It's not every day that you can get a free AAA game like GTA 5, but thanks to periodic giveaways, gamers' libraries are bursting with great titles. But we must ask, how this is a valid business strategy?
Should You Be Wary of All the Free Games?
- Thread starter SamiHA
- Start date
I've claimed every free game on Epic for over a year, haven't played a single one yet. And I'd still rather pay for it on steam when I actually do want to play it...
GOG's Galaxy 2 has done a decent job of bringing them together but it's far from perfect, yet.
GOG's Galaxy 2 has done a decent job of bringing them together but it's far from perfect, yet.
Same exact sentiment. Steam Workshop mods built into the software itself and allowing easy modding access to games is something that crushes any feature Epic offers. I always accept the freebie from Epic, but then keep an eye out for a good deal on the Steam version as well if it's a game that has a good modding community.
Epic cannot make headway against that until it does something similar of it's own, and even then will be plagued by Workshop's early problems until Epic works it all out by trial and error... like Valve did. Now, I always check Workshop before hunting for mods externally. Saves time and effort, and oftentimes results in excellent finds.
Some of the best mods I've found have come from Steam Workshop.
m3tavision
Posts: 1,438 +1,222
In 30 years of gaming, I have NEVER installed a free game. Even when they use to come on CD/DVD in mags.
FREE games have no appeal and usually mean you'll be playing with degenerates anyway...
FREE games have no appeal and usually mean you'll be playing with degenerates anyway...
I have redeemed and enjoyed several of the free games offered through Epic Games. I remember not being able to afford games and I think how great I would have found the EGS when I was 16. Truly, if you don't want to play them don't download them, just remember for some people its an incredible value and may be one of the few ways they get access to new content.
Before someone says it, the library of free offerings has been pretty varied and there are definitely some gems.
Before someone says it, the library of free offerings has been pretty varied and there are definitely some gems.
NightAntilli
Posts: 929 +1,195
Can't say I agree in case of the Epic Games Store. They have offered a bunch of good games for free. In particular, many older Playstation exclusives are great for the ones that never had a PlayStation.
They have also offered games like Metro 2033 and Last Light Redux, Pillars of Eternity, Civilization VI, GTA V, Watch Dogs 1 & 2, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Batman Arkham Collection, For Honor, Alan Wake... All quite big titles.
R00sT3R
Posts: 805 +2,478
Most of the free games have just ended up reminding me of how many bullets I've dodged..by not wasting my money on them.
misor
Posts: 1,427 +326
Got starcraft:broodwar and starcraft2: wol as freebies on my alt account. I bought them on my main account.
I claimed some freebies from epic, uplay, gog, steam, indiegala, and ea. I even got some freebies from google play for my android devices.
I claimed some freebies from epic, uplay, gog, steam, indiegala, and ea. I even got some freebies from google play for my android devices.
Stark
Posts: 192 +174
Man... it's 2021 I know what you are talking about.. As I was there when the deep magic was written, but now it's different.
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Stoly
Posts: 106 +66
I think I got pretty much every free game from the Epic store ever since they started offering them.
My Epic library is orders of magnitude larger than my Steam library because of this. Although my Steam library remained stagnant for years until my kid started PC gaming.
Suffice to say I've only played some major titles like SW BF2, GTA V, the Arkham series, watchdogs and Metro to name a few, none of the indie stuff.
What I do like better than steam is the game offers. Its not rare to get great deals on recent games, actually I bought ZERO games from steam since the last couple of years. Everything I bought was from the Epic store.
My Epic library is orders of magnitude larger than my Steam library because of this. Although my Steam library remained stagnant for years until my kid started PC gaming.
Suffice to say I've only played some major titles like SW BF2, GTA V, the Arkham series, watchdogs and Metro to name a few, none of the indie stuff.
What I do like better than steam is the game offers. Its not rare to get great deals on recent games, actually I bought ZERO games from steam since the last couple of years. Everything I bought was from the Epic store.
Nothing new here, it's just marketing. Magazines used to give away tons of free games in the 8-bit days. After that it was demos and mods, but it was still all free content at the end of the day. When digital distribution arrived it was a strategy of deep discount campaigns. Freebies make more sense than discounts now that the industry is slowly shifting towards subscription models.
There still seems to be a lot of mistrust with Epic store. Whether it's justified or not, a market dominated by Steam wouldn't be good for gamers - competition is good. I personally couldn't care less which platform I buy games on as long as they're reliable and the cheapest.
There still seems to be a lot of mistrust with Epic store. Whether it's justified or not, a market dominated by Steam wouldn't be good for gamers - competition is good. I personally couldn't care less which platform I buy games on as long as they're reliable and the cheapest.
terzaerian
Posts: 1,517 +2,260
Free games are a baited fish hook set by players out to harm PC gaming and PC gamers, full stop. As the saying goes, "if you're not paying for the product, you are the product".
GLenn63
Posts: 148 +55
I don't like any of these platforms because they still for the most part own all the games. They let you download the bulk of the game but you never own the exe file. I would rather rather own all the software and have the option to play the game offline or any platform that I could choose w/o being limited. How many things do you buy at full price and have the person you bought it from still be your partner that you have to include every time you use that product. It wasn't always like this and I wish it was as simple as it use to be.
fluffydroid
Posts: 69 +68
Ubisoft has given away Assassins Creed 2, 3, 4, Unity, and Syndicate over the past few years. 3 was lame, but the others were above average to excellent. I cannot see the downside to getting all of these titles for free.
I claim the free games when they are offered, but when I buy it's on steam. I was flirting with purchasing on epic until another gamer pointed out the exclusivity deals. If they want to compete they should have to compete with features and through sales and not by being the only alternative.
This is a great point. I think GOG pushes a no DRM policy on its games, and you don't have to use their client or anything to play the games.
Farkinell
Posts: 244 +399
I can deal with the fairly fragmented game store ecosystem that PC gaming now has, but is it too difficult to ask the applications to actually remember my login details for longer than a week or so? It's infuriating having to remember which one of the 8 or so sets of credentials to use if it's randomly decided to forget my login, despite always having 'keep me logged in' ticked. /rant.
Avro Arrow
Posts: 3,721 +4,821
I grabbed a couple of games for free that I'd heard of like Metro: Last Light and Battlefront II but I also grabbed a couple of games that I'd never heard of like "Tropico 5" and "For the King" because, why not? Tropico 5 is pretty simple but amusing enough and I haven't played "For the King" yet.
Now that I've finished Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Liberation (Odyssey is 100x better BTW), I'm just trying to waste time until Far Cry 6 comes along. Maybe I'll try out Cyberpunk before then as well.
Now that I've finished Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Liberation (Odyssey is 100x better BTW), I'm just trying to waste time until Far Cry 6 comes along. Maybe I'll try out Cyberpunk before then as well.
Epic's free games are nice, and I have played a few of them, but their $10 reoccurring coupons around the holidays are really where its at. This year I think I used 4 coupons. Steam used to have really great sales even on pretty recent games, but lately they just seem to keep discounting the same old games and its rare to see a decent discount on a game less than a year old.
NightAntilli
Posts: 929 +1,195
Exactly. It's the reason that the first place that I look for a game is GOG. If it's not there, I generally wait if I think it's going to be there at some point. If I don't think it will launch on there, I have no choice but to buy it on another platform to play it.
spydercanopus
Posts: 897 +156
If Epic builds the community features of Steam, it may eventually win.
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