Epic Games Store Continues its Free Game Policy
If you’ve been clued in to the gaming scene for the last while, you must have seen the occasional “wow, X game is free on Epic” message pop up once or twice. Savvy gamers are always clued in to the latest deals, and that dedication is something the Epic Games Store aimed to capitalize on. And they did so with gusto – offering free games for limited windows of time.
Many of the free offerings were smaller indie titles, though larger games were a common sight. Control, Prey, the entire Tomb Raider trilogy, and more were all given away as limited-time-offer, keep-forever releases.
Oh by the way, Daemon X Machina is free to pick up as we speak, along with some DLC.
While details about the Epic Games Stores’ plans for 2022 are scarce, the policy seems to be working well for them. In a blog post, they mentioned how happy they were with the initiative, and intend to carry those operations into 2022. Specific upcoming releases were not given, but to be fair, that’s always how the Epic Games Store ran things.
Epic also revealed stats for how popular the Epic Games Store was becoming. Gaining 34 million users last year, they’re up to a population of 194 million. If their goal with the free games was to get more eyes on their platform, it certainly seems to have worked.
While we lack a direct comparison with Steam’s numbers (Valve seems reluctant to release them), the fact that Epic is continuing their policy means that it, at the very least, is letting them rival Steam. If the process is that valuable, it’s unlikely that we’ll see them cut it anytime soon.