It's non every solar day that y'all tin can become a gratis AAA game similar GTA 5, Batman Arkham Knight or Star Wars Battlefront 2, but thanks to weekly Epic Games Shop giveaways, gamers' libraries are bursting with bully titles. And alongside the big-budget games are critically acclaimed indie titles like Superhot, Hyper Light Drifter, Limbo and The Messenger, presenting plenty of loftier-quality gaming at a price that'due south hard to vanquish.

The Ballsy Games Store isn't the but ane giving stuff away. IndieGala offers free games regularly, equally does the Apprehensive Store and GOG. While gratuitous games are always hard to turn downwards, we have to ask how this is a valid business strategy for these platforms? And should gamers worry?

"Launching and operating a digital game shop is not for the faint of eye," said Lewis Ward, Director of Gaming, eSports and VR/AR at IDC. "It takes years of commitment and deep pockets."

Topping the Establishment

When it comes to PC gaming, in that location is a pretty big thespian to compete with: Steam.

"Steam debuted in 2003 and and then they've established a long rails record of doing right by PC gamers," said Ward. "Manifestly it doesn't injure that DOTA 2 and other Valve games and franchises like Counter Strike: Global Offensive, One-half-Life and Left four Dead have been massive, often exclusive hits over the years."

Steam isn't giving up many costless games considering they don't accept to purchase new users to its platform. Past now, every PC gamer practically assumes that a game will exist available on Valve's platform. Over the years, Steam gained new features like community pages, friends lists, support for mods and even remote play.

"Valve really listens to its users and while the visitor isn't perfect, it'due south made a lot of smart decisions, and it doesn't hurt that Gabe is a chip of an iconoclast," said Ward. "In recent years, the unofficial Steam store in China has also been a huge hit and helped propel Steam's worldwide growth in users (although the revenue stream from China isn't as large as the Chinese user base of operations suggests)."

Getting Gamers On Board

To compete with the giant that is Steam, Epic has to become the gamer'southward attention.

"If y'all're going to challenge an established and respected incumbent like Steam, you've got to exercise something that'south going to bring over developers and gamers to your store that's out of the ordinary," explained Ward.

"Obviously Ballsy has been able to do that so far, and the result is that they've had to bite the bullet on turning a profit in terms of the store itself."

"Epic is basically buying market share through complimentary/discounted games and its depression (12%) revenue cut on store sales," he added. If a game developer uses the Unreal Engine (made by Epic Games) they will also cover the 5 percent engine royalty for sales on the Epic Games store.

In comparison, Valve has a tiered system for revenue cuts, taking thirty% when the game launches, so taking 25% after the game has earned $10 meg, so twenty% when the game earns over $fifty million.

Arresting Costs

While information technology looks like Epic is leaving a lot of coin backside (and offering plenty for developers using its platform) they seem to accept plenty to comprehend their costs.

Don't forget, Epic also has Fortnite bringing in millions of users, with PC gamers having to use their store to download and launch the game. Information technology also brings in a lot of acquirement for the visitor through microtransactions and other purchases.

For subscription services like Xbox Live Aureate and PlayStation Plus, the included games add up and assist go on gamers using the service.

"Like Netflix so on, the goal is to get max eyeballs and hours of employ, and the assumption is that will interpret into low churn rates over time, which is critical to running a profitable subscription service... or fifty-fifty a costless-to-play game," said Ward.

The attention is growing. Epic Games says that the monthly average active users on the store are 56 million, and though that is a far cry from Steam's 120 one thousand thousand agile monthly users, it is a big jump from 2022'due south average of 32 million.

Epic Games reported sales revenue of $700 million in 2022, of which about $265 million was spent on third-political party games. The catalogue of games offered in the Ballsy Games Store likewise increased from 190 titles in 2022 to 471 by 2022. Clearly, Epic is focusing on getting gamers on its platform, while games similar Fortnite and Rocket League are making them money.

The Ballsy Games Shop gave away 749 million free games last year.

However, when it comes to gratuitous games, the publisher boasts that 749 million free games were claimed last year, the most popular of which was GTA V which was and so popular it briefly crashed the store's servers.

Is there mutual growth? While Epic grows its user base and tin can avowal growing numbers every year thanks to these giveaways, gamers are growing their libraries, although it'southward of import to highlight the quality of the games Epic hands out. Co-ordinate to OpenCritic, the games take an boilerplate score of 77 per centum, which isn't too shabby.

What's in it for Developers?

A discussion of game freebies wouldn't be complete without a await at how it impacts third-party developers. When a company like Epic Games decides to brand 1 of the games in its library costless, it pays the developer of that game besides, although the details of that bargain aren't disclosed publicly. Information technology's likely a lump-sum payment, based on an interview with Ars Technica back in 2022.

The free game promo may help bring attending to a new game a particular studio is working on. For example, the Ballsy Games Store offered Borderlands 2 and Overcooked, and both games take sequels for sale on the platform, then for games that enjoyed those games, they tin continue the story or get more content with the newer titles. Additionally, developers featured in the giveaways tin can go new fans, leading to potentially more sales of other games.

Platform Wars and Exclusivity

When you wait at panel gaming, one of the biggest factors in choosing a platform is the quality of the exclusive games. This platform exclusivity is finding itself on PC platforms through these digital storefronts.

Some exclusives are offered every bit timed releases, coming to Epic's store before arriving on other platforms, encouraging impatient gamers to be a part of Epic's platform over some other. Some of these gamers were pretty popular and loftier profile, including Metro Exodus, Borderlands 3, Control, The Outer Worlds, and Hades.

Another approach is to share exclusivity, as Ubisoft does. The latest Ubisoft games have been released on its own store (Ubisoft Connect) and the Ballsy Games Store, but not Steam. A significant investor in Ballsy Games, Tencent, likewise owns Riot Games (developer of League of Legends and Valorant) and invests in Ubisoft, connecting the threads.

In the by, Epic had said it wouldn't chase exclusivity deals (and free games) forever, suggesting the strategy is just one more mode for them to become more users on its platform.

As they build the user base of operations, Ballsy is reiterating its commitment to developers. "Standing to improve our publishing tools has provided the opportunity to bring more games to the Ballsy Games Store in 2022 and equally we march toward complete self-publishing tools, nosotros expect to see even more new titles published," the publisher said in a press release earlier this year. "We want a smooth, seamless feel for developers looking to bring their titles to the Epic Games Store.

This unlocks the ability for Epic Games Store customers to purchase the games they want when they want while developers enjoy a much fairer revenue share dissever."

Skeptical or Satisfied Gamers?

For now, the contest between Steam and Ballsy has gamers expanding their libraries at no extra toll, but some aren't convinced. A major indicate of business is the significant investments by the Chinese visitor Tencent which owns a 40 percent pale in Epic Games. With increasing anti-Chinese sentiment and distrust around the world, there are worries almost data sharing and spying, not to mention a lack of control over what Epic Games does in the hereafter. Epic has stated that Tencent doesn't have admission to their private data or have any say in how Epic operates.

In the end, the costless games are a tool to grow its user base, letting Ballsy Games attract more than developers to its platform. Information technology's just i part of the strategy in competing with Steam, just every bit analysts pointed out, it takes significant commitments in terms of time and coin.

Gamers also have to be convinced, every bit the Ballsy Games Store'southward exclusives and lack of features brand it seem less consumer-friendly than its long-time rival, Steam. Other stores offer games without any digital rights direction, some other of import factor for gamers. Time will tell if it all adds upwardly for Ballsy, but the growth is certainly telling, with free games proving to be an integral part of the puzzle.