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Epic has been giving away games on the Epic Games Store since it launched at the end of 2018, enticing Steam users to install its launcher with freebies as big as Grand Theft Auto 5 and Civilization 6. More than 580 million free games were claimed just last year.

Giving away half-a-billion game copies a year is not a cheap thing to do. Epic only pays a fraction of each game's list price per copy given away, but it adds up. Thanks to documents that came out during Epic's legal fight with Apple, we learned that the company spent $11.6 million on free games in just the first nine months of the program. Epic has been giving away games for six years now.

However, responding to a question about Epic's free game strategy on a call with press earlier this week, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said that it's been a "very economical" user acquisition program, with the bonus that the budget goes to game developers—a group that it's in a game store's interest to see thrive—rather than toward Facebook or Google ads.

"Giving away free games seems counterintuitive as a strategy, but companies spend money to acquire users into games," said Sweeney. "For about a quarter of the price that it costs to acquire users through Facebook ads or Google Search Ads, we can pay a game developer a lot of money for the right to distribute their game to our users, and we can bring in new users to the Epic Games Store at a very economical rate.

"And you might think that this would hurt the sales prospects of games on the Epic Game Store, but developers who give away free games actually see an upsurge in the sale of their paid games on the store, just because their free game raises awareness. And it's so much that often developers, when they're about to launch a new game, come with us wanting to work closely on a timed release of a free game, just to drive user awareness of their next game. That's been an awesome thing. And it's been by far the most cost effective aspect of the Epic Games Store."

Epic's other big method for attracting new Epic Games Store users has been to strike exclusivity deals with publishers like Ubisoft. It's been an unpopular strategy, and hasn't gone as swimmingly.

"We spent a lot of money on exclusives," said Sweeney. "A few of them worked extremely well. A lot of them were not good investments, but the free games program has been just magical."

Many of Epic's exclusivity deals were 'not good investments,' says Tim Sweeney, but the free games program 'has been just magical'

The most cost-effective way to get new users on the Epic Games Store has been the free games, not the exclusives.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Quasicat]

its been “magical” especially when you consider Fortnite is one of the biggest free to play games there is and they get 100% of the profits on Epic Game Store.

 

[T-Cake]

I’m guessing Alan Wake 2 was not a good investment…

 

[Pagusas]

I do not like the Epic store or many of the things Sweeney has done, however he is absolutely 100% right about the free game program. I know enough devs that have benefited from the paycheck that I can't help but give him props for it, and honestly its refreshing to see a company find an alternative to marketing rather than filling Meta or Google's pocket books.

Now if only he, valve, gog, ubi, ea and Microsoft would all work together and agree on a single standard so any game bought on any store is 100% playable on the other stores without the need to launch a different launcher, I'd be happy. Yes I know that will never happen.

 

[jshackles]

Now if only he, valve, gog, ubi, ea and Microsoft would all work together and agree on a single standard so any game bought on any store is 100% playable on the other stores without the need to launch a different launcher, I'd be happy. Yes I know that will never happen.

They said that about digital movies, and now we're like 90% there with the Movies Anywhere program.

 

[Pagusas]

They said that about digital movies, and now we're like 90% there with the Movies Anywhere program.

So true! Maybe there is hope!

 

[StueyDuck]

we haven't even seen the playdead or genDesign (or whatever the studio goes by now) game yet, i hope that comes out before they axe it or something

 

[DaGwaphics]

When you look at it from that perspective, I can see where the free games can be a plus for devs and Epic. Long live the free games program.

Many of them are shovelware, but I've redeemed some good ones as well.

 

[Gamezone]

Magical for who? Epic is losing money on them.

 

[ljubomir]

I do not like the Epic store or many of the things Sweeney has done, however he is absolutely 100% right about the free game program. I know enough devs that have benefited from the paycheck that I can't help but give him props for it, and honestly its refreshing to see a company find an alternative to marketing rather than filling Meta or Google's pocket books.

Now if only he, valve, gog, ubi, ea and Microsoft would all work together and agree on a single standard so any game bought on any store is 100% playable on the other stores without the need to launch a different launcher, I'd be happy. Yes I know that will never happen.

GOG had GOG Connect which brought some of your Steam games into GOG. It no longer exists. There is just no incentive to do so. Why would Epic invest into giving out free games if you could just claim them and add to your Steam library?

 

[DaGwaphics]

Magical for who? Epic is losing money on them.

It already explains that up there though. All these companies spend money acquiring customers, they are just offering these free games with what would normally be the marketing budget.

 

[Pagusas]

Magical for who? Epic is losing money on them.

