So say we all, but “should” is as far as I could get, as evidenced by my recent Humble Choice sub for December.
This week’s freebie is Saint’s Row 4. It’s an amazing game. Everyone should play it.
There’s another free game if you watch the Game Awards on twitch - Rogue Legacy.
One thing I have recently appreciated Epic for is just being another source where I can buy keys on third party platforms like GreenMan. My son has recently gotten really into Warhammer and has been playing Total War Warhammer 3. While he could play from Gamepass, my Steam account has all three games plus all DLC which would take a lot of money to match on his own. I’ve been letting him play via library sharing but this means I can’t use any Steam games myself at the same time. So it was nice to have Epic as a place I could get Midnight Suns for 17% off from a third party.
On Steam I have 1104 games and played 507 of them (and finished around 450). Majority of those I didn’t play are humble fodder and free giveaways I am not really interested in, so games that have no real value to me - much like vast majority of what Epic is giving out.
Frankly, I would wholeheartedly welcome Epic completely STOP giving out free games, if in exchange they also stop their exclusivity bullshit and make their launcher actually useable (and useful, meaning exceeding Steam feature parity).
I think I’m the opposite. I’d prefer they just leave the store as it is now if it means I keep getting free games to try. The launcher has always worked fine for me and does what I need it to do. I don’t really ever use any of the extra stuff on steam like reviews or workshop so I don’t really miss it on Epic.I really never even open up steam except maybe when a big sale is going on to see if I want to buy anything. I launch everything through Playnite.
If they did all that, what would lead you to buying on Epic rather than Steam?
Better functionality? Perhaps better prices they could offer due to taking lower cut?
I mean, as it stands, Epic is barely making any money from third party sales, and from me specifically, they lost money, because the only games I bought there were subsidized by their coupon.
So it couldn’t get any worse for them than it is now.
I think they already stopped their exclusivity bullshit? At least the most bullshit part, like at the start where they paid for people removing games that were going to appear on Steam, like the Metro Exodus case.
Notice how the ubisoft games are coming to Steam now, too.
They are doing now proper publisher stuff for a few games, they pay a studio to help development and they get the rights in exchange.
No dog in this fight, but I like me some free games. Some are actually good, just sayin’.
Dead Island 2 is not coming to Steam or GOG at launch, so not yet (although who knows when that deal was signed). I sure hope it will be one of the, or better yet, the last game prevented from steam and gog release by Epic.
edit - the very interesting looking Crime Boss game that’s being made right here is apparently also exclusivity paid for by Epic.
The Epic exclusivity bullshit is still happening. 100% they will make you wait an extra year to buy that game you want on Steam. (Already did it for Hitman 3)
Worst case by a million parsecs for me is Sins of the Solar Empire 2.
As far as playing games on Epic, I’ve only played two so far: Grand Theft Auto 5, and Into the Breach. I actually kinda want to rebuy Into the Breach on steam only so I don’t have to deal with Epics dogshit launcher. Because it is truly dogshit.
I have the epic launcher put a shortcut on the desktop when I install the game, and then I don’t have to interact with it again. Well worth it for the free games, some of which I’ve actually played to completion.
Same here. That’s why I’m baffled about complaints about the launcher. Who cares? You double-click an icon and the game starts.
That’s fine if I am playing one game and just playing that every day for a while. Often I am opening Steam not knowing what I am going to play and just looking. It’s low-hanging fruit that Epic should fix. On a Mac it’s far worse. I guess kudos to Epic for putting out a Mac app for the platform he hates, but it is complete shit.
Yup, that makes sense. I definitely do not operate in that way, I have a game I’m playing and I do that for a while, then move on to the next one.
+1. Free is the best kind of things, and I’ve actually found some good, playable games for free via Epic which I otherwise wouldn’t have ever been interested in. No complaints here.
I regret buying Hitman 3 and Anno 1800 on Epic, and it boils my blood to see Anno 1800 on the Steam front page now. I am pretty sure that will be the last time I give them my money - GC4 and SoaSE2 will have to wait.
Could be worse. I feel bad that I bought Warhammer 2 on Epic. I haven’t even played it yet, and they gave away Warhammer 2 through Amazon Prime.
Could have saved 5 dollars.
But, I did get Warhammer 1 and the Elf Expansion for free, so I guess that is a wash.
The one thing I am sad about is Spellforce 3. There are 3 stand alone games, 2 of which are on steam, one on Epic. Since they aren’t all on the same platform, it means I can’t seem less move from one version to the other, despite all three being registered with the same THQNORD account.
(It’s even worse for GoG though, since even if you own all three games on GoG, it won’t link the games together, and launch from the launcher).
I believe if you have Anno 1800 on Epic you “really” have it on Ubisoft’s platform; at least that was the case for me. I bought the expansions directly from Ubisoft, for example. I believe I installed it once via the Epic platform, and then after that just used Ubisoft’s platform (e.g. for a reinstall and the expansions). Not that Ubisoft’s software is any better than Epic’s, IMO, but at least I could cut out the middleman. Plus I have some hope that I won’t lose it when Ubisoft decides to rework their agreements with the rest of the industry again.
Now, it seems pretty unlikely that Ubisoft will give a Steam key to people who have it on their own platform, so I’m guessing you’re still out of luck there.