Like what the title says. There’s always a catch unless it’s FOSS. So, what is the catch with them giving games for free that you can keep forever? What will the developers of the games get as a thank you?
It’s likely a scheme to entice people onto their platform because they’re not as trusted as valve or gog. If they become a monopoly then we’ll get to see all the various catches to that.
this tbh
though it doesn’t really work, i have 183 epic games, none of which have i bought lol
One catch is that Epic’s mystery code is allowed to execute on your computer.
Note that I don’t mean just their launcher. Often, if not always, the games themselves are linked with Epic code, ostensibly for license checks and/or integration with Epic services. This gives them the ability to snoop on stored data, installed/executing processes, biometrics, etc.
Running those free games with an alternative launcher does not protect against this.
It’s not just a theoretical concern, either. Epic has already been caught copying Steam files, collecting friends play history, and scanning running processes.
https://old.reddit.com/r/fuckepic/comments/wakewr/epic_games_spyware_vs_steam_vs_as_comparision_ea/
https://www.pcgamesn.com/epic-launcher-spyware
I don’t trust them, their CEO, or Tencent (which owns a significant chunk of Epic), so I don’t run games that come from them.
This is such an underrated comment for such an important point.
Is this an issue when using the Heroic launcher as well? None of the links mention this being an issue with Heroic.
Heroic Games Launcher doesn’t change the code in the game executable itself, so yes, it is still an issue when using Heroic.
Install Heroic via Flatpak and use Flatseal so you decide what it gets access to.
Even without that, I don’t think a game running on their own wine prefix can interact with your Steam running on Linux system directly.
It would be pretty amazing if this godforsaken company only looked at Linux to fuck us like that.
Flatpak permissions are famously coarse, and its sandboxing mechanism is weak and full of holes. It can be useful for guarding against damage caused by programming mistakes, but I would not recommend it to anyone wanting protection from adversarial software.
What would be your recommended way to run the Epic Launcher?
I do not recommend running Epic software at all.
But imagine if someone did want to use it, what would be your recommended approach? You seem quite knowledgeable in this area and I’m sure we could all learn something.
Trying to discredit people because of the forum on which they discussed a topic, or because you view them as beneath your skill level, is a more than a little misguided, and frankly, disingenuous.
Epic themselves have admitted to copying Steam data and scanning running processes, as has been documented in various news articles. (example, example)
In any case, the point is not one particular incident or report, but rather that they have the capability, grant themselves permission to use it via their policy documents, and have earned distrust among a lot of gamers. Posting condescending emoji here doesn’t change that.
Edit: P.S. In future comments defending Epic, you might do readers the courtesy of stating up front that you are moderator of an Epic Games forum.
Why would I trust a random cropped screenshot from a bad faith subreddit about hating everything related to Epic? Either of us can run Process Monitor, filter by the desired process, and see if their claims have merit. They don’t.
The article and post I linked already explain the Steam and process list parts. How in your opinion does any program that needs to check if a process is running do that? Where would you expect Epic to get your Steam friends list if you’re asking it to import your Steam friends?
can it be sandboxed in a sensible way? (on linux specifically)
You could download and play the games on a machine that is never used for any other purpose, but it would still be able to collect biometric data (mouse movement, keystroke patterns, voice if you have a microphone, etc.) and probe/fingerprint your network.
Short of a dedicated machine, the closest you’re likely to get is a hypervisor-based virtual machine. Of course, that won’t safeguard your biometrics or (in most cases) your network, either.
Such a machine would be safer if you never gave it network access, so it couldn’t exfiltrate any data that it had collected, but downloading games requires network access at some point, and it would only take milliseconds for a “helper” process (perhaps quietly installed or launched with the game) to leak the data.
In general, hostile code will always be unsafe. If it concerns you, it’s best to avoid it entirely.
And there we have the catch! If not one of them. Many thanks :)
The catch is you have to install the Epic app or whatever it is called.
Also they hate Linux and shitcanned the already-existing native Linux port of Rocket League when they bought it. It’s fair to say you won’t dump resources into making new Linux ports but shitcanning a quality one that already existed? They can eat shit.
