For the past 14 days, the Epic Games Store has been giving away free games in an attempt to draw more users to its service. The final day of the Epic Games Store free game event is upon us, and it's going out with a bang, giving away three games instead of just one.
Starting today and until January 9 at 10:00am local time, PC gamers can download Darksiders: Warmastered Edition, Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition, and Steep for free from the Epic Games Store. Unlike PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live, no subscription is necessary for players to claim the free games. Literally all that they have to do is download the Epic Games Store launcher and claim the free games, and they will have access to them indefinitely.
For those who are unsure about the free games, both Darksiders 1 and 2 earned a great deal of praise when they originally launched. Taking cues from the likes of God of War and The Legend of Zelda, Darksiders is a respectable franchise of its own, having just released Darksiders Genesis last month on PC and Stadia. Those who need to catch up on the series before trying Darksiders Genesis now have the perfect opportunity to do so.
Steep, meanwhile, is a snowboarding game from Ubisoft that released back in 2016. Steep earned average reviews when compared to the Darksiders game, but it still has its fans. Steep has previously been released for free through Uplay and PlayStation Plus, but those that missed out on claiming it then can pick it up for free now if they download the Epic Games Store launcher.
Giving away free games is just one part of Epic's strategy to become the dominant storefront for digital video games on PC. Its biggest attempt to lure users away from Steam has been by signing timed-exclusivity deals with video game developers, offering them a bigger cut of sales in exchange for only releasing on the Epic Games Store. This has caused quite a bit of controversy so far, especially when games that were previously advertised for Steam have skipped the platform, but has proven effective.
Moving into 2020, fans can expect Epic to remain aggressive in its attempt to dominate the PC gaming market, and this will include a new free game every week.