Console gamer here as well, though with a PC and redeeming my weekly Epic Games since a few years back. I sometimes play on my PC, but mostly games I don't have on my console.

Most of what I hear I believe it's mostly due to the Epic Launcher being quite a bit behind standard, and the store not having great costumer service policies. I think Epic's games with timed exclusivity don't garner a lot of respect from the gaming community either, as they rather have freedom of choice to purchase their games on their main storefront.

Now, I think it'll be obvious, but all of what I mentioned is further impacted by the comparison between Epic (or most other launchers, really) and Steam. Steam might as well be called the "default launcher" at this point, and naturally not everyone can compete (or they don't want to) with the numerous and consistently good business decisions Steam tends to have, which keeps it in the top.

Not only that, and even though I still benefit from it, I'd say Epic's strategy of offering weekly free games might feel like a sort of 'obvious bribe' to some, a cheap way to try and vainly make gamers turn on their main competitor. Which isn't really moving the needle that much, because gamers preference for Steam isn't due to free games, but good and consumer-oriented business practices.

I'm sure from gamer to gamer there's more depth to this, but I'd say that's the gist of it.

I don’t really know all the details other than Tim Sweeney seeming like a shit head. I just collect my free games sometimes and have never bought a thing on there, I don’t even think I have payment info on there.

It's a bad experience overall

The UI was super buggy for me

I want all my games on Steam and to not have to install multiple apps

The other platforms on PC, for example Steam, itch, gog, all do better things.

Itch really supports game jams, which in turn supports smaller devs and puts out a lot of unique stuff, much of which is free. They also allow devs to choose what percent itch gets with even zero as an option.

Valve is a massive contributor to open source projects and the game dev community. They have contributed a ton to SDL which is used to make many games and engines, and Proton is rocketing wine development forward. Steam also allows adding non-Steam games and even lets you run them with Proton just as easily as Steam native games.

GoG is DRM free, enough said. That in and of itself is one of the most pro consumer stances.

The only plus for Epic is they give out free games, no other redeeming qualities or features.

Don’t forget the beauty of PC is that it’s an open platform, and Epic does nothing to support that.

Part of the hate is against Sweeny. The rest of the hate is that it isn’t steam.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with epic games store. People think just because everyone on the internet told them not to like it so they have to not like it. It's a store. It sells you games then when you click on the game it opens so you can play. That's it literally that's all it does same as steam same and Xbox. Just like stores in real life I buy things where the price is the best which sometimes means I buy on epic or steam depending on the sales.

I'm just there for the free games