I never played Rocket League again after that.
Heroic Launcher ftw
Or don’t use Epic at all.
You have always been able to claim the games for free on the website.
You can claim them, sure. But you’ll need their launcher when you want to play them.
Heroic Launcher runs on both Windows and Linux
Third party launchers do exist, yes, but normally you’d have to use Epic’s launcher. That’s what they’re counting on, anyway.
Not necessarily
You would ordinarily have to use their launcher, but third party launchers do exist.
That is not true on Linux.
The catch is now you have games in their ecosystem and are more likely to spend more time and money there.
They want you to use their service. You’re more likely to use the service if you already have a library of games on it.
What will the developers of the games get as a thank you?
They wouldn’t be making them free without making a deal with the developer first. There was a leak that showed the actual amount a while back.
They wouldn’t be making them free without making a deal with the developer first. There was a leak that showed the actual amount a while back.
That is what I was after! Not the leak, but the catch. Do you have the link to the source for the leak?
it’s not “forever”. it’s however long they don’t have any ideas to the contrary.
why it was implemented - so that executive #279 can show executive #114 that number go up. look how our engagement is rising! look at all them people downloading our app! when I took over from exec #317, number was this big, lookie now!
same way google made their search worse, so you have to search multiple times, thus upping the engagment, page views, etc. and then exec X goes to exec Y and say “look there’s a huge rise in searches where my bonus at!”
it’s not “forever”.
So true. Today it is known that you only buy a license of the games from Steam. And since Epic Games works in the same way as Steam, this also applies to them. They can delete any games from your library whenever they want - just like that *click*. I stopped buying games on Steam when that came out publicly and moved to GOG instead.
At least in the first years, most of the games released on the Epic Games Store were DRM-free, in the strictest sense in that you could move the folder from PC to PC without needing the launcher, like on GOG. You can see the data as of today here.
Still below 600 (if the numbers are dead-exact) which makes me glad. GOG should be the only place for DRM free games. But that’s my opinion. What I know of, GOG is today the only place for downloadable installation files of games.
The numbers represent confirmed cases, so there could be more. There used to be a GOG thread dedicated to testing games for DRM on Epic, but then it was locked and its main contributors have switched to adding the information to the wiki.
It’s not about engagement. As the court documents have shown, they want to increase the number of users and then see how many of those convert to paying customers.
The catch is downloading the Epic Launcher. Or not even that if you are on Linux.
To lure people away from Steam and onto their platform. There is no ulterior motive. Origin does/did (IDK I haven’t played an EA game in years) this too for the same reason.
This. The court documents from the trials vs Google and Apple even showed that they divide how much they pay the publisher for the giveaway by the number of users acquired to determine the cost per user.
Amazon games does it too.
It’s 2025. If you are getting a ‘free’ software product, there’s a chance of about 99,9% that the answer to that question is either ‘analytics/tracking/telemetry/customer retention’ or a combination of many or all of them.
In that case, you have to deal with the shitty epic launcher that is prone to “lose” user data.
When it comes to non-FOSS, yes, I agree.
You’re absolutely right. Sorry for that (admittedly catastrophic) omission.
"developers see sales increases on both the Epic Games Store and on Steam, Valve’s competing PC game store. Sweeney also points out that the free games can be a good deal for players in developing countries where gaming may be more expensive, meaning that they help expand the global reach of some titles. And since developers get a flat fee from Epic so that Epic can offer their game for free, they make some money no matter what.