Secret in marketing: We usually lose money on the majority of branding ad campaigns, very very VERY few of them ever result in direct ROI. Epic is just saying "instead of losing money with Google/Meta, we'll lose it by giving it directly to Devs, and gain a relationship + user incentives for doing so". Its a smart play, as they aren't losing any more money than they would with a normal marketing budget thrown at advertising.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

 

[The Cockatrice]

At least hes honest about it.

 

[poppabk]

The free games will definitely help in the long term. Just in getting a large enough library that if you are just looking for something to play you will check your library there as well as steam. And if you get used to playing games there, you may be willing to buy one there one day, maybe.

 

[intbal]

...companies spend money to acquire users...

One of the most disgusting phrases in the modern world.

 

[Davevil]

Magical for who? Epic is losing money on them.

magical for those like me who have 600+ free games to date...and I keep counting

 

[Denton]

Yeah it is magical to check EGS once a week, pick up the games, and close it.
I highly doubt it is magical for EGS, because freeloaders don't tend to buy games.

 

[Magic Carpet]

The Shooter that went free last week has it's thread already pushed down to page 6.
Very few Gaf members play or talk about them.

 

[Robot Carnival]

I have enough of a backlog already between console and Steam. never even install EGS and they have nothing really interest me that I won't rather just buy with money outright. if they're doing well with the free games, good for them I guess.

 

[Gen.Grievous]

In the past 12 months I bought more games on the Epic game store than on Steam. Probably will keep doing that. I like that you also get 5-10% back in store credit which can use for future purchases. There is no denying that steam is a superior launcher with better and more features but I don't really care and only use it to buy games. We need the competition and as a bonus in the epic store the game devs also get a bigger cut of the retail price.

 

[Trogdor1123]

They said that about digital movies, and now we're like 90% there with the Movies Anywhere program.

What? I’m not familiar with this. I have movies on google and iTunes, I can merge them or some?

 

[jshackles]

What? I’m not familiar with this. I have movies on google and iTunes, I can merge them or some?

Home | Movies Anywhere

Watch movies online with Movies Anywhere. Stream movies from Disney, Fox, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros. Connect your digital accounts and import your movies from Apple iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Xfinity, Google Play/YouTube, Microsoft Movies & TV, Verizon Fios TV, and...

moviesanywhere.com

Go here, sign up, and then link both your Google and iTunes accounts. Your movies will (mostly) sync between the two services. The notable holdout is anything owned by Paramount.

 

[diffusionx]

magical for those like me who have 600+ free games to date...and I keep counting

How many of those are you ever going to play?

 

[Pagusas]

What? I’m not familiar with this. I have movies on google and iTunes, I can merge them or some?

Its true, and its a blessing.

 

[Trogdor1123]

In the past 12 months I bought more games on the Epic game store than on Steam. Probably will keep doing that. I like that you also get 5-10% back in store credit which can use for future purchases. There is no denying that steam is a superior launcher with better and more features but I don't really care and only use it to buy games. We need the competition and as a bonus in the epic store the game devs also get a bigger cut of the retail price.

I’m about the same. I totally agree with steam being better but epic was cheaper so I went there. I’m new to pc gaming as well so the free games helped build a library fast. I still have steam going and buy games on it but epic gets more of my money right now.

 

[Trogdor1123]

It’s true, and it’s a blessing.

How do I do it? I’d love to get my google play movies moved over to iTunes.

 

[Trogdor1123]

Home | Movies Anywhere

Watch movies online with Movies Anywhere. Stream movies from Disney, Fox, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros. Connect your digital accounts and import your movies from Apple iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Xfinity, Google Play/YouTube, Microsoft Movies & TV, Verizon Fios TV, and...

moviesanywhere.com

Go here, sign up, and then link both your Google and iTunes accounts. Your movies will (mostly) sync between the two services. The notable holdout is anything owned by Paramount.

 

[Pagusas]

How do I do it? I’d love to get my google play movies moved over to iTunes.

jshackles already covered it above ​

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

I’m guessing Alan Wake 2 was not a good investment…

It certainly was. In the long-term it will be highly praised and continue to sell, and be a valuable title to put in some of these subscription services that will be played by people for years to come who never played it at release in 2023. I think there's very little doubt it was a worthwhile investment in a long-term view. Which is sort of how you have to look at niche/ AA-scale games these days.

 

[Pagusas]

It certainly was. In the long-term it will be highly praised and continue to sell, and be a valuable title to put in some of these subscription services that will be played by people for years to come who never played it at release in 2023. I think there's very little doubt it was a worthwhile investment in a long-term view. Which is sort of how you have to look at niche/ AA-scale games these days.

