Okay, that was mostly tongue in cheek, but if the free game is one you already own (relatively recent) or one you dislike, perhaps you have to step back and consider that you might not be the audience.
And you know what, we might not be. We have backlogs (some larger than others) and some of us might be financial well off.
But there are always new customers who are just now starting their backlog. They don’t have piles of digit games to fall back on in boring times, so having some cool free game thrown at them might is really cool. It helps them climb the game backlog ladder.
Nesrie
1727
Real question here.
If someone was literally just starting to game on PC right now, would you really recommend them a brand new game or would you guide them to tried and true games you think they would like?
My personal experience is, I guide them to games that are often not released this year, but I also don’t chase the newest and greatest thing either. For a game like Fortnite, well it doesn’t really matter that much because it’s free.
I think I would would have a hard time having someone fork out 60 dollars on a brand new game if we haven’t at least loosely established what they like first… no matter how much money they make.
PUBG didn’t become massive by being free to play.
Nesrie
1729
That wasn’t really the question.
So you’re saying, someone with a gaming computer, never gamed before, you guided them to PUBG at 60 dollars, as their first game?
I would have suggest Subnatica because it is cool and was free on Epic.
I told a couple of people that are new to PC gaming about Epic Game Store (though they have experience on consoles) when it was giving away Subnautica. It’s an amazing game. Anyone here who got it for free should seriously try it out instead of letting it languish in their EGS backlog. It’s really good!
Edit: Legowarrior: Jinx.
I might, but dark underwater places kind of scare me.
I mean as one data point Steam gained a ton of new users in China because of PUBG. The data is harder to pinpoint if the same happened in the US or not though. There’s no way to know if they were new to PC gaming or not.
kerzain
1735
I’d start with Plants vs Zombies.
Nesrie
1736
Well I am referencing this.
I still refuse to believe that backlog is a symptom of extra money. I mean even the suggestions given are free, and yes, there are a lot of free games and really, really cheap games which can lead to backlogs quickly.
The only reason we’re even talking about backlogs is because legowarrior brought it up, this idea that there might be a crop of new, presumably new, players with limited funds, and since we’re in the Epic store topic which seems to be focused on new games, and not old, my questions is… more along the lines of, well it’a new player and are you saying with new players, friends, families, co-workers, someone you met on the street, are you guiding them to these brand new games at 60 dollars so they could really get an advantage of a 10 dollar discount? If so, I am just curious about the reasoning.
I don’t think many here can talk about the Chinese market too well, and I just don’t see how an Epic store is going to make a game that came out at 60 dollars and is now around 20 dollars and will soon hit 10 or even 5 dollar market more price competitive, for the consumer, unless we’re really only talking about that first 6 months or so or the idea is they really want to hold onto that 60 dollar range longer which is… not competitive pricing for consumers.
It’s were the store is currently, but that doesn’t mean it will be there in the future. And if you are new to gaming, a free game gets Epic on your computer, and than you might as well shop there, as well as on Steam, GoG or where ever you would like.
Oh, yeah I don’t think backlog is a symptom of extra money. My backlog is a relatively low spend across many years of taking advantage of many game deals than I have time to play them. I don’t think that amount exceeds what a lot of people spend on general entertainment budgets as a whole.
But if you ask me about a brand new gamer and what I would recommend, I think you are looking at it slightly backwards. If someone decides they want to start getting into games it’s usually a specific game (or line of games) that kicked that thinking off, and those are mostly going to be newer games due to their marketing pushes.
So yeah if someone comes to me and sees a lot of hype around shooters I’ll probably recommend them newer games like the latest COD or battlefield, etc… I mean just look at how many people you recommended MHW to in the last year and that’s still holding a good price tag if you don’t buy it used.
I’m more likely to recommend older games if someone comes at me with a very specific taste and I"m sure of their abilities. Watching my wife play Lego Incredibles lately (as someone who almost never plays any games) made me really realize how much we seasoned gamers take for granted and there’s a huge consideration of how polish and handholding has improved over time. It’s easier for me to look at the catalogue of newer games I’m aware of with that polish than to go through my mental old game lists and figure out which would match their skillset and which I"m just looking through rose coloured glasses as an experienced gamer.
Nesrie
1739
This is a little different from my experience. For someone to even hear about the hype they’d have to hear about gaming news to begin with which kind of pushes them out of the new new and into, I don’t know, gaming curious. I mean what got them into following gaming news in the first place? That’s not something you just run into, for the most part, unless it’s a weirdo commercial that shows up in the theater sometimes.
My personal experience, which I realize is limited, is I have a new computer but I can’t play games on it can I? This person is completely disconnected from gaming at this point, and it’s usually a quick look at their, often laptop these days, and a yeah you can play a few games on that. Do you play any mobile games, what kind of games are those? Or the last three basically said I know you play games, I am thinking of a console or a maybe a PC for myself or my kids how do I get started. It’s very… vague.
Yeah I don’t think I would push someone to a new game, just released and relatively expensive game, until I know what they like. There’s so much content for them to explore and find their thing(s), cheaply.
Not sure where this goes, but I found this mildly amusing.
Axiom Verge from the EPIC store crashes because in their (the developers) effort to remove all references to Steam they accidentally deleted an audio file called steam.xnb that is required for the audio effect when steam plays, causing the game to crash. It’s been fixed, but wowza.
Edit: holy crap that’s a low quality gif
LMN8R
1742
I think that Axiom Verge bug is absolutely endearing and hilarious.
So I excluded all files with “Steam” in the name
Good luck to the devs of Steamworld Dig should they be a featured giveaway.
Bluddy
1744
This is highly relevant, not just for Epic, which is owned by Tencent, but also for Steam, which has entered the Chinese market, and for everyone concerned about the Chinese government’s influence on the western world. Money quote:
It was unclear why the paper chose to mention Ma’s affiliation now but it comes amid a push by Beijing to bring the country’s private enterprises more in line with Party values, especially in the technology sector that has grown rapidly, driven by the successes of private firms.
Although I agree with the spirit of your post and appreciate awareness of influence, impact, etc. I want to point out your above statement is false. Here’s a recent quote from Epic’s CEO, Tim Sweeney.
“Tencent is not a parent company of Epic. Tencent is an independent company that’s a minority investor in Epic, alongside many others.”
