EDIT 2019.07.17. - This seems to be no longer the case and now you should have full activation/purchase history. I hope this “feature” is here to stay though . Thank you @Strifeborne for the input.
Every time I picked up something there for free I always made sure to check the Payment History of my account on the browser. I’ve never installed the Epic Launcher! So far, there were no issues until today’s RiME free giveaway.
EDIT: It’s confirmed now by @Gnuffi that you still have the games in the launcher library… though that’s not the bigger picture. A friend of mine who has spent plenty on Fortnite assured me that the Payment History keeps track only for the last 3 months, no matter if you got something for free or you actually paid for it.
The only way you are supposed to prove you bought something is from the recipe e-mails you get from buying things (and the paypal ones if you use their service). There is no actual log you are allowed to access to know what you actually own, except if you request Personal info data of your account that apparently can get send into the wrong hands
This means you have ZERO ownership on those freebies if something happens on epic’s end. Further down is the original post of course:
I’ve picked up every game they have given out since the start around December 2018 or whenever it was. This is what I see on the web page now >
It seems everything beyond the last 3 months was removed? I don’t even want to bother installing the client (never even seen how the thing actually looks) to check if I have the games there…
Anyone else with similar “issue”? Have you checked your payment histories at all there? If that’s common practice on their side … it seems it’s get something free for only 3 months - not for forever .
thing is, that wouldn’t really matter, it’s still an owned product, so they can’t just remove the trace of your entry like that
not sure about the technicality legalese like in the US(doubt it’s okay in EU tho)
but at the very least it’s piss poor acc management/service, as every other service has the decency to keep track of your owned stuff from all the way back when making an account years ago…
^in fact i’m so miffed about this i went an made a support ticket because it’s bs (and makes me glad i had the forethought to keep a manual ledger)
I don’t think they are allowed to do it either, but I don’t think that stopped them. Unless there is some hidden way to show more history, it looks like removing history passed a certain date is what they decided to do.
What are the negatives to removing the billing info for free games? Also has anyone purchased anything from Epic Games, and has your billing history been deleted after a period of time?
besides the potential of not being able to keep track (unless you kept a manual doc)/removing of games from your account?
-specially since they don’t provide you with a confirmation email from “purchase” of freebies, meaning you have nothing to fall back on should they either decide to remove games from your acc/game disappear, or just for acc backup in case it got compromised… (remember EA deleted entire acc)
Not saying Epic is total d*ckbats intentionally doing/plotting malicious actions and this is some string in a ploy of theirs. (leaning more towards incompetent)
-But having an order id can come in pretty freakin handy in some situations…
I was talking to someone on discord about this, and they said something about deleting data for free games over time so they can relieve some space. They might not need that information since it was free, also you may be able to contact support to remove a game from your account. Also have you purchased anything over the price of $0.01? Or anyone that reads this, I want to know if there info from maybe last year has been deleted.
It’s plain and simple text… that shouldn’t be much of a data storage issue at all
I’m really curious now if it shows like the last 8 entries for people that spent money there or it’s just for the freebies… Hopefully someone using the store can pitch in on this.
what?? this is absolute bollocks of an excuse, the data takes no space in terms of storage, and in terms of page layout, it’s not fn difficult to make multiple pages/expandable box -everyone else does this
they might not “need” the information, but there is no telling if “you” do. -not talking just talking about if users wish to remove a game, i’m talking about retrieving a game in case it got removed, by them, by bug, or compromised acc (again EA deleting entire acc). a scenario could be simple enough to have a game disappear, a user “claim” they got it during freebie period, but epic refuse to reimburse because no order id to back that up and wont just fork over the cost to them of 20$ game “at this time”.
personally i’ve not made a $ purchase (unlikely to happen) but it doesn’t matter if it’s free, you own the product all the same, and pretty much entitled to having a record of it/tied to account, just the same.
but yea, i’d be mighty curious to see if they actually do treat paid entries like this too, tho regardless it’s pretty insane/inept acc service
This even implies it’s indeed 3 month timely based like I feared. You probably redeemed the 8th game in my list earlier than me… probably tomorrow I will drop to 7 as well.
so if you buy a game from Epic games, you are really paying for a 3 month loan? lol. After that, they can just say, what you want to play? You should buy the game…
now I want to know if the freebies all went away, b/c there’s no other way to confirm of ever having this purchase, b/c they don’t send emails confirming the order.
that’s good, hopefully they don’t disappear. Otherwise Epic is going to be facing a lot more possible legal trouble over this, especially if the whole player base get behind it…
By the way, Chrono wants us to have a private conversation…
I feel like they are supposed to keep it as a company. I mean, Google and Apple keep track. I thought i remember reading something on Apple about them needing to keep track.
. Thank you @Strifeborne for the input.
