Newflash! There's a free game on Epic's Game Store! I know, who'd a
thunk it; what sort of store just ups and gives away free games? How
can they possibly make money? Well, I don't know either, but that's
what's happening. This week, we're getting:

Century: Age of Ashes
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/century-age-of-ashes

Of course, this give-away would be a /wee/ bit more impressive if the
game weren't FREE-TO-PLAY to begin with. Yeah, this is a
multiplayer-only title supported by the usual DLC and cosmetics. It
looks nice and the gameplay is reputedly sound - you fly around as a
giant dragon over large fantasy landscapes and battle other dragons -
but I've come to trust the entire free-to-play industry (it's too
often marred by grindy gameplay with too many features locked behind
paywalls) for me to show much interest. But if you can look past this
sort of thing and are interested in a novel online experience, you
could give "Century: Age of Ashes" a try.

(or get it on Steam, it's free there too
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/century-age-of-ashes ;-)

Usually I'd say you only have a week to decide, but seeing as this
game is free regardless of Epic's "generosity" you can take all the
time you need this time.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>Century: Age of Ashes
>https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/century-age-of-ashes
>
>Of course, this give-away would be a /wee/ bit more impressive if the
>game weren't FREE-TO-PLAY to begin with.

This week's free game from the Epic Game Store is actually Cris Tales:

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/cris-tales

Century: Age of Ashes just happens to be a free-to-play game that was
added to the Epic Game Store yesterday.

--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca:11068/
db //

On Thu, 24 Feb 2022 23:17:12 -0000 (UTC), rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
(Ross Ridge) wrote:

>Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>>Century: Age of Ashes
>>https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/century-age-of-ashes
>>
>>Of course, this give-away would be a /wee/ bit more impressive if the
>>game weren't FREE-TO-PLAY to begin with.
>
>This week's free game from the Epic Game Store is actually Cris Tales:
>
> https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p/cris-tales
>
>Century: Age of Ashes just happens to be a free-to-play game that was
>added to the Epic Game Store yesterday.

They changed it, then. Earlier today - when I made the post - the Epic
Game Store only showed "Century: Age of Ashes" in the "Free Games"
category, with no mention of Cris Tales. It wasn't just some /random/
free game either; it was presented as this week's free offering, right
next to the usual preview of next week's give-away. Now "Century: Age
of Ashes" has been moved to the other 'discounted games' category and
"Cris Tales" is in its place, but when I made my post, "Century:AoA"
was definitely intended to be this week's free-game give-away, no
doubt about it.

I'm wondering if customer feedback made Epic quickly change tactics,
because offering a free-to-play game as some special free game did
seems sort of sleazy.

I can't say I'm all that excited about "Cris Tales" either, but
neither Indie-quality visuals nor JRPG gameplay are my cuppa; it may
be worthwhile to others with more expansive tastes. Reviews on Steam
are mixed though; it certainly does not seem it is worth the $40 they
are asking for it there. I mean, I'm obligated to take the game
because it's free and I like to pretend I am somehow costing Epic
money by taking them up on these give-aways, but the likelihood that I
ever play it are slim.

But at least it's not a free-to-play game. I was really starting to
wonder about Epic's finances for a while, with a move like that.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>I'm wondering if customer feedback made Epic quickly change tactics,
>because offering a free-to-play game as some special free game did
>seems sort of sleazy.

It was announced last week, as is usual for Epic Game Store freebies,
that Cris Tales would be the free game for this week. There must have
been some sort of glitch or data entry error on their web site that
caused it to show the wrong game.

Apparently their web site was also (mistakenly?) showing Centipede:
Recharged and Black Widow: Recharged as being next week's free games,
as a few news sites are reporting these games as being the ones for
next week, but currently the client and web site are only showing the
"Epic Slayer Kit" for the free-to-play game Dauntless.

Just to be clear, next week they're not giving away a free-to-play game,
but a DLC pack for a free-to-play game.

--
l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
[oo][oo] rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
-()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca:11068/
db //

On Fri, 25 Feb 2022 03:14:01 -0000 (UTC), rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
(Ross Ridge) wrote:
>Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

>Apparently their web site was also (mistakenly?) showing Centipede:
>Recharged and Black Widow: Recharged as being next week's free games,
>as a few news sites are reporting these games as being the ones for
>next week, but currently the client and web site are only showing the
>"Epic Slayer Kit" for the free-to-play game Dauntless.

At the time of my initial post, the free game was "Century" and the
preview for the next week was the "Dauntless" DLC package.

>Just to be clear, next week they're not giving away a free-to-play game,
>but a DLC pack for a free-to-play game.

The combination of the above was what made me really start to wonder
about Epic's finances. Or, perhaps more precisely, whether the company
had come to the conclusion that their free games campaign wasn't going
to bring them any significant new games and they were scaling it down.

Epic has stated that the campaign will continue through 2022, but they
made no comment as to the quality of games they will offer. The
campaign has convinced millions of people to create an account on
their service (not an inconsequential achievement, since onboarding
new customers is one of the hardest parts of making a sale) but I
can't imagine that number is growing dramatically anymore. And judging
by what (little) we know of their finances, most of these accounts
haven't been converted into paying customers.

The free games brings people to their website (which has value) but -
judging by the lack of EGS's profitablity - many stay only long enough
to click the "gimme the freebie" button and then leave. The few who do
linger (and perhaps purchase) may not be enough to offset the cost of
the free game campaign. It wouldn't surprise me if the bulk of the
free offerings we get are much smaller scale that cost the company
less.

This isn't saying EGS won't become profitable - its quick growth
probably ensure that it will remain a fixture of PC gaming in the near
future - but just that the benefits of the free game campaign may be
diminishing to the point of uselessness. They've done the job of
attracting users to the service; why continue with such an expensive
campaign? Of course, lacking more first-hand information, I will be
the first to admit such predictions themselves are little more than
idle speculation. And given Epic's huge warchest thanks to Fortnite's
continued uber-success, they may continue the free-game campaign
despite its reduced effectiveness since it may not be affecting the
bottom line very much.