Epic isn’t being entirely altruistic, of course. The company spends a lot of money to be able to give games away for free, and it certainly wants to offer good ones that keep people playing on its platform instead of others like Steam. And if Epic can attract players with free games from notable developers, those same players might also try out some of Epic’s big free-to-play multiplayer games like Fortnite or Rocket League, keeping them in Epic’s universe — and, again, off Steam. "
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/9/23630846/epic-games-store-free-weekly-giveaways-2023
Exactly, Unlike Steam, who does have some popular games, but if I think about it their only free titles are TF2 and Counter Strike and dont care much anymore on developing games, and they are popular, but old. Epic is giving free games, and you might also end up playing Fortnite and get hooked on it. Little by little they might spand their options but thats how they start to grow. The thing that I do find stupind on their part and genius on Steam is the support of linux development and how they made the Steam Deck, just having a device that is very easy to use, replaces a gaming console, and you dont have to spend anything developing anything for it, no games, no software, just their OS and making Proton more compatible, and you have access to the biggest gaming library. Even if their SteamOS is closed sourced, hardware is decent, and you can change OS easily, unlike old game consoles because its just a pc in a gaming case. It changed the gaming industry forever, they might not have been the first to offer this, but they did produce a good product that others take as a standard. If Epic starts to support linux, they would have a much better and secure future, the main problem is that they have to change their gaming engine to think of doing that, and thats hard and they might not want to touch their golden chicken for a while. Steam can make those investments because they have being here a long time and they stabilized their growth venture, Epic is on their first couple growth sprouts and decisions for the future might not be that appealing.
make bad platform give free games ??? profit
I’ve claimed probably 70% of the free games for the past four or five years. I’ve noticed some of the titles disappear. So one catch is, you may not get to keep the free game(s) you grab.
I hadn’t noticed this, and I’ve claimed a ton of them as well. Do you have an example?
I don’t even remember the name of the game, but it was one that was next to a title I do play often when sorted by “recent” which is based on purchase (or redemption) date. Might have been that underwater exploration title.
Hm, the only underwater ones I can think of are Subnautica and Abzu, both of which are still in my library (although I wouldn’t mind if Abzu went away, as it was basically just an underwater walking sim). I couldn’t find anything on the list quickly, despite a couple ones sounding like underwater ones, like Stranded Deep and Submerged: Hidden Depths, which didn’t look like they actually were underwater games.
I was wrong that it was water-themed. It was “Pacific Drive” which I guess made me think of underwater. I never got a chance to play it, and it’s no longer in my library. I think there was another one, but I can’t remember now. It was a while back that I discovered it.
EDIT: I agree with you 100% about ABZU. Boring after the first five minutes. Also, I don’t see Pacific Drive on the free games list. I need to try to remember the sequence of events. I know I never bought it, because I’ve never bought any games from EGS; all my titles were free ones.
Nah that’s pretty weird I’ve not heard of that before. I’ve snagged a fair number and still got them as far as I can tell.
I still have hundreds, but they do disappear like any purely digital asset.
Epic claims it increases sales (much in the same way that pirates do) but I suspect it’s just to get people past the very high barrier of creating an account and installing their (presumably) ad-ridden and data-collecting (they’re owned by Tencent) launcher.
The former doesn’t make much sense to me given they could just buy those games on Steam anyway and have a much better experience.
they’re owned by Tencent
About 35%
Tim Sweeney himself owns 41%
Tencent owns a substantial portion of the company, and therefore has substantial access and influence. Nitpicking about the percentages is irrelevant.
Logistically, it’s super cheap marketing. Epic pays the dev a reasonable pittance ( assuming it’s not a free game, they do that too) you got to watch their ads during download/install, they got you email, they know what games you’re interested in. Your interests are for sale for sure, but for a free game, may be worth a throw away email.
The problem with EPIC games is, that you need an account with your full name and data, even for an free game, not needed in Steam or GOG, where it is enough with nick and mail, only the need for more if you want to buy a game. Searching free games, only Steam and Itch.io are full of these.
What do you mean, I have a nick, fake email, fake name and I’m enjoying my free games for years.
You have free games always for years if you like these, without the need of fake names and data, often even without the need of accounts, controlled by companies with desktop clients and other crap which rest a lot of privacy. Free games don’t need all this, less paid games, you install it and it’s yours forever, all other is an abuse of big corporations which make money with your data.
I’ve an Steam account, but forced, because a lot of years ago I bought in a store an CD with Portal, but to run it, it was mandatory an Steam account FOR AN LOCAL SINGLEPLAYER GAME WHICH I BOUGHT PHYSICALLY IN A STORE, WTF.
