Imperator Rome is free for the weekend on Steam.
I’ve gotten lazy about posting to this thread, sorry. And I haven’t been posting the epic giveaways, which are actually pretty good, but they come regularly every week and so I suggest everyone simply check epic once a week. There is, however, a free game on epic outside of the normal weekly free games which is Totally Reliable Delivery Service which looks fun.
Well thanks for popping in, that looks like a riot to play with the kids! 
Regions of Ruin is currently free on Steam
Two Sherlock Holmes games are currently free on Epic Games.
In pretty big news, looks like Just Cause 4 is going free in a few days on Epic Games. I’m grabbing that immediately.
Note: One Sherlock Holmes game and one FPS called Close To The Sun.
My bad.
I’m really impressed that epic has managed to keep up this free game stuff as long as they have. It’s kind of ridiculous, they’ve given away like 70 games.
I’m not sure it’s all that effective a marketing strategy. I feel like by now most people would either use epic to buy stuff or they wouldn’t, but I’m not sure that giving away 80 games vs 30 really changed the number of people on the platform who spend money.
(for the record, I want EGS to fail and hate their business practices, so I’m fine with people grabbing their free games, but recommend they don’t actually spend anything on the epic store)
I got that game for my Xbox as a Christmas present. It’s wacky fun, kind of like a Saints Row game without all the constant filthy jokes and visuals. I dig it.
I have an Epic account just for the free games. I’ve not paid them one cent…
Ditto.
The idea is to build up peoples’ library of games, under the pretty reasonable theory that a big library of games is what keeps them on Steam. Logical in a way, not sure how effective it is though.
It’s pretty smart in a way. However, what I would have tried to do is work out a deal with the publishers of games so that if a person already owned a particular game on Steam, they could get it for free on Epic. If Epic paid the publishers a token amount for this, they probably would have gone for it; after all, the people getting these games already own them, so they’d be getting free money from people unlikely to re-buy the same game on another platform. And it would probably do a lot more to get people to feel equally connected to their library on Epic.
That said, so far I’ve gathered a ton of free games that I didn’t already own, and someday I might wind up installing the Epic launcher to actually use one?
I feel a bit guilty about it because two of my favorite games of recent months I got free on Epic: Subnautica and The Witness.
And when I got a friend hooked on subnautica, she then went and bought it and Below Zero full price…on Steam.
I guess I should throw them a bone and buy below zero on Epic, but last I checked their price was higher than Steam’s.
see the point of giving games away free on like epic and steam and even GOG is so you’ll want the premium editions upgrades and add ons…
Its the drug dealer theory of business give away the low-cost weaker product to get you hooked then and say well this is even better and hope you line up to pay for it
this proves the point
the 9.95 they lost on minjin they made double on his friend who got hooked …
If the drug dealer is happy that you’re addicted now, and you’re paying full price to the dealer down the street, the analogy works pretty well. Otherwise, you may wanna reread that post :).
Loss leading is an extraordinarily common business practice and there’s nothing inherently skeevy about it.
Yeah, to clarify, neither I nor my friend have paid a cent to Epic games yet.
In fairness though, it’s not just about me trying to get something for nothing. I’ve been at the point of thinking to buy something before, but then found the price cheaper on other platforms, and/or the platform somewhat fiddly. So the problem is not the free games, it’s the other stuff.
well the actual creator/owner-developer of the game still gets paid no matter who the middle man is
just like a cartel…
Gears 5 free weekend on Steam and purchase is half off.
Assassin’s Creed 2 is free to keep on Uplay.
Just Cause 4 going free soon on Epic.
Not only that it keeps you returning to the Epic store at least once a week.
Maybe you don’t buy anything, maybe you do, but they are getting you habituated to checking it out and seeing what is there.
Personally I don’t get the hate for the Epic games store. I am with them in not wanting yet another games client but where is the hate for GOG and UPlay and Origin and Blizzard? All of which have way less to offer (except GOG which is kind of a special case).
I guess some people just really, really like the bells and whistles a client like Steam gives them but personally I have never seen it. Their games you play during sales and get points are as useful as Reddit points (not at all). Reviews and stuff are nice but I can get that elsewhere. The one BIG selling point for Steam for me is the Steam Workshop for mods which is great but, if I want to mod, I can still do it with a bit more effort.
And Epic brings competition, real competition, to Steam. By giving developer/publishers a bigger cut of the pie the people making the games get more money which is good for gamers.
I even tried buying two games from them (at different times) and returned them with no fuss. One of which was beyond the stated limit to return (more than two hours play time but only barely). No problem.
Look, I would rather buy on Steam because, all else being equal, the bells and whistles are a value add, but Epic is #2 or #3 now. Who wants Origin and Blizzard and Uplay…especially Uplay…bleh.
Bottom line, if a game I want is only on Epic I will go there and get it without any fuss.