This spree of more or less "free" games from several sources is going to the point buying stuff sounds silly, also backlog increasing faster than play time allows...
What cheap PC gaming started a few years ago has turned into a weird situation: I'm actually buying some full price new games I really like to support the devs, they aren't many anyway, the rest can wait till it's redeemable.
I put "free" as you need Amazon here, link accounts there etc, but most is literally subscribe and click every now and then... is there a bot that does this automatically? I'm tired to be on the look out for some day-only offer and miss that single one I'd liked xD
Though, I do wonder where most of the money comes from, ok it's just software, but one day all these numbers will add up and something won't work. Devs, artists and so on still need to be payed real money... maybe there's just that much extra buffer for all to keep doing this but it sounds slightly unnerving.
Basically what is going on is that EPIC Games wants to control the production, distribution, and sale of their games, but Valve's Steam was such a big player that to not sell your game on on their platform was nearly corporate suicide for a video game company.
So, Epic in a fit of corporate greed, decided that they had a game so popular and in demand that they could create their own store front and give people no choice but to use it if they wanted to play their popular game. It failed spectacularly. Epic lost their shirt. Almost everyone waited for it to be on Steam before buying.
We told Epic, with our wallets, that the problem was that we were already heavily invested in Steam, that we didn't want another platform. Epic's response has been to give away free and desired games in order to get us invested in their platform as well.
It has worked so well others are emulating it, but most of the other companies either don't have, or are not willing to shell out, the huge wads of cash that Epic has to make it work.
It certainly appears that Epic has accomplished their goal. They can have first party games exclusive to their platform and they don't completely flop until Epic gives up and puts them on Steam. Now the question is how long will they continue to give away free games? Are they not happy with their victory? Are they trying to not just compete with Steam but crush them? How long can those wads of cash last when Epic is bleeding money?
One thing is certain. They are not bleeding all that money because they want to give you free games. There might be free candy now, but that is just to lure you into their white panel van.
Oh right, maybe games will be quickly built by AIs one day and price will be zero or a meaningless concept!
I believe that any AI capable of completely producing a game you would want to play will also demand that it get paid for it's work.
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