And isn't the deal that Epic gets 100% of the games revenue until they get their investment back? It might be a slow burn, but they'll break even or make a buck for sure.

 

[Hustler]

Magical for who? Epic is losing money on them.

Tell me you don't understand the cost of acquiring new customers and business.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Exclusivity deals are rarely worth it in the modern era.

There is just too much competition among games for individual games to really act as system or platform sellers.

 

[Generic]

Epic is the most pro-consumer and pro-developer company in the industry.

 

[proandrad]

Exclusive deals for 3rd party titles just pisses off potential consumers. Wild that they don’t see that.

 

[Laptop1991]

Yeah he is right, but we all knew that, i grabbed the free games but never bought a single one off Epic, he is spot on lol

 

[LordCBH]

I love claiming their free shit and never dropping an actual dime on their crappy store. Spend more for some more freebies, Tim. I’ll freeload off your idiot ass.

 

[Bonfires Down]

There is just too much competition among games for individual games to really act as system or platform sellers.

Uh, no.

The problem for Epic is that while they have some exclusives of their own, Steam also has a ton of de facto exclusives that they don’t pay a dime for, including stuff like Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3.

 

[Plague Doctor]

I still contend Epic 's biggest issues are:

1. Their CEO speaks too damn much and is unlikeable as fuck putting off more and more potential customers each time he does speak. I truly believe Tim loses more people than he gains each time he posts.
2. The company is too aggressive with their approach to "win" the PC audience and it's off putting with exclusivity bullshit
3. Their storefront is still relatively barebones and does not offer community building incentives like user reviews and other features.


Valve just shuts the fuck up and offer a space for the consumer base to do their thing. It's really not rocket science. Tim's ego and their inability to go with the flow with how PC audiences want to interact on a storefront is what kills them each time. Had they just been chiller and used Valve as a proof of concept and innovated from there, we'd see vastly different sentiments to EGS. It's a slower road but would have been a better approach than this exercise in dubious business practices and then ranting on X/twitter by Tim. Seriously, few people care or want to hear the shit he brings up. Just. Improve. Your. Storefront. With. What. Works. For. Your. Competitors.

They just need to fucking chill and listen to what people want. The free game does work on many, but still all the action is over on Steam. So alot people grab the free game and then fuck back off to steam where the majority of their digital library is and for answers and reviews.

(I am not tackling Tencent's large stake and people's questioning of how invasive the storefront software is. I have not seen smoking gun proof this is the case, but there is still questions.)

 

[JCK75]

Stop buying up exclusives and stick to giving away free games... then I lose every reason to continue my boycott.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Uh, no.

The problem for Epic is that while they have some exclusives of their own, Steam also has a ton of de facto exclusives that they don’t pay a dime for, including stuff like Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3.

This isn't limited to Epic.

 

[onnextflix5]

Imagine if they get gta 6 exclusive, that would be huge for them

 

[TintoConCasera]

Tim, thanks for the free games, but your storefront sucks and you delisted Unreal (the game) from all storefronts.

Fix that shit and we might be frens.

 

[Gamezone]

Tell me you don't understand the cost of acquiring new customers and business.

Yeah, but the problem is that they are gaining very few paying custemors with their free games.

 

[Stuart360]

Uh, no.

The problem for Epic is that while they have some exclusives of their own, Steam also has a ton of de facto exclusives that they don’t pay a dime for, including stuff like Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3.

The difference is Steam doesnt pay for exclusives. If studios only want to put their games on Steam, thats down to them.
Exclusivity deals was always a console thing, not a PC thing. Thats why so many PC users hate Epic, because they brought exclusivity deals on third party games to the PC space.
Its different with Uplay and EA Connect because obviously thats their own games and they can do what they want with them.

 

[username12]

Relatively cheap marketing strategy for a company with deep pockets. I've never actually bought a game from them but have hundreds, but a lot of people will.

 

[sharp weiner]

My first thought when I saw this quote is:

It’s bad analysis to group together people arriving because they saw an ad vs. people arriving to get their free thing.

What’s the probability of extracting $1 from each of those groups?

10% vs 0.0001%?

I honestly don’t know but I would bet it’s not close.

 

[Davevil]

How many of those are you ever going to play?

 

[balls of snow]

How many of those are you ever going to play?

In hoarding, the joy is the actual act itself.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Don’t care, more free games means more bloat and keeps you constantly hooked on entertainment.
I don’t collect Epic games in hopes I might one day play them.