Axiom Verge crashed on the Epic Store because it was missing a file named Steam.xnb
Axiom Verge, Thomas Happ's love letter to classic Metroid, has run into a bit of an amusing snafu.
Axiom Verge became free on the Epic Games Store this week, which naturally resulted in a lot of downloads. Shortly afterwards, it quickly became clear the EGS version is not stable.
After a few crashes, players realised that this always happens at a specific level, but no one imagined the cause would have anything to do with Steam. According to the game's error log (via ResetEra), the crash is due to a missing file named Steam.xnb.
This particular file doesn't actually have anything to do with Valve's storefront, it's instead a sound effect designed to play whenever steam pipes are in the level. According to creator Thomas Happ, while prepping the Epic Store version, he accidentally removed any files with Steam in the name, so as not to bring Valve's API into the non-Steam version.
"I was thinking it being Epic and all, I shouldn't include valve's dlls and such, so I excluded all files with 'Steam' in the name... oops," he wrote on Twitter.
This has since been fixed, and you just need to verify your game files to grab the update. Still, it's very amusing given the current "war" of PC platforms.