I’m honestly astonished they don’t require payment info on file to collect them by this point - initially it’s a way to bribe people into making an account, and now they could bribe a bunch of people into giving payment info and lowering one more barrier to actually buying from them.
That’s some dedication! Sometimes I wish I would do this more often. I start doing it, then it just fades away… Might be because some of the games don’t apply to my taste, then I forget to keep up with it.
There’s no way I’d catch up to my Steam library, there’s like 1,200+ games in there at this point. 2nd biggest is GOG with ~300 but I’ve been using Steam since HL2
I like Heroic but it doesn’t always help. I spent hours yesterday trying to get the Hot Wheels game working and never did get it working in game mode, only desktop.
Works for Prime and GOG. Epic sometimes works outside the docker container, but sometimes you still get a CAPTCHA still. There’s an active discussion for fixing Epic inside a docker container.
I’ve never seen captchas like that before, I wonder what kinda weird shit the next generation of captchas will be once we’ve trained the machines to solve these?
I too have basically all of them. A few have caught my interest on PC. More than a few were a big pain to get working on Steam Deck even with Heroic Launcher.
Initially I, too, claimed those, but ultimately I never ended up playing them and often I’d just end up buying them from steam instead. It’s funny how I’m willing to pay for something I can have for free, if it’s convenient and easy. So I didn’t claim them for very long, stopped a long time ago, and still just ignore it if a game I thirst for is available for free.
But that’s also a pretty dark prospect: Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday. And I, along with most everyone playing on pc, will be shit out of luck then.
It’s hard to diversify at this point, when I’m too far gone, and knowing changing or adding services will increase the complexity of using it all and keeping mental track of all the games and where they are.
Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday.
Yeah. I am confident that long term access to classic games is a torch only sufficiently carried by software pirates.
Don’t get me wrong, I adore things like the Atari 50th Anniversary collection, and what Evercade is doing with esoteric arcade titles. (And I delight in throwing money at them.)
But only a small fraction of the greatest games get that kind of loving licensed treatment.
For the rest of gaming history, software pirates are essential.
If Steam ever fucks over consumers I will pirate 100% of my games from that day on unless an indie company allows me to buy directly from them or through GoG.
Interesting thought: “Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday.”
Steam subscription $9.99 to access your library 😐 - man that feels wrong. But also can probably happen with the TOS noone reads
It could happen, but if it does, it’ll be decades down the line. Gaben has surrounded himself with true believers on purpose, in part to prevent that scenario.
I bought Alan Wake 2, and glad I did. Accidentally decided to buy Red Dead redemption 2 on there because of a discount code making it much cheaper than steam a couple of years ago.
Huge mistake. I added it as a non-steam game so now to launch Red Dead redemption 2. I need to launch steam which then launches epic which then launches Rockstar Games launcher which then launches the game.
Maybe don’t give Bezos more money, but if you have Prime alreafy anyways, then you get 4-5 games for every one that Epic gives away. Some are on their Prime service, but most of their codes are redeemed through GOG or Epic.
And thats exactly why Epic is untrustworthy. Its like a shady guy on the corner saying “Hey i will give you 500 bucks if you just do this easy little thing for me. Will be done right away no worries”.
With GOG you can download all game files to your local storage and play them even if GOG goes to shit. Thats the difference. But yes Steam is the same as Epic in that regard.
You commented on a post about a dude who never bought from Epic but still has 200 games there, that Epic is shady for doing this.
I said by that logic, GOG is shady as well, because they also give away tons of games.
Just saying that labeling them as untrustworthy, just because they give away games, doesn’t make sense. Steam was never mentioned, or the business practices of different storefronts.
Epic doesnt give games away. They give temporary licenses to games away which they can always take from you. Epic uses this to get people onto and dependent on their platform so they can then extract money from them. GOG has no way to extract money from people like that and has no leverage against their customers.
What are you even talking about? Why is Epic “extracting money” but GOG is not? Do you mean if you lose your games on Epic you will buy them again on Epic? Nobody does that, and it doesn’t happen in the first place.
Not to mention “stick it to 'em” when he’s doing exactly what Epic hoped for — engaging with their platform. It doesn’t even matter if you’re using Hero Launcher or not even playing it, it’s a +1 in their system and that’s what they care about.
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I’m pretty sure there are tons of people like that. It’s the same for me.
