EPIC Game Store is giving away 15 games for free, starting with Cities: Skylines, plus $10 coupon!

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/cities-skylines-is-the-first-of-15-free-games-epic-is-giving-away-this-holiday/1100-6485440/

Epic already gives away free games every week, but for the next two weeks and change, you can snag a freebie every day. To celebrate the holidays, the Epic free games program has kicked into high gear with 15 free games in 15 days. Epic ran a similar promotion last year featuring 12 free games. All you need to take part in the holiday giveaways is a free Epic account.

The first free game is Cities: Skylines, which is available until tomorrow, December 18 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. Epic isn't revealing the freebies ahead of time, so you'll have to check back each day to see what's up for grabs.

Cities: Skylines is a great city-building game that originally released in 2015. We'd expect to see some similarly great games throughout the promotion. Last year, wonderful indies such as Into the Breach, Celeste, Ape Out, and Superhot were included in the holiday promotion.

In addition to giving away free games, Epic is kicking off a holiday sale this week, and it will likely be filled with steep discounts on hundreds of games.

They are also discounting games. Wow, thank you again EPIC Game Store. I never get anything from Steam. Will you be participating, SW?

xiè xiè Epic

Yeah, still won't install their client and by the looks of it majority of PC gamers don't either hence their desperate efforts.

Even though I now have an Epic account, thanks to the exclusive Unreal Tournament skins for Warframe I just really, really wanted, I won't be taking the freebies.

For anyone else, enjoy. For someone with a hopeless backlog like me, however, giveaways are not a positive in my book.

Not tempting for me in the slightest. This screams of desperation.

So when Xbox and Playstation give games for being a member, that's what then?

Do you think that my response would be different for them? I wasn’t aware that they’re giving away titles on a similar scale as Epic.

Skyline is good, but it's 10x better with mods, and 10x easier to mod using Steam Workshop. If you can integrate the Epic version into Steam Workshop, this is a great giveaway.

But they're giving you games in exchange for a paid membership. They're not free. Epic on the other hand is giving away games to try to build a user base. It is an act of desperation. I have no interests in Epic due to recent actions of theirs. Let them sink. People may be able to play those "free" games for now, but once the service shuts down, they won't have access to them any longer.

@eoten: true... but a free game a free game.

i've got like 60 free games from epic, keep em coming epic

Yeah, a lot of people will log in just to get access to them, then probably log out and not actually play them. I am not sure if that helps Epic, or hurts them though.

hey heads up guys you can claim a 10$ holiday coupon on there as well valid till January 7

This is why PC is a failing platform. A city simulator, really? I can drive to a city and experience myself.

Ever since Gates sold most of Microsoft to China they’ve been crap.

@sheevpalpamemes: dumb post is dumb, mate. Gotta raise the bar a bit

No thanks.

I've already got the game on multiple platforms, and I don't want to support Epic in any way.

Tencent-Epic, trying to bribe their way to the top. Playing dirty with stupid one-year exclusivity contracts.

Pretty much this.

With that said, Cities: Skylines is a great first offer. I've got like 500 hours invested into, and that's a lot for me. I wouldn't fault anyone for taking it.

This an appropriate time to post this:

I mean, I feel like a worse person for even reading his original post.

God have mercy, indeed.

Epic must be very desperate to want to have people use their digital store if they keep offering a bunch of free games.

@uninspiredcup should I get Squadrons for $14?

Lmfao, that was a good one.

For $14 yea seems like a decent deal. Even if you have 0 interest MP, which is the main thus, still has like a 8-9 hour SP to mess about with.

Yup! I think free games were supposed to be just a 1 year deal, no? Seems like no one is buying on the Epic store no matter how much Sweeney tries to twist the facts/numbers to make the store look good for the uninformed.

Oh well, they have deep pockets with Fortnite and Tencent support so let them waste money.

I believe this game was also on ps+ not too long ago

friend text me last night saying he'd just bought ac odyssey for a fiver from egs. discounted to £15 in the sale then used the £10 off coupon. for a minute i had that "what if this one is different..." 🤔 moment of temptation i seem to still get with ubi games, before coming to my senses and deciding against it.

ill keep an eye on the freebies though and add anything decent to the black hole that is my backlog

@howmakewood: PS5 offers the best Cities: Skylines experience.

