Rumor mill: The Epic Games Store's holiday sale began last week with the excellent Hogwarts Legacy as a preview of this year's freebies. The first in a series of 14 daily giveaways started today, and leakers claim to have uncovered the entire list (update: the list was wrong, but the freebies keep coming along).
Prominent tipster @9550pro shared a list of over a dozen games that the Epic Games Store is rumored to offer for free, one each day, between December 18 and December 31. It includes several popular titles, with Red Dead Redemption 2 as the finale. While the leaker's math appears off, the list still matches the number of days between Thursday and New Year's.
The leak's veracity will depend on whether Epic reveals Jurassic World: Evolution 2 as its next free mystery game today (it didn't... instead it was Jotunnslayer: Hordes of Hel). Until then, the store is giving away Hogwarts Legacy, which, despite controversy, became one of the few titles to outsell Call of Duty following its 2023 release.
Update (Dec 24): Today's freebie is high-end horror experience The Callisto Protocol.
Update (Dec 22): At this point it's clear the leaked list was completely off... but the freebies keep on coming. So check back here for more.
Update (Dec 19): The third giveaway game is Eternights, which wasn't part of the leaked list. It appears the rumor is not accurate, but keep checking back every day for freebies, which is still great.
The original story (with the wrong games from the leaked list) follows below.
We're still hoping some of these make the cut though...
Friday's giveaway is Desperados 3, followed by Total War: Warhammer, Tropico 5, Chicken Police, and Loop Hero. Lego Batman is listed as the Christmas Eve giveaway, followed by Commander Keen on Christmas Day.
The retro platformer might seem like an odd choice for a Christmas freebie, since it is currently unavailable on the Epic Games Store, costs just $5 on Steam, and is on sale for $2 on GOG. However, the promotion would likely celebrate the landmark game's 35th anniversary.
Commander Keen, initially released on December 14, 1990, was id Software's first game. It pioneered 2D side-scrolling graphics in PC games, and its successful launch paved the way toward the legendary first-person shooters Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.
Over the following week, Epic is expected to give away Farming Simulator 2022, Slime Rancher 2, Terraria, Detroit: Become Human, and Mortal Kombat 11. Like Commander Keen, Terraria and Mortal Kombat 11 are not currently available on the store, but prior games have debuted there during giveaways.
Ending the promotion with Red Dead Redemption 2 would echo prior major giveaways such as Death Stranding in 2022 and Grand Theft Auto V in 2020. Each case drew enough traffic to congest Epic's servers.
The original Red Dead Redemption, initially released in 2010, made its PC debut last October, alongside ports to modern consoles. Leakers also claim that the sequel will soon receive an update for current-generation consoles.