they see as a scam.

Overall, this incident is not a good look for Epic Games and is likely to further erode the wavering trust it has with its users.

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