Like what the title says. There’s always a catch unless it’s FOSS. So, what is the catch with them giving games for free that you can keep forever? What will the developers of the games get as a thank you?
It’s likely a scheme to entice people onto their platform because they’re not as trusted as valve or gog. If they become a monopoly then we’ll get to see all the various catches to that.
this tbh
though it doesn’t really work, i have 183 epic games, none of which have i bought lol
The catch is you have to install the Epic app or whatever it is called.
Also they hate Linux and shitcanned the already-existing native Linux port of Rocket League when they bought it. It’s fair to say you won’t dump resources into making new Linux ports but shitcanning a quality one that already existed? They can eat shit.
I never played Rocket League again after that.
Heroic Launcher ftw
Or don’t use Epic at all.
You have always been able to claim the games for free on the website.
You can claim them, sure. But you’ll need their launcher when you want to play them.
Heroic Launcher runs on both Windows and Linux
Third party launchers do exist, yes, but normally you’d have to use Epic’s launcher. That’s what they’re counting on, anyway.
That is not true on Linux.
The catch is now you have games in their ecosystem and are more likely to spend more time and money there.
They want you to use their service. You’re more likely to use the service if you already have a library of games on it.
What will the developers of the games get as a thank you?
They wouldn’t be making them free without making a deal with the developer first. There was a leak that showed the actual amount a while back.
They wouldn’t be making them free without making a deal with the developer first. There was a leak that showed the actual amount a while back.
That is what I was after! Not the leak, but the catch. Do you have the link to the source for the leak?
it’s not “forever”. it’s however long they don’t have any ideas to the contrary.
why it was implemented - so that executive #279 can show executive #114 that number go up. look how our engagement is rising! look at all them people downloading our app! when I took over from exec #317, number was this big, lookie now!
same way google made their search worse, so you have to search multiple times, thus upping the engagment, page views, etc. and then exec X goes to exec Y and say “look there’s a huge rise in searches where my bonus at!”
it’s not “forever”.
So true. Today it is known that you only buy a license of the games from Steam. And since Epic Games works in the same way as Steam, this also applies to them. They can delete any games from your library whenever they want - just like that *click*. I stopped buying games on Steam when that came out publicly and moved to GOG instead.
At least in the first years, most of the games released on the Epic Games Store were DRM-free, in the strictest sense in that you could move the folder from PC to PC without needing the launcher, like on GOG. You can see the data as of today here.
Still below 600 (if the numbers are dead-exact) which makes me glad. GOG should be the only place for DRM free games. But that’s my opinion. What I know of, GOG is today the only place for downloadable installation files of games.
The numbers represent confirmed cases, so there could be more. There used to be a GOG thread dedicated to testing games for DRM on Epic, but then it was locked and its main contributors have switched to adding the information to the wiki.
It’s not about engagement. As the court documents have shown, they want to increase the number of users and then see how many of those convert to paying customers.
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It’s also one of the reasons why they allow 3rd parties to run their own activation servers. All you gotta do is type a couple of lines in command prompt to change your activation servers from Microsoft’s to such a 3rd party, type in the volume license key they provide for free, and now you have a 100% legit copy of Windows, no cracks or workarounds needed.
Microsoft makes it so easy to activate Windows for free that there’s no way it was unintentional.
I’ve heard stories of Microsoft support team members suggesting cracks when they couldn’t activate the system the legal way.
The catch is downloading the Epic Launcher. Or not even that if you are on Linux.
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It’s 2025. If you are getting a ‘free’ software product, there’s a chance of about 99,9% that the answer to that question is either ‘analytics/tracking/telemetry/customer retention’ or a combination of many or all of them.
In that case, you have to deal with the shitty epic launcher that is prone to “lose” user data.
When it comes to non-FOSS, yes, I agree.
You’re absolutely right. Sorry for that (admittedly catastrophic) omission.
To lure people away from Steam and onto their platform. There is no ulterior motive. Origin does/did (IDK I haven’t played an EA game in years) this too for the same reason.
This. The court documents from the trials vs Google and Apple even showed that they divide how much they pay the publisher for the giveaway by the number of users acquired to determine the cost per user.
Amazon games does it too.
Logistically, it’s super cheap marketing. Epic pays the dev a reasonable pittance ( assuming it’s not a free game, they do that too) you got to watch their ads during download/install, they got you email, they know what games you’re interested in. Your interests are for sale for sure, but for a free game, may be worth a throw away email.