Obviously the free games are awesome, but I love their coupons. You buy one game and get to use the coupon and then immediately get another one to use on another game. I just bought Ghost Runner which was 25% off plus the $14 off coupon. I got the game for $15.99 CAD. :)

People on this forum and a few other places really don't understand how marketing and the modern market works. Free games is desperation as much as free email, free storage and all the other free things that we all use on a day to day basis while these corporations that are offering these free stuff is banking billions. If that is desperate, then sign me up.

@pc_rocks: I have already bought over 10 games on Epic Games Store. I don't mind buying games on it because the developers get a bigger cut from the sales compared to Steam. I don't like that some games are temporary exclusives, but it doesn't cost anything to get access to them. You don't have to buy a console or subscribe to a service to get access to them. So, while I would like the games to be available on other stores, it is really up to the individual developers. They are the ones that choose to make it exclusive and take Epic's money for the deal. They obviously feel the temporary exclusivity is worth it for them.

Besides, Epic is doing all this to shake things up. Free games, exclusives, etc. attract users to their platform. These tactics are used to put pressure on Steam and others to offer better revenue splits industry wide. This is also to keep Valve/Steam in check and to not have a monopoly. So, while exclusives do suck, Epic's intentions and motivations are actually pretty good.

@BassMan: Exclusives on PC (as in exclusive to a store front) is the funniest complaint from PC gamers and possibly the oddest complaint on exclusives (not directed at you, your comment reminded me). I am not a fan of Epic games but they are bringing competition in a market that was almost exclusively Steam. We now have options. Too many options are just as bad but I don't think we are there yet.

Agreed. Made me think of another point..There are people out there who pirate games, and who knows where those games came from. There are people who buy CDkeys that were from a different market/country. But legally downloading a free game from Epic? Don't you dare!

@SolidGame_basic: What are you talking about and how does any of that relate to what I stated?

I was just adding to your point. 🤷‍♂️

@SolidGame_basic: Oh! LOL. I am sorry but it felt random and confusing. Probably, I need to sleep.

Why would I care about developers getting a bigger cut when I as a consumer is shafted in the process. Besides that 'bigger cut' is just PR. In reality and practice, devs get more from Steam than EGS discounting the Epic money for exclusivity (even that it's not yet verified if that's actually helps or they actually lose money due to loss in potential sales). I mean at least Exodus was a failure with the deal. Anyway, devs can generate/sell the Steam keys themselves with 100% of the money.

Oh and Epic is trying to shake up not that they are succeeding from the looks of things and haven't been able to put any pressure on Steam or anybody. That's just their PR. Steam hasn't done 1 bit due to EGS nor was it ever a monopoly to begin with. It's actually Epic who's after a monopoly and doing things like a monopolist by exploiting their position as a Fortnite/UE developer after years of sh*t talking PC and PC gamers.

Lol, I updated my post so it wasn't as random haha.

You make it sound so extreme. "... when I as a consumer is shafted in the process." LOL. You can still buy EGS keys on other sites. Also, these other sites also take a cut from developers for selling their Steam keys. Developers do not get 100% of the money from those keys.

Metro Exodus did not fail. It did well on both EGS and Steam. It was also on Game Pass. I bought the game at launch on EGS myself. The average user does not care that a game is exclusive to EGS. They just want to play the game. It is no different than an EA game being exclusive to Origin. Some people do care, but most don't.

Valve already adjusted their split to developers as a result of EGS. Their default split is still 70/30, but they now offer a 75/25 split for games that generate over 10$ million in revenue and a 80/20 split for games that generate over $50 million in revenue. However, this is still not as good as Epic's 88/12 default split.

Today's game is Oddworld: New 'n' Toasty! Epic is 2/2 I'd say. Keep em' coming!

