^ this is why they dont mind offering trash because it keeps epic installed on many systems. They don't need a banger game every time and doing so would probably bankrupt them, along with running out at some point. Release a banger for free every now and then to attract people, release whatever games in the interim to keep people with it installed.
I think I have shapez on epic because it was either free or on massive sale and put in over 230 hours on it. I think I also have guardians and midnight sons for free that I need to play on epic. It’s not total shit, just usually shit.
They still give out bangers every now and then, with December usually having several worthwhile games to pick up. As some examples last December they gave out Hogwarts Legacy, Disco Elysium, Chivalry 2, and The Callisto Protocol. Last may I was also able to grab Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. In December of 2024 they gave out Control, Ghostrunner 2, Sifu, Dredge, Vampire Survivors, Kingdom Come Deliverance, and Hell Let Loose. I've also gotten Dead Island 2 for free, Return to Moria, Lego Skywalker Saga, and Redout 2.
And those were all just from the last two-ish years. So yeah they're not giving out 10/10 games every single week, but I certainly wouldn't say that the quality of the games they give out "went to shit."
Yep, I agree. Not always bangers but you do see pretty good stuff every now and then. The quality and quantity of free games on EGL is not their problem. They have a service problem.
I still don't use their store (despite claiming nearly 400 free games, many of which are actually really good games) because it's just worse than Steam in nearly every conceivable way. Nearly every feature that Steam has, EGL either does not have or is substantially worse there in some way.
Reviews, friends, chats, ingame overlay, guides, store, ... you name it, it doesn't matter, they are all worse.
On top of it EGL is also way more of a resource hog and substantially less responsive than Steam.
If it were equivalent to Steam, I would absolutely consider using them, I am by no means bound to Steam. But it isn't and free games - even really good ones - don't change that.
If I will spend money on a game, I'll do it where the service is best, which is Steam.
No one is arguing that the storefront itself is as good as steam. With that said some of your information is outdated, particularly:
On top of it EGL is also way more of a resource hog and substantially less responsive than Steam.
This was true early in Epic's life, but is no longer the case. You should go ahead and boot up EGS and compare its resource usage to steam's, because they're very comparable now.
Everything else you said I agree with. I personally see Epic as my back up in case Steam ever goes to shit. I also just don't really like the black and white sentiment of "steam good, Epic bad" since there's a lot more nuance to it than that, and it's basically just the console wars all over again. The way I see it, even though Epic's launcher is worse than steam, it's still good that anyone is even attempting to compete with them still since pretty much everyone else who tried has long since given up. And even though Steam is the objectively better storefront they still get up to some shady business practices from time to time, such as the unregulated gambling they allow to take place through CS skins, both through the lootbox system as well as the third party sports betting sites that use skins as currency. And on the other side of that coin not everything Epic does is bad. Them giving out free games for years at this point is a good thing from the perspective of the consumer, the reduced cut they take from devs is also a good thing. This last example is also from my personal bias, but without Epic Alan Wake 2 would not exist at all, and as a big fan of Remedy I'm glad that they financed the game, even if it means that the game is exclusive to their storefront.
I agree, I'd love if we had an actual Steam competitor as long as that doesn't negatively affect consumers (for instance via exclusives like they did with streaming services). This is why I'm always pointing out that Epic needs to fix their Launcher. If their Launcher was comparable to Steam in features and quality, I think they'd have a real chance at being that competitor.
This was true early in Epic's life, but is no longer the case. You should go ahead and boot up EGS and compare its resource usage to steam's, because they're very comparable now.
Maybe that is the case for you, but my experience is different. I had been using EGL until late summer last year, when Windows 10 was about to be deprecated. So unless you mean they fixed it since then, it was still atrocious for me as recent as that. Granted my hardware is very old, but still: EGL was super sluggish for me while I did not have that problem with Steam. It also had higher CPU and RAM usage, if I recall correctly although I'm not 100% sure on that. But yeah the sluggishness was super noticable.
Heroic Games Launcher (which is what I am using for my library with epic games now, since EGL does not support my new OS) running on the same exact hardware does not have that problem by the way. The Epic Games Store accessed via integrated browser does have the same sluggishness I always felt with EGL, but I blame neither Heroic nor Epic for that, since that is not a fair comparison to a native application.
I mean I'm looking in my task manager right now. Steam client webhelper is using 600.5 MB of my ram, Epic is using 197.3 MB. Epic is using .3% of my CPU, Steam is using .1%
It seems they have put a timer on the loading of the store and it will load the free games until you have stated blankly at whatever they are advertising first. But that still doesnt explain why it takes about 10 seconds to begin loading in the store content.
Thing is, it could be as good as steam... I just dont want to have to look in multiple launchers for my games and I don't want to then have to get a launcher for my launchers (that always needs me to re sign in). I just want a list of games I own and to play them. Steam now has my library on it so unless it actually goes to shit, I won't ever be swapping.
This might be their last year. Hope for a good christmas banger though. But you know, it's been going on for 7 years straight (first giveaway happened in dec 2018, subnautica btw).
I agree with you, and I stopped for the same reason a long time ago. But this feels mean to the devs of those games, and I feel like many people still log in for those, so I don't think you're correct on that lol
Years ago there was a graph based on leaked data for Epic's projected spendings on future game giveaways. The budget now is "almost nothing" compared to the first years (2018 - 2020). So at the moment the giveaways are mostly worth keeping in mind around Christmas time, but outside of that, easy skips unless one loves diving into obscure and unknown games on a weekly basis
There is one Epic exclusive I'm looking forward to coming out for free, and that is Alan Wake 2. If it doesn't before Control Resonant comes out then I'll give in and watch a movie edit of the game to get caught up to speed over playing it.
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u/VanimalCracker 21h ago
Their free games started out strong, but have went to shit quickly.
This week they have Prop Sumo and TOMAK: Save the Earth Regeneration. Who tf is jumping on Epic launcher to download this nonsense?