Yeah, that’s pretty common. 200+ games and they don’t even have payment info for me.
I’m honestly astonished they don’t require payment info on file to collect them by this point - initially it’s a way to bribe people into making an account, and now they could bribe a bunch of people into giving payment info and lowering one more barrier to actually buying from them.
If something is free, you’re the product. They still have all your sweet data :)
True, but they are collecting all my data either way since I have an account. I may as well collect the free games.
Do you think Steam or GOG isn’t collecting data on you?
Epic = China :)
That’s some dedication! Sometimes I wish I would do this more often. I start doing it, then it just fades away… Might be because some of the games don’t apply to my taste, then I forget to keep up with it.
I just subbed to [email protected].
FYI that one was a bit quiet so I started [email protected]
Nice plug, thank you
Only 200? Try harder, noob.
(I’m at 410, and my Epic library is now three times the size of my Steam one, lol.)
There’s no way I’d catch up to my Steam library, there’s like 1,200+ games in there at this point. 2nd biggest is GOG with ~300 but I’ve been using Steam since HL2
I stopped claiming epic freebies when I realized I ended up buying the game on steam anyway.
Just use Heroic launcher to play the free Epic games.
I like Heroic but it doesn’t always help. I spent hours yesterday trying to get the Hot Wheels game working and never did get it working in game mode, only desktop.
Guess their free giveaways kinda work as a promotion then.
I’m cheap, once I get the game free somewhere I take it off my Steam wishlist.
You can use this FOSS tool to automatically claim those games.
https://github.com/vogler/free-games-claimer
Some even work pretty well on Linux using the Heroic Launcher.
What the hell, I had no idea such a tool existed… I do not intend to use it… But it is so cool regardless.
Does that still work? Last updated over a year ago and the free games are usually protected by some rather creative captchas.
lol, it was last updated 3 days ago
I used it on deck a few months ago
Works for Prime and GOG. Epic sometimes works outside the docker container, but sometimes you still get a CAPTCHA still. There’s an active discussion for fixing Epic inside a docker container.
Never had to fill a captcha to get one of the free games
I didn’t until I started using a VPN.
I’ve never seen captchas like that before, I wonder what kinda weird shit the next generation of captchas will be once we’ve trained the machines to solve these?
That’s actually pretty awesome, thanks!
…are you Jesus?
Thank you, shared with my friends who claim free games!
I too have basically all of them. A few have caught my interest on PC. More than a few were a big pain to get working on Steam Deck even with Heroic Launcher.
Of course i know him that’s me.
My friend too have over 100 games. He never even play them but thankfully to him I don’t have to make Epic Account.
That’s literally the only reason I have Epic on my PC.
Free games every week.
i went a couple years, pretty steady. now it’s whenever i remember–and it’s not been that often. only one during the winter deals.
I have a reminder to check it on my Proton calendar every week, haha.
You can just claim them on the webpage, no need to install the launcher.
Sure, but if he wants to play them, he’ll need the client. And it sounds like actually does want to play them.
Heroic is also on Windows and Mac. It works with GOG too so that’s one less launcher necessary.
Initially I, too, claimed those, but ultimately I never ended up playing them and often I’d just end up buying them from steam instead. It’s funny how I’m willing to pay for something I can have for free, if it’s convenient and easy. So I didn’t claim them for very long, stopped a long time ago, and still just ignore it if a game I thirst for is available for free.
But that’s also a pretty dark prospect: Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday. And I, along with most everyone playing on pc, will be shit out of luck then.
It’s hard to diversify at this point, when I’m too far gone, and knowing changing or adding services will increase the complexity of using it all and keeping mental track of all the games and where they are.
Ugh.
While I don’t disagree with anything you said, I think this comment descended into nihilism with alarming rapidity and I hope you’re okay.
Just enshittification fatigue. Every service being provided is hostile to us, so it makes us uneasy if one isn’t.
I too have over 200 games on Epic and have purchased non of them. This is none news. I buy my games on Steam and get my free games on Epic.
And the once or twice a year Epic offers a free game I actually want to play, I enjoy it just as much as if I’d bought it elsewhere.
There’s programs that keep track of all your libraries… GOG Galaxy is one of them.
Yeah. I am confident that long term access to classic games is a torch only sufficiently carried by software pirates.
