Summary
PC gaming can be an expensive hobby, so it’s good to know that you’re able to pick up many full games without spending a penny. You don’t even need to wait until you have a PC or gaming handheld on which to run the games. Start building a library of titles to play in the future, right now!
Sorting Free Games from “Free” Games
Not all free games are equal. Even if you’re not a PC gamer, you’re likely familiar with so-called “free-to-play” or “freemium” games, which are free to download and play but typically have in-game purchases that you need to buy to get the most out of the game.
The games we’re talking about here areactually freegames, whether they’re small indie games ortriple-A titles. Some may have additional DLC available for purchase, but the games themselves are the same releases you’d otherwise have to buy on a digital storefront. These aren’tgame demos or time-limited trials, once you’ve claimed the game it will remain in your library just as if you had purchased it.
Claim Now, Play Later
As you probably already guessed, companies aren’t just giving away games for the fun of it. If it’s a game developer giving away a free title, they’re likely trying to build interest in an upcoming sequel or some of their other offerings. Most of the time, however, it’s the game storefronts that are giving away games in an effort to attract new customers.
That means you’ll have to create an account with each storefront to claim the free games. You don’t need to download any software, buy anything else, or provide your credit card information (with the notable exception of Amazon’s Prime Gaming—more on that later).
The most difficult thing is simply keeping up with the free games being offered on each platform. They’re only offered for a limited time—sometimes a week, and sometimes as little as a day or two—and there are few second chances to be had after a game has already been offered for free.
If you know where to keep an eye out, however, you can pretty easily stay on top of what’s available and snag any titles you might want without wasting too much time.
Where to Get Free Games
Havingmultiple game launchers can be a hassle, but the money you save on purchasing games might just make it worth it.
Epic Games Store
TheEpic Games Storehas the most straightforward free offerings of all the major game storefronts. It launched in 2018 and has been giving away free games every week ever since, which has made for a simple schedule for people to follow.
Once you’ve claimed the game, it’s yours to keep (at least for as long as the Epic Games Store is around), and you can download it any time you like. Epic hasn’t made any promises about the free games continuing indefinitely, but the company’s CEO has talked about howsuccessfulthey have been in attracting new users, so it seems likely they’ll continue for a while yet.
Amazon Prime Gaming
Amazon Prime Gamingoffers free games but the word “free” comes with a big asterisk. Like Epic,Amazon has been offering free gameson a regular basis for some time now as a way to attract new users to its service, but in this case the games are only available to those who already pay for aPrime subscription. The good news is you don’t have to keep the Prime subscription indefinitely to maintain access to the games.
Amazon conveniently announces its schedule of free games for each month on itsblog, and rolls out new titles every Thursday, so you can easily plan ahead and set a reminder to claim any titles you might be interested in.
Prime Gaming is also unique in that it doesn’t just offer games you’re able to claim on its own service, but other storefronts as well. In those cases, you’ll either be prompted to link your account to the other platform (like Epic), or be given a claim code that you can redeem directly on another service like Steam or GOG.
GOG
GOG.com, or Good Old Games, started as a site focused on classic PC games, but it has since expanded to include modern titles from indie developers and major game studios alike. It also regularly offers free titles, but not to the same degree, or with the same regularity, as Epic or Amazon.
Steam
Steam might be the biggest PC gaming storefront around, but it’s also the hardest place to sort the actually-free games from themanyfree-to-play games. The free games on Steam are generally offered directly from the game developers, and there’s no way to see what free games are currently being offered by simply going to the Steam homepage like you can with Epic and Prime Gaming.
Instead, you’ll have to rely on other sources like social media or discussion forums, or a site likeSteamDB, to find the occasional free game. That does require more effort than other sources of free games, so you may want to just consider any free game you do come across as a bonus and not worry about keeping track of each new offering.
Building a Backlog
As any gamer can tell you, abacklogof gamescan quickly get out of hand and include many titles that you’ll likely never end up actually playing. But it is nice to have a library of games at your fingertips that you can turn to whenever you want something new to play, and it’s easier than ever to build up one with so many free games available these days.
That’s just as true whether you already have a capable PC, or are looking to get a headstart on a library before you invest in a gaming rig.
