Japanese developer Sandlot’s newly released Earth Defense Force 6 has been taken a pummeling on Steam due it requiring the Epic Games launcher to play online.

While the latest in their pulp action sci-fi shooting franchise can be played solo – playing online currently requires the Epic Games launcher, which it did not reveal initially when the game launched.

Requiring the Epic Games launcher got heavy criticism from players to due the stigma that it acts as spyware and has numerous bugs. The Epic Game launcher is being used for the first time for the series, as it previously used the PlayStation Network for previous installments.

At the time of writing, Earth Defense Force 6 has “Mostly Negative” reviews on Steam.

This comes after the blowback to Helldivers II after it added requiring a PlayStation Network account, despite many using Steam to play it. Due to a review-bombing by players and outcry, the change was rescinded.

Sandlot and Epic had yet to comment on the situation.

Earth Defense Force 6 was just released on July 25th for Windows PC (via Steam), and both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.