Don’t get me wrong, I adore things like the Atari 50th Anniversary collection, and what Evercade is doing with esoteric arcade titles. (And I delight in throwing money at them.)
But only a small fraction of the greatest games get that kind of loving licensed treatment.
For the rest of gaming history, software pirates are essential.
If Steam ever fucks over consumers I will pirate 100% of my games from that day on unless an indie company allows me to buy directly from them or through GoG.
I don’t like pirating indie games. Pirating from big developers though? I have no issues doing that.
Interesting thought: “Because I have my entire extensive library on steam, I’m kind of stuck with them. And while they are not abusing that presently, I’m fairly confident they will someday.”
Steam subscription $9.99 to access your library 😐 - man that feels wrong. But also can probably happen with the TOS noone reads
It could happen, but if it does, it’ll be decades down the line. Gaben has surrounded himself with true believers on purpose, in part to prevent that scenario.
Lulz
They certainly cant do that in places with actual consumer regulations, ToS and EULA mean nothing if they go against the law.
In the past couple years, I’ve gone from buying exclusively from steam to prioritizing buying/rebuying single player games from GOG.
Multiplayer games are still mostly through steam for convenience - same with VR games/games with VR mods.
I just wish GOG Galaxy was better. Development seems kinda stagnant.
I constantly have issues with the plugins to access other storefront libraries among other things.
So he didn’t claim even half of them?
I bought Alan Wake 2, and glad I did. Accidentally decided to buy Red Dead redemption 2 on there because of a discount code making it much cheaper than steam a couple of years ago.
Huge mistake. I added it as a non-steam game so now to launch Red Dead redemption 2. I need to launch steam which then launches epic which then launches Rockstar Games launcher which then launches the game.
Regretting a decision doesn’t make it an accident.
You can skip one step and have just have many steps as if you had bought it on Steam, just launch it from the Epic launcher directly, ta-fucking-da
Meh… Piracy is still better 🏴☠️
And never plays any of them.
The whole UX is just so bad
Use Heroic. It’s GPL.
If this added itch.io it’d be a fantastic filler for managing all the non-DRM off-Steam stuff.
Or Playnite (MIT license) which aggregates all your libraries, not just Epic.
That looks nice but it looks like it’s for Windows- only. Heroic is cross-platform.
Heroic is Epic, GOG, and Amazon Prime.
Maybe don’t give Bezos more money, but if you have Prime alreafy anyways, then you get 4-5 games for every one that Epic gives away. Some are on their Prime service, but most of their codes are redeemed through GOG or Epic.
Don’t need a complex UI to list some games for 5 seconds before I start playing them.
Install, launch from the shortcut on the left side of the main screen. How much easier do you want them to make it?
And thats exactly why Epic is untrustworthy. Its like a shady guy on the corner saying “Hey i will give you 500 bucks if you just do this easy little thing for me. Will be done right away no worries”.
Epic needs to pump their MAU stats to look like a legitimate platform. They know what’s going on and are happy to pay.
What I don’t know is what they actually pay the publishers.
That makes GOG untrustworthy as well, I guess, since I have 300 games on there, but never bought one.
With GOG you can download all game files to your local storage and play them even if GOG goes to shit. Thats the difference. But yes Steam is the same as Epic in that regard.
You commented on a post about a dude who never bought from Epic but still has 200 games there, that Epic is shady for doing this.
I said by that logic, GOG is shady as well, because they also give away tons of games.
Just saying that labeling them as untrustworthy, just because they give away games, doesn’t make sense. Steam was never mentioned, or the business practices of different storefronts.
Epic doesnt give games away. They give temporary licenses to games away which they can always take from you. Epic uses this to get people onto and dependent on their platform so they can then extract money from them. GOG has no way to extract money from people like that and has no leverage against their customers.
What are you even talking about? Why is Epic “extracting money” but GOG is not? Do you mean if you lose your games on Epic you will buy them again on Epic? Nobody does that, and it doesn’t happen in the first place.
It’s their marketing budget they’re spending on that
I have 0. Also interesting choice of words with “owns”.
Not to mention “stick it to 'em” when he’s doing exactly what Epic hoped for — engaging with their platform. It doesn’t even matter if you’re using Hero Launcher or not even playing it, it’s a +1 in their system and that’s what they care about.
I mean if you’re going to be like that, you don’t own any software.
exactly