I am not sure how long Epic store can keep giving out free games.

Sooner or later they will go into a loss. Its not like a lot of people are making epic accounts to actually buy games there.

I honestly think they just transfer the money across from elsewhere. When people are playing their free to play games and throwing absurd amounts of money at "only cosmetic" items because they want to "support the developers so they can make the game better" Epic is just tunnelling the money to support these free games and generate income elsewhere.

Disclaimer: Nothing wrong with supporting developers. But there's a difference between buying something direct from the publisher to support them and throwing money at them and hoping for a return.

Its not like a lot of people are making epic accounts to actually buy games there

we don't have enough information to tell if most epic store users just claim free games and never buy anything.
while exclusivity is generally not great for the gamer, it has been an effective means to get customers into an ecosystem, its pretty much the foundation for all console gaming. if its anything like console gaming we'll soon have epic store fans going out of their way to defend exclusivity and perhaps asking for more corporate friendly practices.
besides, if the store survives long enough, they will reach a point where they don't have to give away so many games for free.

at least we have xcom 2 on Gog now. who ever thought that would ever happen?

They don't make the accounts in order to buy there, but if they already have one due to the freebies, they might consider buying something, too, if the offer is good. Keep in mind while giving away GTA V, they have a sale running at the same time, with the usual $10 off coupons.

Now they are trying to expand their userbase aggressively with free games. Apparently it is working if their web site went down today due to people rushing in to download their client, in order to get free GTA V.

How many of those new users turn into paying customers, that remains to be seen. Then again, they also already have all the Fortnite players, some of which even spend money on the game. Not sure what their angle will be to get people to buy games there instead of Steam, is it simply price competition or what.

I don't recall if I read it here before, was it so that they are somehow using the Unreal Engine too to entice publishers to the store, like "you can use the Unreal Engine for free if you release the game exclusively on Epic store" or something like that?

BTW, I just performed the in-game benchmark test for GTA5: I got around 150 FPS for most of the test and the framerate only dropped to around 70 during an elaborate chase scene. Meanwhile, I get around 40FPS on average in GTA4. I don't know what they did in 4 to screw up so badly...

The DRM scheme in both games seem to be almost identical: They both open the Rockstar Launcher on startup to verify the game.

I don't know which version you have, but on Steam it was listed as using SecuRom for a long time. Judging from my experience with SecuRom, I'd say that one can definitely slow games down. But apparently it's been removed from GTA IV now?

First game I consider buying on Epic is Tony Hawk. And this after - let me count - getting 44 free games there O.O I don't even really know how their store looks like. So... I think you're right.

Well put. I'm one EGS freebie collector who threw caution to the wind and bought a few games on the platform. It's not an ideal design (website or client) overall, and I don't see the client-independence of its games lasting but I got my monies worth I think.

And of course EGS has been playing the "base game freebie" trick quite a bit there which is quite clever (not an original idea, but it is clever).

I figured they had removed it by now, since the activation limit is gone. But I might be mistaken. Is there any way to quickly check if SecuRom has infested my system?

Indeed that is a way they "convince" you to buy from their storefront (paying for expansions and DLC)

Phew!

Looks like having a sleep paid off. ha ha ha ha

Only took me two attempts to get GTA V this morning .... probably due to all those Americans sleeping in their turn. ;)

I cannot believe all those here and elsewhere, who are surprised by the numbers wanting the game. They have this weird notion, that surely everyone who wanted the game would have had it by now. Just not true .... clearly.

From my memory, it has been one of those games that has been pirated big time for starters. And while I have seen it on sale at least once for around $35 AUD, it is usually dearer than that, and coupled with DRM, has certainly been off my radar. It has always been on my list to get though.

Then you have all those who have it on console, who wouldn't mind having it on the PC as well, but naturally resisted paying for it twice. My boys had it such.

While I don't believe in DRM at all, one of the reasons for that is the price for a game you don't really own. So of course the resistance changes when a great game becomes free, and it is just about tolerance at that point and not about money spent ownership issues.

P.S. I reckon a game like GTA V for free is a game changer. I've still not installed the Epic client, so not installed any of the considerable number of games I have gotten free from Epic yet. I no doubt will now though ... even if I just treat the games like a demo, before buying their DRM-Free equivalent at GOG for a fair price ... those that are available here anyway, that I like enough. Any good game I really like, I still want to own properly.

You would certainly imagine that this is the likely case.

Not sure how you reached that conclusion as there would have been many who just stuck to Steam for simplicity sake, but have now been well and truly tempted to also use Epic, and clearly paying for DRM games is no barrier to them.

No doubt what you say rings true for you and I and many GOG customers, but we are only a small drop in the ocean of gamers.

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I have read they intend to continue to the end of 2020 at least.

Clearly they have just ramped things up, by making the next new free game a mystery one, and starting that modus with such a popular game. In theory, many could hold off buying at Steam etc, waiting to see what the free mystery game might be. Then there is the fun of a mystery gaining Epic much attention.

We can speculate on how Epic is paying for the losses in all this, as just the potential missed sales of GTA V alone would be considerable I imagine ... but always hard to determine the real numbers of those eventually being willing to pay something. Maybe they are not doing this alone, as maybe many DEVs and publishers are unhappy with Steam.

Epic and their providers are certainly making many friends, and maybe that has translated to benefits for them already.

Not only did I get GTA V for free from them, but I got a $15 coupon to spend.

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One can also speculate on the eventual fate of GOG, and what that might mean for GOG only paying customers ... and perhaps Epic know something we don't (or we only suspect) ... just saying. If you are a Good Old GOG customer like myself, who has oodles of games, it might never translate to us spending at Epic or Steam, etc. But the potential for younger GOGites is certainly there if GOG fail. So maybe Epic are courting those early.

And that's the hook. You have to buy a 20 dollar game minimum to be able to use the coupon. So if you want to use it, you have to spend money there. Not judging in the least. I also grabbed GTA V and got the coupon (although I have no intention of ever spending money at the Epic store).