I’ve claimed probably 70% of the free games for the past four or five years. I’ve noticed some of the titles disappear. So one catch is, you may not get to keep the free game(s) you grab.
I hadn’t noticed this, and I’ve claimed a ton of them as well. Do you have an example?
I don’t even remember the name of the game, but it was one that was next to a title I do play often when sorted by “recent” which is based on purchase (or redemption) date. Might have been that underwater exploration title.
Hm, the only underwater ones I can think of are Subnautica and Abzu, both of which are still in my library (although I wouldn’t mind if Abzu went away, as it was basically just an underwater walking sim). I couldn’t find anything on the list quickly, despite a couple ones sounding like underwater ones, like Stranded Deep and Submerged: Hidden Depths, which didn’t look like they actually were underwater games.
I was wrong that it was water-themed. It was “Pacific Drive” which I guess made me think of underwater. I never got a chance to play it, and it’s no longer in my library. I think there was another one, but I can’t remember now. It was a while back that I discovered it.
EDIT: I agree with you 100% about ABZU. Boring after the first five minutes. Also, I don’t see Pacific Drive on the free games list. I need to try to remember the sequence of events. I know I never bought it, because I’ve never bought any games from EGS; all my titles were free ones.
Nah that’s pretty weird I’ve not heard of that before. I’ve snagged a fair number and still got them as far as I can tell.
I still have hundreds, but they do disappear like any purely digital asset.
"developers see sales increases on both the Epic Games Store and on Steam, Valve’s competing PC game store. Sweeney also points out that the free games can be a good deal for players in developing countries where gaming may be more expensive, meaning that they help expand the global reach of some titles. And since developers get a flat fee from Epic so that Epic can offer their game for free, they make some money no matter what.
Epic isn’t being entirely altruistic, of course. The company spends a lot of money to be able to give games away for free, and it certainly wants to offer good ones that keep people playing on its platform instead of others like Steam. And if Epic can attract players with free games from notable developers, those same players might also try out some of Epic’s big free-to-play multiplayer games like Fortnite or Rocket League, keeping them in Epic’s universe — and, again, off Steam. "
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/9/23630846/epic-games-store-free-weekly-giveaways-2023
Exactly, Unlike Steam, who does have some popular games, but if I think about it their only free titles are TF2 and Counter Strike and dont care much anymore on developing games, and they are popular, but old. Epic is giving free games, and you might also end up playing Fortnite and get hooked on it. Little by little they might spand their options but thats how they start to grow. The thing that I do find stupind on their part and genius on Steam is the support of linux development and how they made the Steam Deck, just having a device that is very easy to use, replaces a gaming console, and you dont have to spend anything developing anything for it, no games, no software, just their OS and making Proton more compatible, and you have access to the biggest gaming library. Even if their SteamOS is closed sourced, hardware is decent, and you can change OS easily, unlike old game consoles because its just a pc in a gaming case. It changed the gaming industry forever, they might not have been the first to offer this, but they did produce a good product that others take as a standard. If Epic starts to support linux, they would have a much better and secure future, the main problem is that they have to change their gaming engine to think of doing that, and thats hard and they might not want to touch their golden chicken for a while. Steam can make those investments because they have being here a long time and they stabilized their growth venture, Epic is on their first couple growth sprouts and decisions for the future might not be that appealing.
make bad platform give free games ??? profit
The problem with EPIC games is, that you need an account with your full name and data, even for an free game, not needed in Steam or GOG, where it is enough with nick and mail, only the need for more if you want to buy a game. Searching free games, only Steam and Itch.io are full of these.
What do you mean, I have a nick, fake email, fake name and I’m enjoying my free games for years.
You have free games always for years if you like these, without the need of fake names and data, often even without the need of accounts, controlled by companies with desktop clients and other crap which rest a lot of privacy. Free games don’t need all this, less paid games, you install it and it’s yours forever, all other is an abuse of big corporations which make money with your data.
I’ve an Steam account, but forced, because a lot of years ago I bought in a store an CD with Portal, but to run it, it was mandatory an Steam account FOR AN LOCAL SINGLEPLAYER GAME WHICH I BOUGHT PHYSICALLY IN A STORE, WTF.
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