Soldato
Three freebies this week... Killing Floor 2, Lifeless Planet, The Escapists 2
Epic Games Store now open!
- Thread starter ic1male
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That was a close call... I nearly bought Torchlight II in the Steam sales. It's free next week.
Dunno if it's just my computer but is the Epic Games Store client getting really sluggish now that our libraries are getting bigger with all the free games?
Soldato
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Their sale is starting today. Usual voucher thing is happening.
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Tacoma and Next Up hero free on epic games with some heavy discounts on other titles as part of the Ubisoft Forward sale.
Can anyone who's been collecting these freebies since the beginning find their earliest emails and see what date's on it? I don't seem to have any purchase records prior to July 2019, maybe because I've changed emails and deleted them or something.
Soldato
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Wouldn't a purchase record require you to have, you know, purchased something?
Soldato
You get receipts, it goes through as a purchase for £0.00.
EDIT - Earliest for me is Jul 2019. I think I got on it straight away?
Yeah, same for me. They started December 2018 with the freebies but my first receipt is for Limbo in July 2019. Thanks for confirming. Just doing some digital housekeeping.
Soldato
Also confirming my first receipt was for Limbo, I've managed to grab every freebie from Epic since Subnautica was the first given away.
Soldato
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Soldato
Nice
And how many actual purchases out of interest?
1
Bought Far Cry 5 Gold Edition just over a week ago for £4.99 (it also adds it to my uPlay account).
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Remnant from the ashes is free on epic game store next week for those interested!
Looks a decent game to be fair.
Looks a decent game to be fair.
Yeah, good game for a freebie that
Soldato
Any guesses on how long they can keep giving away games for? originally I think they said it would be a year, but shows no sign of ending.
Must be costing them a pretty penny, sure someone clever somewhere has worked out what the break even is/how much each person needs to spend to cover the freebies.
Must be costing them a pretty penny, sure someone clever somewhere has worked out what the break even is/how much each person needs to spend to cover the freebies.
Soldato
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Just today they announced that the latest round of funding garnered them another $2 billion. I think they'll keep going until they get the market share they want.
Soldato
Yeah I can see at least another year of the freebies, if not longer.
Makes for interesting viewing as a bystander if nothing else.
The main problem I can see with their approach is you wind up with a bunch of entitled freebie chasers as customers!
It turned out to be not that bad a time to have opened a new games store either with millions looking for alternative and cheaper entertainment during covid19.
They're playing the long game for sure, but I think giving away GTAV was a very, very smart move, I'd be interested how many people from emerging markets are using Epic to get a lot of free games that potentially could end up being a large of their future profits.
I've got 80 plus games on Epic but only bought one, Shenmue 3 when it came out, even so I'm likely one of the bigger spenders for free games to bought games ratio, as many haven't bought any at all.
They're playing the long game for sure, but I think giving away GTAV was a very, very smart move, I'd be interested how many people from emerging markets are using Epic to get a lot of free games that potentially could end up being a large of their future profits.
I've got 80 plus games on Epic but only bought one, Shenmue 3 when it came out, even so I'm likely one of the bigger spenders for free games to bought games ratio, as many haven't bought any at all.
Soldato
I think that's the crux of my thinking. Presumably epic pays for each copy redeemed, although as they're free I suspect per copy they aren't paying much (aiming for volume numbers).
If people like you, and more so others, have never (or very rarely) bought a game, then that individual has done nothing but cost Epic money - firstly in the redemption costs, but secondly in bandwidth costs.
My biggest concern would be not that Epic can't carry on doing it, because they are now swimming in money they can, but that a lot of the future gamers, especially those from a Fortnite background who use Epic primarily, will just expect all games for free all the time. Game devs have to earn a living and I think it does run the gauntlet of de-valuing their work sometimes.
More my 2c instead of hard facts or eventualities, I am sure they've worked out that this is the strategy they want to pursue as giving them the best chance of fighting Steam for market share, but ultimately someone, somewhere, is paying for things.
I've bagged all the freebies bar one - For Honor as that required some Uplay linking which I was averse to do until they gave out AC Syndicate. I've bought two games from their store and promptly refunded them. Have no intention really of buying anything ever, I have waited this long for Borderlands 3 and Control to come to Steam.