This is the most insane (for me) offer in Gaming period this year. TW has added millions of players in the last 3 years so awareness is there. Then it is Troy. It's like CA went into my mind and gave me all of the wishes I wanted for the TW engine. Now they are prepared to give me the Game free?????
It is crazy to think that Epic is that rich. I mean GTA5 for anyone who has been into PC gaming for the last 7 to 10 years was a Game that did not go on sale anywhere until mid 2019. Even then it was never less than 20% to 30% off. To see it free on Epic and even now some of the Steam sale regular (Borderlands 2) is free too. Steam must respond or they are going to get left behind. If only they could find a way to have a $300 VR headset that worked with mid range PCs with a free copy of Half Life Alyx. I tried that Game the other day and whether it is Subnautica or Elite Dangerous they do not capture the atmosphere and immersion depth that Half Life Alyx provides.
GTA V released in 2013 on consoles (generating one billion dollars in sales after 3 days) and 2015 on PC (passing 6 billion dollars).
Before it went free from May 14th - 21st on Epic store, the game had sold over 130 million copies on all platforms. The last couple of years Take-Two/ Rockstar Games primarily made money with GTA V via microtransactions in GTA Online.
So yeah, giving the game away was an economic no-brainer. I am sure Epic still had to pay a few dollars to get to do it, but they did not generate a loss here, most likely quite the opposite with adding more wallets potentially spending money in GTA Online now. While Epic store gets potential new customers.
The same applies to other epic freebies, they gave away the base game. Some had new DLC releasing or sales on existing DLC's sales right after.
Which most likely will be the strategy on "Total War Saga: TROY" as well, give away the base game and finance it with tons of (pricy) DLC later on.
Epic is spending a lot of money on their free games and epic store exclusive deals, but they are certainly not burning all those stacks of cash from licensing unreal engine and fortnight microtransactions.
