Helldivers 2's Japanese competitor became one of the worst games in Steam history due to EGS, but that's a good thing. Earth Defense Force 6 became insanely successful in the West thanks to the scandal

Earth Defense Force 6 had a peculiar launch on Steam, but the game gradually began opening up to a wider audience.

Recently, the Western release of Earth Defense Force 6 took place. The EDF franchise game received overwhelmingly negative reviews from players on PC on Steam and quickly plunged into the “red zone”.

The launch of Earth Defense Force 6 with mostly negative reviews on Steam is not so much due to the quality of the game itself, but rather to the publisher-developer's decision and Epic Games' policy.

The issue is that Earth Defense Force 6 uses Epic services — a company that many Steam users are not very fond of, as memories are still fresh of how aggressively the Epic Games Store, with its lower developer commission, bought up exclusives.

Rather quickly, Earth Defense Force 6's rating dropped so low that the project ended up in the top 100 worst on Valve's platform. However, this PR disaster at launch helped the game gain massive popularity: amidst declining interest in Helldivers 2, players began looking for other co-op titles and, thanks to the scandal surrounding Epic services, learned that a franchise called EDF exists. As a result, the new title attracted twice as many players as the previous numbered entry, EDF 5.

By D3PUBLISHER standards, the new Earth Defense Force 6 is an insane hit. As of July 2024, the publisher's top 3 most popular titles on Steam (by all-time peak concurrent player count) are three games from the EDF franchise:

• Earth Defense Force 6 — 18.6k players.
• Earth Defense Force 5 — 8.4k players.
• Earth Defense Force 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair — 5.9k players.

Earth Defense Force 6 is an Earth defender simulator featuring a diverse arsenal of weapons, vehicles, and all sorts of enemies. The game is sold in Russia, but the “regional price” is 4,500 rubles without discounts.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/QMzK1EIqqik

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Cover art author: SANDLOT, D3PUBLISHER. Image source: steamcommunity.com