May be EGS started doing it now but still not sure if the keys/generation is free for the devs or they don't get any cut. However on Steam the devs can keep 100% of the revenue if they sell those keys themselves. No one said about the other sites don't take their cut. I was talking about the devs themselves. As for being shafted, can I buy with all the payment methods available on Steam? Can I be able to not being forced to pay the payment charges my self if I don't chose to go with CC/PayPal etc? Can I buy EGS credit/EGS Cards like Steam? Do I get reviews or complain about the game? Sorry, as a customer I don't give two sh*ts about EGS revenue split PR or the vultures known as publishers which in reality is just a farce.

Metro did fail on EGS IIRC. Shortly after launch we had Deep Silver or who the publisher was with reports that it has sold way below expectations or something lie that. Also, the developers are shafted hard in that particular case because royalties are bound to copies sold and not the exclusivity money that the publisher gets. So essentially for cases like this where the publisher at the last minute change the storefront only they get to keep the money and not developers.

Valve didn't change the cut in response to Epic. The cut was already implemented before EGS was a thing. The change was just highlighted more after EGS. EGS haven't forced Valve to change one bit about Steam. If anything EGS is playing catch up to Steam in terms of features and policies to this day after almost 2-3 years being live. Oh and since we are so after the revenue split, why don't we go with Discord store? The revenue split is even better there or are Epic going to change the split to theirs as well? Revenue split is nothing but a marketing point.

If anything Valve has everything in their arsenal to go after Epic and all the publishers that broke Steam's T&Cs by pulling games from Steam to EGS as well as anti-trust case due to Epic misusing their dominance with UE4 to get an unfair advantage. They CHOSE not to and that gives you a pretty good idea of how Epic is a monumental failure as far as 'shaking things up' is concerned.

@mrbojangles25: It’s an over 5 year-old game that’s been pimped out to just about every platform. Yeah it’s a good game and you also can’t fault anyone for going for it, but I imagine the vast majority of people who had any interest in the genre has already picked it up. Especially now after a dozen expansions that have usually been bundled in with sales.

Right, and that's a common theme with all the games Tencent-Epic gives away; all the people that were going to buy those games have probably bought them already.

It's a very superficial sort of giving away of things imo, and I don't like it. Which makes me feel bad, because hey, free games are pretty great...I just don't like their motives is all.

I always like people uptalking steam. Gaben is full blown anti consumer himself.

Thanks to him, we don't even own digital games anymore in the digital space, we can't trade them and pc mods got a massive blow to the point lots of people left the community.

@pc_rocks: on Linux you don't need to install their client, there is an open sour e download script and the games play without DRM for the most part.

Alright got city skylines, oddworld new and tasty, 3rd free game comes out in like 10 minutes. Thinking i might use this 10$ coupon towards star wars fallen order, its only 23$ so i can get it for 13$. Also Epic is doing a thing where if you spend the 10$ coupon on a 14.99 game or higher, they give you another 10$ coupon.

Ive used Steam my whole life, but the last few years steam hasn't had that great of sales. they use to be amazing. EGS is killing it it right now, i might prefer steam as a launcher but i for sure will take advantage of these free games and even use their coupons towards other SP titles I want. No reason to get Fallen Order on steam if i can get it cheaper on EGS

Next game is The Long Dark. Never heard of it, but I'm redeeming it!

And I agree. I find it humorous how some people are against brand loyalty, but what about Steam loyalty?

yeah ive heard of it, normally wouldn't buy, not big on survival style games, but for free why not!

I don't know why people fanboy for steam so hard, back in the day i only had steam because i had to have it for valves games like CS and DoD, HL2 required steam to launch if i remember correctly. That's why i had steam. Not because of the client, but because of valve games back then. steam used to be famous for awesome deals, not so much any more. Steam is graben's money maker. Making games doesn't make big money like selling other peoples games on your popular client do. Now we get Artifact and Half Life VR. :(

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/the-long-dark/home

Today's game

Does Epic even support Linux? I remember Sweeney getting sh*t for not doing that? Nevertheless, on Linux I don't think any games have DRM or at least any third party ones apart from Steam it self.

Anyway, I don't even visit their website let alone do anything with their client. What I meant by not installing the client is won't support them.

Awesome. In the meantime some folks bitch about Epic, I will grab the free games.

Alien Isolation is today's game! I admit, I already own it 😋